Kissing her is fine. Sharing a blanket sounds like a fucking nightmare. I’m nervous about being in her vicinity as it is. I’ll have an arterial rupture if I get any closer.
I get up from my comfortable seat and sit beside her, offering her half of the blanket.
It only takes my family ten minutes to decide they need to leave the room. Ewan and Mum for food, and Luciella to talk to our dad on the phone.
Leaving me with Stacey. Alone. Sharing a damn blanket.
Shoot me.
“This movie is terrible,” Stacey says, crossing her arms. “I don’t know how people enjoy being terrified every two seconds.”
I gulp. “Yeah.”
“I’d rather watch the film you mentioned – The Great Man?”
Smirking, I rest my elbow on the arm of the couch. “The Greatest Showman,” I correct. “You were close.”
She chews her lip, and my eyes drop to her mouth. “Do you think they’ll notice if we change it to that?”
“Luciella would notice if we fast-forwarded it by five seconds.”
“Hmm. True.”
Our eyes clash, and the insatiable desire to wrap my hand around her ponytail and yank her to me increases with each passing moment. I could look at her forever – the different shades of light green looking back at me; the way her pupils dilate as I absently reach my hand forward, twirling a dark strand around my finger.
“Why did you let me kiss you?” I ask, remembering her mouth on mine in the kitchen a few days ago. “I teased you for years. You should have slapped me.”
Stacey blushes. “I, um, I wanted to. ”
The hair springs free from around my finger. “Slap me?”
Fidgeting with the edge of the blanket, Stacey sighs. Her tone is like a caress on my cheek. “Are you playing a game here? Make the girl want you only to toss her to the ground so you can get praised?”
“How can I get praised if no one knows I kissed you again?”
“You know what I mean.”
I hum. “Can’t say I do.”
The door handle jiggles. I twist my body to look behind the couch to the door as Mum pops in to say she’s making pizza. I nod, running my hand through my hair as the door closes again. The movement causes the blanket to shift.
No, it’s not the movement. It’s Stacey knocking it away to climb on top of me, settling on my lap with her thighs bracketing my hips. “If you meant it, then…” She grabs my face to look at her, at the neediness in her forest-green eyes. “Kiss me again.”
Frozen. Completely and utterly frozen, all I can do is gulp down the building lump in my throat that’s threatening to suffocate me.
I want to kiss her. Fuck, do I want to. But being caught off guard makes me uneasy. I have no time to think it through or plan how to touch her or what to say. I always want to be in control, so having her like this has knocked me off my axis.
Having her touching me without preparing myself has my blood roaring in my ears.
My heart races to an unbearable pace, my hands fisting at my sides. I want to snatch her hips and pull her closer. I want to taste her mouth and hear her whimper. I want to feel her body all over me.
But something is stopping me from moving.
Sensing my anxiety from the sudden change in the atmosphere, Stacey’s brows furrow before realisation hits, and she rises to her knees above me.
I’m staring at her like she has two heads while mine takes far too long to process our position. A beautiful girl is straddling me and all I can do is sit here like a wide-eyed statue.
Why the fuck do I need to be so weird? Why can’t I be normal and not panic and freeze and fuck this all up?
She lets go of my face, and some of the bad friction alleviates from my chest.
“I… Oh God. I’m such an idiot.”
Her face is red as a strawberry as she tries to get off me. Embarrassed. My hands move without me thinking, and I grab her hips and bring her back to sit in my lap.
“Don’t.” One word, my voice thick and pleading. “Don’t.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Be patient with me,” is all I say before I capture her lips with mine.
Our mouths melt together, and most of my worries fade away as she drapes her arms around my shoulders and kisses me back. It’s a little overwhelming, but I can handle it.
I slip my tongue past her lips, and she opens for me just as a groan leaves my throat. Taking from me what she wants, Stacey slants her head to deepen the kiss, until my fingers are digging into the material at her waist. The visceral need to touch her naked skin is unbearable. I want to tear her fucking dress off and lick and bite every inch of her.
It’s a ridiculous urge, considering my experience is sitting at a solid zero and I’d probably get stage fright.
She takes my bottom lip between her teeth, and I hiss. She sucks on it, licks, and then forces my head to the side to trail her wet mouth down my throat.
My cock hardens until it’s painful, and my sweats do nothing to conceal it.
Nearly settled between her legs, my dick begs to be released from its restraints, but that’ll only scare her off. Like me, she hadn’t kissed anyone before, so I imagine her virginity status is the same as mine.
My teeth clench as she devours my neck, her hands travelling down my naked chest and back up to curl around my shoulders. I can tell she’s tracing the ink down my left arm, and it causes shivers to course through me. Testing where she can touch without me tensing, she explores me while her mouth moves over mine.
She takes my hands, pulling them off her waist. I frown, and slowly, she places my palms just above her naked knees. “Is this okay?” she asks me, dragging them up and up, slipping under the material of her dress. “Or is it too much?”
I almost smile. She gets me, understands why I need to go slow. “Yeah.”
“Tell me if it gets too much, okay?”
A deep sound vibrates in my chest, and I nudge her nose with mine and peck her lips.
And then she’s kissing me again while I massage my way up to her hips then trace the fabric of her underwear. Lace. Probably white and innocent.
My breath hitches as she lets out a whimper from my touch, and she delves her tongue into my mouth while fisting both hands in my hair. She tugs, and I tighten my hold on her hips, dying to drag her forward to grind against me.
Too soon. Far too soon .
“I took your number from Lu’s phone,” she says into my mouth, drawing my tongue between her lips and sucking hard. “If I message you, will you respond?”
I grin, my hands moving of their own accord to grab her ass. Which is belting, by the way. All those dances and aerial sports she does definitely pay off.
If I bring her forward a little more, she’ll feel my dick and how solid it is for her, and I’m not sure either of us is ready for that.
“I guess you’ll need to find out for yourself.” She whimpers as I nibble her jaw. “Sneaky little Freckles, stealing my number from her best friend’s phone.”
She giggles, and I feel every muscle in my body go warm and taut with how fucking much I want to hear her giggle again.
I flip us, and I settle on top, one hand next to her head, holding myself up. My mouth is on hers once more, our tongues sliding together as my hand goes from her hip to her hair then back to her hip, tasting and licking and biting until we’re breathless.