Page 38 of Double Dared
Taylor took another step toward me, closing the distance between us until we were inches apart, and I could smell the smoke on us both and feel the heat of his body on mine. Taylor pulled the side of his lower lip between his teeth, then hardened his gaze, locking it on my face.
“Alright,” he said. “I’m confused. Like, a lot. And when I’m around you, things start to seem a little simpler. And I don’t have the words to describe it, but…” He moved an inch closer to me, so close that a shudder passed through me uncontrollably. “But maybe I don’t need words at all. Maybe I’m just a coward, hiding behind the jokes.”
“You’re not a coward,” I said automatically. He wasn’t.
“Then why am I still hiding behind the illusion of aconversation?” Taylor whispered. “When we could stop talking altogether.”
“Because I asked you to tell me.”
“Ask me something easier, Harrison,” he said, almost pleading.
My throat closed, and I forced myself to swallow. My breath was shallow, but so was his, his chest rising and falling only a little. “Show me, then.”
Taylor gave a small nod, as if he were relieved that I had finally asked the right things. And he didn’t hold back anymore. He didn’t hold back at all. The inches of space between us disappeared, and he pushed into me like he wanted to pin me against the wall, but I was bigger, stronger, and he couldn’t move me, so he simply pressed himself against me as his mouth crushed mine, and the T-shirt dropped from my hand, and my fingers found the heated skin of the sides of his torso.
I didn’t stand there in confusion this time. I didn’t just take it, surprised and wary and lost in it. I held him immediately and kissed him back, letting him know what it felt like to be kissed by a man who cared for him. Because that was how he was kissing me, too. That was what it felt like.
He exhaled through his nose, quick and hard, and kissed me harder. It was an aggressive, competitive sort of kissing, and I gave him the game, matching him and taking it a notch further, my fingers sinking into the soft flesh of his waist as I yanked him closer, feeling his crotchagainst mine.
I drew a deep breath and remembered, embarrassingly, just how much smoke there still was in my clothes and hair and on my skin, and it made me pause.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
“Wait,” I said.
“Don’t tell me not to kiss you,” Taylor said. “I don’t think I can stop.” His eyes were still closed, his voice dreamy and distant.
I laughed softly. “It’s just that I desperately need a shower. I can’t let us make out for the first time and stink like this.”
Taylor opened his eyes, and there was a mischievous look on his face as he considered it. “Let me shower with you,” he said. It almost sounded like he was working up the courage for it, like he was testing himself.
“Oh, I dare you to shower with me,” I said.
His eyes lit up. “You dare me,” he echoed. “I never say no to a dare.”
“I know.” I took a step back, reluctantly letting go of his body. I turned away, then took a step toward my bedroom and heard his footsteps following. He’d only hesitated for a moment or two.
I didn’t know what this meant. I didn’t even know if it was real. But I knew that he wanted it, and I wanted it more than I could put into words, and besides, talking about it was the one thing Taylor didn’t want to do.
So I undid the buttons of my shirt even before I’dstepped into the bathroom, and I shrugged it off and leaned into the shower to let the water run before I turned back to the door, where Taylor stood with a devilishly handsome expression on his face and pupils so wide they made me want to melt.
And I reached for my belt.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
taylor
I couldn’t hearmy own thoughts over the relentless pounding of my heart. The irregular, overachieving pace my heart was setting flooded me, thumping in my throat, in my stomach, in my head, and…well. Everywhere.
I stood in the doorway, halfway in the bathroom, halfway in Harrison’s cute jungle bedroom. He turned around slowly after taking his shirt off, and I watched him. For the first time, I really watched.
Maybe I’d seen some guys in passing, in the many locker rooms where I’d strolled around wet and naked, and maybe I’d glanced this way and that out of sheer curiosity. And maybe I’d felt, somehow distantly, that someone was objectively attractive.
It had never translated into this.
I stared at the defined muscles of his arms and torso, at the compact build of his body, at the strengthand grace with which he moved, and I felt it in my stomach, this unwavering pull toward him.
It had been present for longer than I’d paid it any attention. It had always been there, from the moment I’d come to the table in the corner of my favorite bar, where he looked at me with a dare in his eyes and a challenge on his lips.
