Page 81 of Irresistibly Us
I shake my head. “Save it, Ty. Just fucking save it. I need to process this information, and you need to let me. I’m going home. Don’t follow me,” I order when I see him open his mouth, knowing he’s going to offer to come with me. Maybe even beg, I think with glee. “I don’t have time for manchildren now. Stay here and play with your friends. I’ll deal with you later.”
I consider I may be overselling it a bit when I let out a big, dramatic huff and push off the wall, shoving Tyler back the rest of the way. But the look on his face is giving sad puppy dog, so I’m sure he’s buying it. I love him so fucking much I almost cave because fuck me, sad puppy dogs are irresistible. But I’ve come this far, and he needs to be taught a teeny tiny lesson about keeping important secrets from important people.
So instead of throwing my arms around him and telling him not to be sad and to just kiss me again for the love of god, I sweep past him with a flourish and an epic hair toss. I hope my hair tinsel sparkles under the lights because that’s exactly the kind of extra I want to bring to this moment.
I don’t have to look behind me to know Tyler is curling hishands into fists at his sides, willing himself to stay still and not chase after me the way I know he wants to. And as I sweep through the bar and straight out the front door with the ghost of his kiss still on my lips and the memory of the way his hands felt burned into my skin, I grin, full of excitement and anticipation for what the rest of this night holds.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TYLER
With a deep fortifying breath, I push open the door to my house slowly, not entirely sure what’s waiting for me on the other side. My stomach has been a mess of knots ever since Sophie stormed out of the bar earlier after my big, epic fuckup.
I didn’t mean to tell her about the app like that. I also didn’t mean to practically eat her alive in the back hallway of Jack’s bar, but when I saw her with that guy, I kind of blacked out and I can’t be held responsible for what happened next. It’s just that she’s so pretty and I want her so badly, and the idea of some other man’s hands on her made me fucking crazy.
I’ve never been a possessive kind of guy, except maybe I’ve always been this way and just didn’t have anyone to be possessive over. But holy moly I sure do now. I think that littleYou are fucking minemove was some of my best work, and I know she thought so too because the way she kissed me? Fuck me. It wasn’t my first kiss. Not by a long shot. But it felt like my first kiss. The way my brain shorted out and my entire body lit up, the taste and smell of her surrounding me until I forgot about absolutely everything else in the world except for her.
I moaned. I groaned. I’m pretty sure I whimpered. It was the best fucking kiss of my entire life, and I want to do it over and over again. I want to devour her mouth and cover her body with mine and learn what she looks like when she comes. I want absolutely all of her, and I know with a kind of certainty that should be scary but actually isn’t at all that I am going to feel this way for the rest of my life.
It’s wild to me that I’ve felt nothing but friendship for Sophie for twenty-six years and all of a sudden she’s dug herself so deep into my bones she’s a part of me now.
Maybe she always has been.
Sophie is mine.
I like the sound of that.
But I have to convince her first, I think with a wince, stepping through the front door. She was pretty pissed, so I’m sure there will be some groveling in my future, and I’m here for it. It would be my absolute fucking pleasure to get on my knees for Sophie Sullivan.
In the groveling way and also in…other ways. All the ways. Especially the sexy ones.
But groveling first.
“Soph?” I call out as I kick off my shoes and shrug out of my jacket, tossing it onto the pile of Sophie’s discarded jackets, too preoccupied with finding my girl to hang it up. My girl. I love the sound of that. “I know you’re mad, and I’m really sorry. So fucking sorry. Come talk to me so I can explain, and then I hope you’ll let me kiss you a million more times.”
I could swear I hear a snicker, but that can’t be right because two seconds later Sophie appears in the entryway, wearing the same jeans and V-neck sweater she was wearing in the bar, along with a very irritated glare. She puts her hands on her hips, that glare traveling right down my body and back up again in a slow perusal that makes me feel like her hands are actually on me. When her eyes finally meet mine, my heart does a long, slow roll in my chest, and I almost laugh at the joythat is my best friend—my favorite person on earth—also being myperson.
I am the luckiest fucking guy in the world.
As long as Sophie doesn’t cut off my balls for kind of, sort of lying to her.
“Explain,” she orders, popping a hip and raising a single eyebrow at me in a way that is so unquestionably sexy I almost drop to my knees and start begging.
“I wasn’t keeping a secret from you. I swear,” I say quickly.
When Sophie scoffs, I blow out a breath and try again. “Okay fine, so I was keeping a secret from you, but my intentions were good.”
“Were they?” she asks, with a touch of what I swear is amusement in her tone.
I nod. “Yes. I couldn’t tell you it was me you were talking to on the app until I made you fall for me. Once you did, I was going to tell you everything.”
“Until youwhat?” she demands.
I shrug, like what I’m saying makes the most sense in the world even though I’m starting to see it’s possible it only made sense in my head and not in practice, but I’m in it now. “I didn’t know it was you until the morning I…walked in on you.” I can’t help but grin at the flash in her eyes that makes me sure she’s replaying that morning in her head.
Fucking same.
“As soon as I saw you naked…” I trail off, shaking my head. “It was like my world exploded open.” I lock eyes with her, begging her to understand. “It was like I had been wearing blinders for twenty-six years and then, in a split second and the drop of a towel, they disappeared, and I saw you. Isawyou, Soph,” I say adamantly, watching as she swallows hard, her fingers flexing on her hips.
