One Golden Summer(55)

“Alice Everly.” He turns my name into a full sentence. “What do you want?”

“This,” I tell him. “I want to kiss you, and touch you, and be touched by you. I like you, and I trust you. And neither of us wants to be anything more than friends.”

What I want is to be the person who makes Charlie come undone. I rise on my tiptoes and press my lips to his neck. “I want you,” I say into his skin. I whisper in his ear, “It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be just for the summer—another activity on our list. No expectations past the end of August.”

He turns his cheek to meet my eyes. “I don’t want to mislead you. This,” he says, tugging my hips to his, “is all I can give you.” He tips his head closer. “I don’t want you to regret me.”

“If you think that’s a possibility, then I haven’t been making myself clear.” I brush my nose against his. A thread of space separates our mouths. I’ve never wanted to lay claim to another person’s lips so badly. “It’s not just your remarkable face or ridiculous body—you’re pretty great, Charlie. I could never regret you.”

His eyes flare. “You might be the biggest surprise of my life, Alice,” he says.

And then he crushes his lips to mine.





29




It’s not a kiss. Or not one that I’ve ever experienced. Because Charlie kisses me with every millimeter of his body. With the command of his lips, with his teeth, which coax my bottom lip from my top, and his tongue, which meets mine with confident strokes. He kisses with the tips of his strong fingers as they curve behind my ears, angling me exactly where he wants. With the arch of his back, bending over me, engulfing my senses, and the press of his knee, urging my legs apart. With each sound I make, he adjusts. Kisses me deeper, moves his hands to my waist, bringing me closer.

When his lips travel to the underside of my jaw, I tilt my head back. His groan vibrates against my chest. I feel his fingers in my hair as he releases it from its knot. Without thinking, I reach up to tidy it. Charlie’s hand comes around my wrist, and I pause, meeting his eyes.

“Leave it,” he says, looking at me with a hunger I don’t know how to handle. “I don’t think you realize how beautiful you are.”

“Whereas you know exactly how beautiful you are.”

Charlie’s lips quirk, but his voice is serious. “I mean it.” His eyes are hooked onto mine like they’ll never let go. “The day we met, I thought you were the most radiant woman I’d ever seen.”

I laugh. “Radiant?”

“Radiant. Dazzling. Incredibly gorgeous. Hot as hell. Sexy as fuck. Take your pick.”

His tone leaves no room for argument. “Until I told you off.” I wasn’t exactly pleasant that day on the dock.

It’s just a nice face. It’s literally the last thing that would make someone attractive to me.

He grips my hips, and I can feel the heat of his hands through the thin fabric of my shorts. “When you told me off, I was ready to drop to my knees and put my remarkable face between your thighs.” He pulls me against his erection, and my mouth goes dry. “That was the first time I thought about making you scream my name.”

Charlie’s thumbs dip under the hem of my shorts. “I guess I beat you, then,” I say. I run my hands over his shoulders and arms, up and down, marveling at all that muscle at my disposal.

“How so?”

“Because,” I say, sliding my hands under his T-shirt, exploring the twin divots at his lower back. He hisses when I run my nails over his skin, and clamps his bottom lip between his teeth, pressing me more tightly to him. “I wanted you when I first saw you handle a cucumber in the grocery store.”

A laugh erupts from his chest as entrancing as the setting sun. “Alice.” He kisses my nose, then my mouth. “I told you.” Then the hinge of my jaw. “Trouble.”

“In my defense, it had been a while since…” I don’t want to say Trevor’s name. “It had been a while.”

Charlie studies me, sweeping my hair over my shoulder and wrapping it in his fist while he kisses me thoroughly. There’s no teeth or tongue, just the tender caress of his mouth on mine. It’s the sweetest way of being consumed, savored like the last bite of homemade chocolate cake. He leans back just enough to look me in the eyes when he says, “I’m going to make you come so many times, you won’t remember a time when you went without.”

I laugh, but it dies in my throat when Charlie’s hands grip my backside, and he hoists me off the floor, guiding my legs around him.

“Show-off.”

“I think you’ll like all the ways I can show off for you.” He lowers me slightly so that he’s pressing against me in the exact right spot. I rock against him, and I wonder if he can tell how ready I am. There’s fabric between us, but not much.

“I want you like this,” I tell him, reaching between us for his waistband. “Now.”

He shakes his head and walks us toward the sofa. “Not now.”

I pull back, scowling. “I don’t understand. I thought we agreed.” There’s a term for what this is, but I’m pretty sure my brain has relocated somewhere between my thighs, so it takes a moment to recall it. “Friends with benefits,” I proudly exclaim when it comes to me.