Page 323 of Off Limits: The Firsts

“Thank you for taking me.”

“The minute I turned into the neighborhood, I realized it might not have been such a great idea,” he says, making me close one of the padlocked doors he’d just opened. “I’m glad you had a good time.”

“I did. Um, I’d invite you back to my place, but there isn’t much to it . . . but it is clean.” It’s the only thing I can think to say—when all else fails, talk about the physicality between us to prevent us from talking about anything else.

“You say it’s clean as if it’s a shock.”

“It is.” I laugh. “We’ll just say it wasn’t too pretty a few weeks ago. Or if Desi were here, she’d say ever.”

I shove up off the tailgate and begin walking to my loft, my mind set on the notion of if he follows, he follows, and if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.

That’s a lie I knowingly tell myself. Truth is, I don’t want to be alone tonight. I don’t want to give my mind a single chance to get lost in itself and bring me back there again.

I have one foot on the stairs that lead up to my loft when Grant’s hand lands on my bicep, turning me around. “Emerson.”

He rubs his thumb on the inside of my arm, and I can see the confusion on his face the same moment I yank my arm away from his touch.

“Did you get hurt today?” he asks, and I cringe at my overreaction, but that’s my ugly, and I don’t want him knowing my ugly.

I’ve escaped him seeing them this far and now I scramble to figure out how to recover and take cues from what he asked. “No, not today. The nylon on the rig rubs me right there for some reason, so I have a few scars from always getting scratched. I’m so used to it that I forget it’s even there until someone mentions it.”

He stares, gauging whether to believe me or not. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to . . .”

“No, I overreacted. It’s okay.” I lean in and do what I’ve been thinking about ever since we left his parents’ house—I press my lips to his.

Grant reacts immediately. Hunger and the mint he had in the car are on his tongue. His hands run up and down my arms as he takes a step closer, bringing us chest to chest since I’m still one step up from him.

We sink into the kiss. There is no rush, just a sense that we are feeling each other out to see where we go from here.

A part of me doesn’t want to know that answer.

I just want to enjoy the moment.

Live in the now.

Forget the complications that being with Grant Malone could cause in my life.

“Are we going to do this?” he murmurs against my lips.

A long, slow, mesmerizing kiss that leaves me weak in the knees when weakness isn’t a thing I allow.

“Do what?”

A nip of my bottom lip.

“Do this. You. Me. Friends.”

A hand runs languorously up and down my spine before landing on my ass and pulling me tighter against him.

“Friends don’t do this.”

His chuckle is muted against my lips.

“You and I have never been anything close to normal, Em.”

A lick of his tongue against mine makes me press into him when he leans back.

“You’re too sexy, and I’m too horny to walk away tonight without sleeping with you . . .” I murmur playfully. And truthfully.