Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
SOPHIE
Present Day
“I kissed her in our spot. On our blanket.” Tyler looks at me with eyes full of regret, voice a little pained, like the idea of kissing a girl who isn’t me in our sacred place hurts him.
And the idea that it does, that he understands, that our space means as much to him as it does to me, makes me fall a little harder for him, if such a thing were even possible.
Smiling, I lay my hands on his cheeks, getting a little thrill that I can do this now, and an even bigger one when he leans into my touch, lifting one of his hands to cover mine.
“I don’t know how long my feelings had been brewing before that night.
I spent a long time trying to figure it out before I gave up because the truth is, I think your mom was right.
They’ve been there for a long time. Maybe forever.
” I slide my hands around to the back of his neck, and my smile grows when he grips my hips, tugging me close enough to erase almost all the space between us.
“I think you were always meant to be mine.”
Tyler’s eyes swim with emotion as he leans his forehead against mine. “Yours,” he says quietly. So quietly I barely hear the word.
I nod against him, my entire body vibrating with anticipation. “Mine. And…” I trail off, taking a deep, fortifying breath before leaning back so I can see him when I say this next thing. “If it’s okay with you, I would really, really like to be yours.”
Tyler takes a sharp breath in and opens his mouth, but I shake my head, gripping his forearms to stop him so I can finish.
“It’s complicated, with how intertwined our families are.
If something goes wrong, it could mess everything up, and it could completely fuck up our friendship in a way that’s unsalvageable.
That’s the thing that’s kept me from saying something for all these years.
You are my most important person, Ty, and the idea of us not being friends?
It was always worse than keeping my feelings for you buried because I would rather have what we had than not have anything at all. ”
“And now?” he asks, running the back of his hand down my cheek before sliding his fingers into my hair and sweeping his thumb over my jaw.
Oh holy hell.
“Now I think I would rather die than not kiss you again because fuck, you sure can kiss.” He chuckles but doesn’t say anything else, like he knows I’m not finished.
And I’m not. So I gather all my brave to say the last thing.
My truest thing. “This isn’t nothing to me, Tyler.
Kissing you, being with you? It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.
But we both have to go into this with our eyes open.
We both have to want it. This is a friendship ruiner. I think we need to be ready for that.”
“Sophie,” Tyler murmurs, leaning in and pressing another one of those sweetest kisses to my forehead.
When his eyes meet mine again and his thumb does another lazy stroke of my jaw, I wonder if it’s possible I don’t survive this night.
“I want it. I want you. I want you so badly, and my eyes are wide open. I wish I could say I’ve felt for years what I feel now. ”
That pained regret swims back into his eyes, like he truly wishes he could say he’s wanted me for as long as I’ve wanted him.
“But I feel it now, so deeply I think maybe it’s been there for a long, long time.
I didn’t know I could have this much in me for another person, but it makes perfect sense when that person is you.
This isn’t nothing to me either, Soph.” His eyes go a little fierce, his hand flexing around the back of my neck so firmly, I swallow thickly.
“You are not nothing to me. You’re everything.
You’ve always been my favorite person, and now you’re more.
So much more. I know it’s scary. That there’s a lot on the line.
But what scares me even more is feeling this way for you and not seeing where this can go.
What it could be. What we could be. So let’s do it, Sal. ”
Tyler’s intentional use of his childhood nickname for me, the one that has always meant friendship and security and us against the world, has my heart squeezing, warmth rushing to my chest. He smiles, sliding his free arm around my waist. “Let’s hold hands and do it together because I think when it’s you and me, it’s not that scary at all.
” His eyes lock with mine as he eases so close to me our lips brush when he speaks.
“I really, really want to do this, and I know you do too. Let’s ruin the friendship, Sophie, because even though I didn’t know it, I think I’ve been waiting my whole life for you. ”
Oh god.
My elation has elation as his words sink in.
Definitely not surviving this night. I may be deceased already.
“Yes,” I say quietly, and I don’t have time to say any more words before Tyler slants his mouth over mine, and holy shit, it’s better than our first kiss earlier at the bar.
And the second one. It’s the best kiss of my life.
The best kiss anyone has ever had. It’s the kiss of my dreams because it’s the beginning of something.
Something amazing and scary and wonderful and everything I’ve ever wanted, right here in front of me, kissing me like I’m his reason for being.
With a thumb under my jaw, Tyler tilts my head up slightly and traces my bottom lip, groaning when I open, melting into him as he sweeps his tongue over mine. Our tongues dance together, our bodies pressing desperately closer until there is no space between us at all.
And still, it doesn’t seem close enough.
Tyler seems to agree because a split second later, he bends, gripping my thighs in his big hands and lifting me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. A desperate, needy noise I didn’t even know I could make falls from my throat as I settle over him, his erection right between my legs.
He’s huge and hard and hot even with our clothes between us, and I want him so desperately that for a minute I forget to breathe.
“Bedroom,” I practically moan, grinding against him like a cat in goddamn heat, my entire body achy and trembling with a kind of need I have never, ever felt before.
It turns out when I’m finally about to get the man I’ve wanted for years and years, my impatience has fangs.
“We need to be horizontal, like, yesterday.”
“You’re so smart.” Tyler gasps, his mouth breaking away to trail a line of hot, wet kisses over my jaw.
“The smartest girl in the world. And the most beautiful,” he says in a low voice as he carries me to the stairs.
“The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.
” My stomach is a mass of butterflies, and Tyler’s mouth never leaves my skin as he walks.
His lips explore my neck and the spot behind my ear that makes me gasp.
My collarbone and my throat and my galloping pulse before making their way back to mine, his tongue taking my mouth in long, slow strokes that have me whimpering and writhing against him as he makes his way up the stairs.
“Oh, holy fuck, Sophie,” Tyler mutters as he practically stumbles through the door to his bedroom, kicking it shut behind him and turning to press me against it.
He slams his mouth to mine, his hands gripping my hips so tightly I’m sure he’ll leave marks, and the idea of that is so thrilling I grind down hard on him, a dark kind of joy arrowing through me when his hands grip me impossibly tighter.
“You feel so fucking good, and if you don’t stop that I’m going to come in my goddamn pants before we get to the fun part.
” I feel him smirk against my mouth, his tongue tracing my lower lip in a rhythm that threatens to drive me insane.
“And I really, really want to do the fun part.”
I pull back, my head knocking against the door, and the second I take him in, my entire body explodes in heat. “Holy fucking shit,” I mumble, tightening my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist, breath gusting out when the head of his cock slides right over my clit.
“What?” he asks, running his hand down my thigh and back up again, lips curving up in a smirk so painfully sexy I can’t even believe this is happening right now.
I shake my head, trying to figure out if this is some sort of fever dream.
If maybe I’ve wanted Tyler so much, for so long, my brain finally gave up and served me my wildest fantasy on a silver platter.
“It’s just that it’s a good thing I didn’t know what you looked like when you’re all hot and turned on, hair a mess from my hands, lips wet, eyes dark and a little dangerous and you’re literally blushing.
I’ve never seen anything so sexy in my entire life.
I never would have survived the last three years with that image of you in my brain.
Shit,” I mutter, realizing all those words just came out of my mouth.
“I think being sex starved and so turned on I could die evaporated my already nonexistent filter.”
Tyler grins like all that was the best thing he’s ever heard and dips his head to find that spot behind my ear, chuckling against my skin when I gasp again.
“Tell me more,” he murmurs, sliding his lips over my jaw.
“Tell me how you pined for me. Dreamed of me. Tell me how much you wanted me, Soph.” He lifts his head so our eyes meet again.
“Because I bet it’s the same way I pined for you for the last couple of weeks…
” He trails off, pressing his lips to the corner of my mouth.
“Wanted you.” Kisses the other corner. “Dreamed of you and woke up so hard, my hand around my cock, fucking my fist before my eyes were even open and wishing I was fucking you.” Taking my lips again, he kisses me long and slow, our tongues molding, tangling, until we’re grinding together, both breathless with want.