I’VE BEEN TRYING SO DAMN hard to stay away from Vivi, but sometimes I can’t stop myself from staring at her. She’s fucking beautiful, and she does not know how much I want her. It would probably freak her the fuck out if she knew how much, which is why I keep that shit to myself and do my best to detour anything from happening between us. Because I know once I have her, there’s no fucking way I’ll ever be able to let her go.
“What?” Vivi asks when she catches me watching her instead of the movie, and it’s easy to detect the nervousness in her voice.
“Nothing. I’ve just never hung out with someone who was into these movies as much as I am,” I admit. “No other girl I’ve ever had here ever wanted to watch them.”
Her brow furrows for a split second. “How many women have you brought home?”
I sigh. “More than I’d care to admit to.”
She’s quiet for a moment before she says, “Well, you’ve obviously been bringing home the wrong kind of women.”
I smile and nod. “Obviously.”
This causes Vivi to giggle. “Was that a Snape impression?”
I shrug my large shoulders. “It was, but I know it was horrible.”
“It’s nice to know you’re not good at everything.”
I raise my eyebrows. “I’m good at the things I take seriously, but you’ve got me on being a bad impressionist. I suck at that.”
Vivi angles her body toward me and pulls her legs up onto the couch. “How’s your hand?”
I flex the fingers of my right hand a few times as I stare down at the reddened knuckles. “It doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s good. Taber definitely got the worst damage out of the punches, but I can’t say I feel sorry for him. The guy is a complete dick.”
“He is. He reminds me of the crude, know-it-all, mouthy fuckers my mother used to bring home with her. I can’t stand those types of guys who think they can do whatever the fuck they please to people and get away with it, and that’s exactly the type of guy Taber is. He was that way the moment he waltzed in the locker room like his shit didn’t stink, but he sucked on the field and got cut after three seasons.”
Vivi rests her elbow on the back of the couch and then leans her neck against her hand. “Your mother sounds a lot like mine.”
My brows draw in. “What do you mean?”
“Both of our mothers have terrible taste in men. My father was a raging alcoholic, and my mother fell down into the rabbit hole with him. Both of them eventually forgot they ever had a daughter while they spent all of their time deep in the bottle.”
There’s an ache in my chest as I listen to Vivi speak about her parents, and one word catches my attention. “You said was when speaking about your father. Is he…?”
“Both of my parents died when I was fourteen in a car crash.” There’s an unmistakable sadness in her green eyes, and I wish I could take back prying into her parents.
I don’t enjoy making her sad, but I’m curious about her and her past.
“I’m sorry. That’s shitty.” After finishing the last of my beer, I feel like it’s only right to share how I can relate to her. “It sucks not having parents. Like I said before, I never knew my father—never met the bastard—and my mother…well, let’s just say she was no fucking saint. I actually moved in with Beckett and his family when I was fifteen and haven’t spoken to my mother since I left.”
“She didn’t chase after you? Make you come back home?”
I shake my head. “She was glad I was gone after I—” I pause because I’m not ready to tell her everything about me just yet. Admitting to someone the thing I did to make my mother hate me isn’t something I share with too many people. It’s something I like to leave in the past. “She has her reasons for hating me.”
Vivi sets her beer on the coffee table and then slides over toward me. She wraps her arms around my neck, hugging me to her. “I’m sorry. No kid should have to go through that or feel like their mother hates them. I’m sure she doesn’t.” She releases a heavy sigh into my ear and then pulls away. There are tears in her eyes as she looks at me. “I hope one day when I’m a mom, I’m better to my kids than my mom was to me.”
“You will be,” I tell her. “The fact you’re thinking this way already proves that.”
One corner of her mouth lifts into a smile. “Thanks.”
I want to kiss her, comfort her and tell her how fucking amazing I think she is, but after our heavy-ass conversation, I’m not sure it’s the right time for that. We’re both in this weird nostalgic moment about our childhood traumas. She may just want to keep this thing between us as friends like I told her before, but it’s me who wants to cross the lines and ruin our friendship.
Vivi clears her throat and picks up her beer bottle off the table as she stands, putting distance between us. “You want another one?”
“Sure,” I tell her, and as she heads to the kitchen, and Dobby jumps up to follow her.
I turn my attention back to the movie, trying to rid my brain of thinking about Vivi, but it does nothing to stop the thoughts. My body craves her, and getting to know her more and more each day only makes it worse. Every night since she’s been sleeping under my roof, I’ve done nothing but dream of her and what it would be like to have her underneath me, moaning my name as I thrust deep inside her. I’ve never wanted someone so badly in my life.
My cock twitches inside my shorts, and I know the half-mast wood I’m sporting will be highly noticeable, so I grab a pillow and toss it onto my lap. When Vivi returns, my eyes roam over her body, starting on the bare skin of her thighs, which are exposed by the jean shorts she’s wearing while most of her shoulders are visible thanks to her black-and-white-striped tank top.
“Here you go.” She hands me another beer, and I take a long pull from the bottle, downing nearly half as she sits down next to me again.
We were both on opposite ends of the couch before, and it was a little easier not to constantly think about fucking her, but now she’s taken the initiative to get super close to me. At this proximity, her fruity shampoo and floral perfume fill my nose. She smells fucking amazing, which definitely will do nothing to calm my dick down now.
I glare over at Dobby who has made himself comfortable lying on the hardwood in the foyer. He was the buffer between us before.
“Is this okay?” she turns to me and asks, batting those impossibly long eyelashes at me that frame her green eyes perfectly while her shoulder brushes against mine. “Lining up with the middle of the screen always allows for the best views.”
I clear my throat as our eyes remain locked. “You’re good.”
One corner of her mouth twitches, like she’s pleased with herself for winning a small victory, and it’s given her confidence to push things further. She snuggles in closer to my side and then turns toward me, where the side of her tit rubs against the corner of my chest. “How about this? Is this okay?”
My breath catches as she stares up at me, waiting for my response. I should push her away and stop this game before it gets out of hand, but I don’t want to. I want to see how far she’s willing to go with me.
Finally, I nod, and she leans against me even more, bringing our faces so close together her warm breath touches my lips in soft little puffs.
The muscles in my jaw work back and forth as I debate why I shouldn’t fucking kiss her right now, but not one good reason can be found.
“Fuck it,” I growl and press my lips to hers while cradling one side of her face in my hand, keeping her locked in place.
She tastes just as fucking sweet as I imagined—sweeter, even.
There’s no hesitation from her as she opens her mouth, allowing my greedy tongue entrance to thrust inside. A moan escapes her, and I swallow it down, enjoying the way it reverberates in my mouth. The fingers of her right hand curl around my neck for a moment before they trail down my chest, leading to my stomach. She flips the pillow off my lap, and I grab the backs of her thighs and pull her onto my lap. She straddles me, both of her thighs pressing against my hips.
This time it’s me who moans, feeling the weight of her core pressed down on my cock. Knowing just a few scraps of cloth is keeping me from being inside her.
“God, I fucking want you,” I rasp between kisses. “You’ve been driving me crazy since I saw you.”
She licks my bottom lips. “I’ve wanted you too. Just. Like. This.”
A growl rumbles in my chest as she rocks her hips a couple of times, dry fucking me through our clothes like a couple of horny teenagers.
One hand planted firmly on her ass, encouraging her to keep rolling her hips, while the other snakes up the back of her shirt, splaying my fingers across the bare skin of her back. She’s just as soft as I thought she’d be, like fucking velvet, and I can’t wait to explore even more of her.
