Page 54 of All Bets Are Off

“Then you find another publishing house,” Theo says, like it’s that easy, “and you make the first one kick themselves with regret for passing on your book when it inevitably blows up, becomes a bestseller, and lands a movie deal.”

I laugh until it fades into a wishful sigh. “That’s the dream.”

“What is? A movie deal?”

“Not even that,” I say. “The bestseller part. Ideally, I don’t want to be staring into people’s plaque-ridden mouths for the rest of my life, but it takes more than just landing the book deal to quit your day job. You need to sell a ton of books. Like, a lot, a lot. So that’s the dream: sell enough books to quit the dental office and move to New York.”

Theo’s listening with interest, his features relaxed and curious, but at the mention of New York, his soft smile instantly falters. “Wait. You’d really leave Florida?”

“If I become a hotshot author who actually makes enough money to support myself?” I clarify, raising an eyebrow at what is, to me, a silly question. The answer is so obvious. “Yes.”

“Huh.” Theo bites his lip and glances down at the sheets gathered in the space between us. He’s quiet for a moment as the AC whirs above us and the TV plays on low volume. Gradually, his hand creeps closer to me until his fingers gently brush against mine.

“What?” I prompt, but the word gets stuck in my throat and emerges as a whisper. Theo’s hand is on the cusp of slipping into mine, and my heart thrums in my chest, begging it to do so.

His earnest blue eyes lift from the sheets and he quietly admits, “I’d hate it if you left, Hails.”

A sharp jolt of electricity radiates through me, interfering with the rhythm of my pulses. Theo’s aura is so soft, so pure. There is no second-guessing that deflated look in his gaze, and it suddenly feels like the room around us gets smaller and smaller as the tension heightens.

“Why?” I whisper, swallowing the nervous lump in my throat. I think I know what he’s going to say, and I’m so scared to hear him finally articulate it.

“Because you’ve always been a permanent staple in my life,” he murmurs, his fingers still mindlessly skimming over mine. “You’ve always been around, and I’d . . . Well, I’d miss you if you ever left.”

I can’t bear the toying for a second longer, so I slide my hand fully into his. “Are you this sentimental about all of Addy’s friends?”

“Just you, Hails.”

My breath hitches, and it’s like everything in my system shuts down at his words. My heart stutters, my body freezes, and my brain turns to complete and utter mush. Just you, Hails.

I should get back to work. The laptop is on the desk behind him, beckoning me over to finish what I started, but Theo is right in front of me, eyes locked on mine, our hands interlocked . . . Also beckoning me to finish what we started.

In the moment it takes for my gaze to travel from his eyes down to his lips, a thousand different thoughts flash through my mind. Too many questions to figure out the answers to, so I simply decide: Fuck it.

I reach out for Theo’s T-shirt, pull him toward me, and press my lips to his.

He immediately welcomes my touch, like he’s been waiting his entire life for it. We rise onto our knees on the bed, chest-to-chest, hungrily clawing at one another. His hands rake through my hair so intensely, he pulls my ponytail loose. I part my lips to deepen the kiss as his tongue works teasingly, seductively against my own, but it’s not enough. I want more. More from him, more of him.

Oh, God, why do I want Theodore this badly?

Now I’m tearing at his T-shirt, tugging on the hem and whipping it over his head to reveal his sculpted body that he’s so cocky about, but he’s allowed to be smug when his abs are this defined. I bite my lip and trail my hands over his stomach. His body is like carved stone.

“You didn’t want to touch these abs yesterday,” Theo says with a smirk, watching me with a salacious gaze.

“I changed my mind,” I say shyly. My fingertips fall delicately to the waistband of his boxers poking out from his sweatpants, and Theo’s confident smirk fades as he nervously gulps. “Tell me something, Theo.”

“Anything.”

I glance down at my hand brushing over his boxers, over the warm skin of his hip bones, and notice the bulge of his cock straining against the cotton fabric of his sweats. I look back at his face from beneath my lashes. “How did we get here? When did things change?”

Theo latches on to my wrist and holds my hand steady. “Nothing changed,” he says in a low voice, his eyes staring intensely into my own. “I’ve wanted you forever, Hails, since the very first time Addy brought you around when we were all just kids. You were cute, and shy, and a little bit weird, honestly. But I wanted you then, and I want you now.”

All the teasing over the years, all the playful flirting that I thought was just Theo messing with me . . . It actually meant something, and I’ve been an oblivious idiot this entire time, having written him off as nothing more than Addy’s eye-roll-inducing little brother. I only needed to spend some time alone with him to realize he’s charming, and helpful, and sweet, and so incredibly hot.

He edges in closer and whispers by my ear, “Are you still off limits, Hailey?”

“I never was,” I say, and crash my lips back to his.

I pull my wrist free from his grip and slide my fingers into his boxers. As I kiss him, I take his cock in my hand and stroke him gently. He strains against my palm and he moans into my mouth in a way that sends me feral. It’s been a while since I was intimate with someone, so I have a lot of pent-up frustration that needs released.