“Here’s what’s gonna happen, Evelyn,” he tells me after he slides his credit card in the thin black binder and places it on the edge of the table. “In a few minutes, I’m taking you back to Richmond, picking my car up, and going back to my apartment. I’m not gonna be at the bar tonight or tomorrow night, and there is nothing I want more than to spend every waking moment naked with you.”
My mouth floods with moisture as he continues, “I’m telling you this because it’s the last time I’m gonna bring up the fact I want you.” He pauses for a moment to hand the waitress the payment before he continues, “Remember that day you told me how I wanted to kiss you?”
I nod, gasping a second later when his hand finds my thigh beneath the table and he cups my sex. “God, Rhys,” I breathe as heat rushes through my body. Carefully, I look around to make sure nobody’s watching us, but they seem oblivious to where his fingers are at the moment.
Giving me a wicked, heart-stopping grin, he gets to the point. “Well, now it’s my turn to tell you what I think. What I said about you and me naked in my bed? You want this too.”
Chapter Seventeen
I do want him. Badly. So much so that I have a hard time sitting comfortably at all during the ride back to Richmond because all I can think about is his hand between my legs and his eyes tracing over my skin, committing each part of me to his memory.
He thinks he’s won, and maybe—maybe he has.
True to his word, an hour later, Rhys drops my car and me off on campus. My legs are trembling as I stalk into my room, and toss my purse and keys on my desk and throw myself on my bed. I stare up at my ceiling.
Did all that really just happen?
There’s a knock at my door, and I prop myself up on my elbows when Lara pokes her head inside. She tilts her head to the side, causing her loose bun to flop forward. “Hannah and me are about to take off for Charlottesville,” she announces and then worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “You sure you don’t want to come home with me? I hate to think of you being all alone here all weekend.”
When I told her last night that I had no plans to go home for fall break, she had stared at me like I was the most pitiful thing she’s ever laid eyes on. Immediately, she invited me to come home with her—much to Hannah’s disappointment—but I had declined. Lara probably thought I had nowhere to go, but my parents had given me several chances to travel with them to Louisville.
Saturday will be two years since Lily’s passing, and Mom and Dad have decided to stay away from Bristol until Wednesday. It’s their way of coping with her being gone, but me being here is mine.
Because there truly is no such thing as escape.
The only way that would happen is if we put Lily out of our minds completely, and that’s not something I’m willing to do to numb away all the hurt.
“Evie ... are you sure?” Lara probes.
“I’ll be fine,” I promise my suitemate with a smile, finally coming to the decision that I’m absolutely not spending the weekend by myself. “See y’all next week.”
As soon as she and Hannah are gone, and I leave a message on Corinne’s voicemail to see how she’s holding up, I shower and get dressed in tight black skinny jeans, a white V-neck that makes my boobs look amazing, and my bright red rain boots. Donning my jacket, I head out into the rain.
***
When he pulls open his apartment door ten minutes later, he stands frozen, staring at me like he’s never seen me before. I clear my throat uncomfortably, wondering if I’ve made a mistake in coming.
He could have changed his mind by now. After all, I hadn’t called to warn him ahead of time. But he looks so good, like he just stepped out of the shower—barefoot, in a basic brown American Apparel t-shirt that clings to his slightly wet skin and jeans—that I have to touch him. Just once, even if he does immediately respond by telling me to get out of his apartment.
Reaching up, I run my fingers through his off-black hair, until he gathers me to him and jerks me inside.
“You weren’t expecting me?” I whisper breathlessly as he pins me up against the door, the impact making me dizzy. Tangling my fingers in his damp hair, I draw his face closer and he kisses me roughly, rolling his tongue around inside my mouth. I’m a mess when he drags his mouth away from mine, but I put on my calmest face. “Oh God, Rhys? Where’s all that confidence?” I wonder.
His hands flare over my hips and around to my butt. Cupping it, he picks me up like I weigh absolutely nothing. I wrap my legs around his waist, and he groans.
“Trust me, it’s all here,” he speaks against my lips, his sweet, minty breath fanning over my skin. “I just didn’t think you’d come this soon.”
I shift my hips, and a thick noise eases from the back of his throat as he moves me up against him and buries his lips to my slim neck. Closing my eyes, I throw my head back, my body on fire as he trails hot little kisses over my collarbone. When I can’t take it anymore, I lower my face to his so that our foreheads touch and my hair covers both our faces.
“I want you, too, Rhys,” I whisper, staring right into his eyes. “Right now.”
The short trip to his bedroom is the longest journey of my life, but once we’re there, he drops me on the bed and looks down at me, his blue-green eyes full of desire. “Goddamn, you’re beautiful.”
My breath lodges somewhere between my chest and throat as I watch him drag his t-shirt over his head and toss it onto the floor. He’s perfection—long, lean muscles covered by tan skin, and tonight that perfection is all mine. Pushing my knees apart, he jerks off my shoes one-by-one before he crawls between my legs. I sit up slightly so that my chest is against his. Fisting my t-shirt in his hand, he kisses me over and over, his mouth hot and wet and delicious as he removes my top.
“I’ve thought about this,” I admit when his fingertips trail under my bra strap. He releases it, and I shiver at the little pinch against my skin. “Too many times to count.”
“And how does it end?”
Cupping the back of my neck, he somehow manages to get my bra off with one hand and discards it. When he pushes me back on the bed, praising how perfect my breasts are, I feel one of the soft, lacy cups beneath my naked skin. “It always ends well,” I murmur and buck my hips so he can drag my jeans down.
Sitting back, he pauses for a moment to take in the sight of me in nothing but the scrap of black and green lacy material covering me.
“Only well?” he questions, his Southern accent lowered to a dangerous whisper. “I’ve gotta fix that then.” Leaning forward, he bends over my body and pulls one of my nipples between his straight white teeth. Sucking hard and fast, he stops just once to grin up at me when a gasp of pleasure rips from the back of my throat.
“That feels—” I shiver when his lips trail over to my other breast, and he circles his tongue around my nipple until it tightens—“mmm.”
“Mmm? You’ve always got so much to say and you’re only response is mmm,” he teases between little torturous flicks of his tongue. As I close my eyes and dig my fingers into his sheets, I try to come up with a witty comeback. When he starts to make a wet path around my breasts and then to my belly button, though, I tell wit and charm to go fuck itself.
I can be witty when my body isn’t about to explode.
“Open your eyes,” he whispers. As soon as I do, he gives me a sensual grin as he stares between my legs. Pressing his lips to my kneecap, his eyes never leave mine as he brushes his knuckles over the center of my panties so slowly it’s agony.
“You are a tease,” I gasp, causing him to laugh against the inside of my leg. “A really big tease.”