Goodness, the words alone almost sent me over the edge. He rucked the skirt of my dress up above my hips, and then his hands slid up the side of my leg. He reached my panties and tugged them aside.

Cool air washed over me as his lips parted. “Fuck. I want to get in there.”

I wanted him in there, wanted him everywhere. As he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me softly, my heart seemed to swell in my chest. It was such a simple kiss, a beautiful one.

Then his hand was moving again, finding me with unerringly precision. He skimmed his finger along the center, causing my hips to jerk. He made another pass as he lowered himself down my body, stopping to linger at my breasts, and then his head was between my thighs.

“Oh God,” I whispered. The image alone, of seeing him down there, was almost too much.

Then he pressed a kiss against my thigh.

The swelling in my chest increased and there was a good chance I’d float straight to the ceiling, maybe even beyond that, but he tugged me back down when his mouth brushed over me.

“Tanner,” I gasped, my hands fluttering to his head.

The intimate kiss spun my senses, and he so knew what he was doing. It was wet and hot and shattering. He kissed and he licked and he did things with his tongue I didn’t think were possible. The way he worked me told me that he enjoyed doing it. No chore for him—oh no, he couldn’t be happier.

Neither could I.

My head was kicked back and my hips arched against the steady delving of his tongue. I met his strokes, repeating his name over and over. Raw and primal sensations pounded through me. Tiny noises I didn’t recognize were making their way out of me, and then I felt his finger slipping through my wetness. My entire body clenched. He went deeper, harder.

My eyes flew open as I coiled tightly, and all I saw was him.

The release took me off-guard, pounding through me, and I was swept up in the intense pleasure. Liquid heat poured through me. Tanner pulled back, kissing my inner thigh before he rose above me, planting one hand on the arm of the couch.

He breathed heavily as he stared down. “I’ve never heard anything more beautiful than the sound of you calling out my name like that.”

Every few seconds, an aftershock traveled through me, and I was still shaken and breathless. “I never felt anything more beautiful than that,” I admitted.

The blue of his eyes seemed to have deepened. “Then I guess it was a first for both of us.”

That swelling in my chest was turning into an epidemic. “Yeah.”

He drew his hand down to my thigh and squeezed gently. There was something in the way he stared down at me that made me feel like one of the most beautiful women in the world, and there was something priceless about that. Just a look, but it was possibly more powerful than any words that could’ve been spoken.

And that’s about when the craziest words known to man tiptoed to the tip of my tongue. I love you. Oh God, those words were legitimately resting on my tongue, ready to be spoken. My heart stuttered. I loved him? Was that really what I was feeling? The swelling in my chest? Or was it just lust? No. I’d been in lust before. I knew the difference. This…this tingling feeling in my fingers and the warmth in my chest was not lust. It was hope and yearning and anticipation. It was tenderness and acceptance and a thousand other endless wants and needs. When in the world did this happen? I had no idea. Did it start all the way back during my freshman year? Or was it over the course of a handful of days?

I love you.

For three little words, they were really terrifying. It was the power the words symbolized, the ability to change everything.

I couldn’t say them, because no matter how wonderful he was being to me, he couldn’t feel the same way as me. There was no way. My heart wanted to go there, but my brain was like hell to the no, but I could show him.

That was the best that I had.

I could show him just how much I cared for him without truly putting that out there between us, and most likely ruining everything.

My hand shook under the weight of what I was feeling as I cupped his cheek. I took a deep breath. “Can we go upstairs? To bed?”

Tanner stilled above me as understanding crept into his handsome face. When he spoke, his voice held an edge that sent a shiver across my skin. “Babe, if we go upstairs and we end up in a bed, I’m gonna…well, I’m going to have one hell of a time stopping myself from getting between those pretty legs.”

My cheeks flushed. “I wouldn’t want you to stop.”

His eyes flared and a long moment stretched out between us. “You sure?”

I love you. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes.”

Chapter 14

Tanner

I was literally at a loss for words as Andrea took my hand in her smaller one and led me up the steps. It was like I was fifteen again and minutes away from losing my virginity. No shit. That was how it felt. Nervousness. Anxiety. Anticipation. All of those feelings were rolled together.

Never in my life did I think I’d feel that way again.

Wasn’t sure if that was even a good thing.

As we rounded the top of the stairs and Andrea looked over her shoulder at me, smiling shyly, I realized that yep, that was a damn good thing.

She started to turn into her room, but I stopped her. I wanted her in my room, in my bed. I pushed open my door and then closed it behind me. She stopped a few feet from the bed as I walked over to my duffel bag and rooted around until I found what I was looking for.

“You brought condoms with you?” she asked as I tossed a few on the nightstand.