WE WERE JUST ABOUT to exit the school when a thought struck me.
“Your class photo. I want to see it.”
He scoffed. “No way. I’m way better looking now.”
This time, I went to prom with the right girl, he had said to me moments before. I kept replaying it in my head, ignoring the curls of delight in my stomach.
I gave him a sidelong look, standing there in his suit, dashing and handsome. It had to be custom-made, the way it fit his broad shoulders. When I walked into my living room this evening and saw him sitting there, looking like the lead in one of those old movies I loved, I could barely restrain myself from hopping into his lap and rubbing myself against him like a cat.
“Good god,” I snorted. “Your cockiness knows no bounds. I want to see your photo, even if you look like a dork. I want to know you.”
I want to know you? Did I just say that? Jeez, that was a bit intimate.
He watched me with a funny look, and I scrambled.
“Tell you what. If we ever go to Vancouver, I’ll show you my picture at my high school. I wore glitter eyeliner so you’re in for a treat.”
The side of his mouth tugged up but he still watched me with a peculiar expression. “Why would we be in Vancouver?”
Fantastic, so I had dug myself further into the hole. Dig up, Avery. I made it sound like we would be taking a trip there together. Like we would continue this whatever-we-were-doing longer than the arrangement. My heart twisted.
“I mean, if you are ever in Vancouver.”
He maintained eye contact and my stomach somersaulted.
When he spoke, his tone was teasing. “I can’t just walk into a random high school alone. I’ll get arrested. You’d have to come with me.”
A grin spread across my face. “Deal.”
“Deal.” He rolled his eyes and grabbed my hands. “Come on, Adams, let’s go look at pictures of teenage dorks.”
“OF COURSE YOU WERE CLASS PRESIDENT.” I ran my finger along the cold glass in front of his senior year photo—a younger version of him with the same confident, smug smile. “You look like the kind of guy I’d have a crush on.”
Earlier, when I rested my head on his chest and we swayed with the music amid dozens of horny teenagers, I melted into him. He was so warm and his fingers in my hair made me so deliriously comfortable, I could have stayed put the entire night.
I sighed, staring at the teenage photo of him. And that kiss against the car. That kiss. The way he grabbed me so assertively and pressed me up against the window.
I’d remember that kiss. I’d remember it so hard my ghost would be sighing thinking about it. I’d remember the way my body clenched with pleasure when he ran his thumb over my nipple. All night since that kiss, I’d been wound tight and tense.
The angel in my head sweetly reminded me I was going to speak to Emmett about pulling back on the PDA.
The devil in my head didn’t want to pull back, though. She wanted more. She wanted Emmett’s hot mouth all over her skin, everywhere. A shiver rolled through me and the hairs on my arms stood up.
Tonight, I’d invite Emmett in, and we’d see where things went. I saw him in my mind, stretched out in my bed, naked, sheets rumpled and messy like his hair. A little thrill ran up and down the back of my legs. All that smooth skin and ridges. The abs I knew he worked hard to maintain.
It took all my control not to drag him out of here this instant.
I turned back to his photo. “I would have had the biggest crush on you.”
“Oh, yeah?” He raised an eyebrow with the same smug grin as in the photo.
I nodded. “Oh, yeah.” I scanned through the other photos until I found one with the name Will Henry below. “Aw, and there’s Will.”
He peered over my shoulder, and I could feel his warmth against my back. “Yep, that’s Will. He’s got a few more wrinkles now, though.”
I snorted. “So do you.”
“Yeah, but I look handsome with a few wrinkles.” He winked at me.
“I hate to admit it but you’re right.” I turned back to the photos and found the one with the pretty young woman with chestnut hair. “And there’s Nat.”
He nodded. “That’s Nat.”
My ears worked hard to pick up anything in his voice, any affection or wistfulness that indicated Nat was the one that got away, but I came up short. I swallowed and stared at her picture. “Do you still have a thing for her?” It came out more tentative than I wanted. I was supposed to make it sound like I didn’t care.
He scoffed. “No.” From behind, he wrapped his arm around me. “I’m glad she dumped me.” He planted a kiss on my cheek. His stubble scraped my skin.
I was glad she dumped him, too, as I leaned back against him.
“Do you still talk to him often?”
“Every couple days.”
“You miss him.” I could hear it in his voice.
“Of course. We’ve been friends since we were kids. He’s like my brother. That’s why I’m running for mayor. So he and his family can move back here.”
My mind paused. “I thought you were running so you could fix the electrical grid.”
He nodded. “So they don’t have to deal with the power outages. It’s a lot for them to handle. Kara shouldn’t have to grow up away from her community.”
I vaguely remembered thinking Emmett was like my dad, all schmoozey and charming. My dad never would have done something like this, though. He only thought about himself.
Emmett was doing all this so his best friend’s family could have a better life. So they could return home. That never would have occurred to my dad.
“I’m getting tired,” I told him with a small smile, holding eye contact with his light gray eyes.
“Oh, yeah?” His voice was soft as he leaned down to graze his mouth on my ear.
My breath caught and my eyes fluttered closed. “Yep. Exhausted.”
“We should get you home, then.”
I bit my lip with excitement.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me down the dim hallway, past the lockers and display cases with trophies and pictures, past the empty administrative office, and out the front doors. In the parking lot, I struggled to keep up with his long strides in my heels, so he stopped, bent over, and hoisted me over his shoulder.
“Put me down, you caveman!” I yelled, laughing.
“You’re too slow.” I could hear the laugh in his voice as well.
He pushed me into the car. I couldn’t stop laughing, but the pressure that had been building in me for weeks had settled between my legs. I was breathless and antsy at the thought of what might happen in my apartment in about twenty minutes.
Emmett and I were totally going to have sex.
I had to give the guy credit—he drove the speed limit the entire way to my house.
I turned to him. “Miri’s turtles move faster than you. Now who’s too slow?”
He shot me a cheeky grin. “Adams, I’m a law-abiding citizen, and you’re a bad influence on me.”
“You have no idea.” I gave him my most devious smile.
His gaze darkened, and I inhaled sharply, squeezing my thighs together. My center pulsed and I bit my lip, staring out the window. This was so on. The tension had been building between Emmett and me, and now we were going to let it free and have the best sex ever. He was going to tear my dress off the second we got inside my apartment before I even closed the door.
He parked the car in front of my place, and I was halfway up the path around the side of the house before he turned the engine off. He jogged to catch up with me.
“I hope your little friend wears earplugs,” he said to me under his breath as we turned the corner.
I snorted but stopped abruptly when we came face to face with all the guys who lived downstairs, standing in the backyard in the dark, hauling their belongings out of the house and into plastic bags.
“What’s going on? Did you get evicted?” It wouldn’t be the first time someone downstairs had been kicked out.
Carter stepped forward, and Emmett straightened before his arm locked around my waist. I bit back a grin—I kind of loved how jealous he was. I had zero plans to do anything with Carter, but I didn’t mind seeing Emmett lose his mind over me.
“Bad news, Laser,” Carter told us. “We have bedbugs.”
Emmett and I froze, looking at all the bags of stuff, and Emmett pulled me back a step from Carter. I could feel the expression of horror and hesitation on my face.
“Um. Gross.” I glanced upstairs at my front door. “Do you think they’re—”
“Don’t even think about it, Adams. There’s no way in hell either of us is going inside your apartment.”
Carter waved his hand. “Bro, I’m sure her place is fine.”
Emmett gave him the coldest expression I’d ever seen. “Actually, bro, bedbugs can crawl into other units through light sockets.”
I winced at him. “Really?”
He nodded with an equally grossed-out expression, and I shuddered. I pictured lifting up my bedsheets and seeing the little dark dots moving around. I shuddered again.
“I don’t want to go in there,” I told Emmett. “Don’t make me.”
“Like hell you are. Come on.” He pulled me toward the car.
“Where are we going?”
“You’re staying at my place.”
We drove home in near silence, only punctuated by one of us shivering or gagging in disgust. So much for getting laid tonight—any desire or lust I felt back at the prom had disappeared the second I heard the word bedbugs, and I suspected the same for Emmett.
“I feel like they’re on me.” My hands raked over my scalp. “Are they in my hair?”
“Adams, I can’t look because if I see one, I’ll drive this car right off the road.”
I burst out laughing. “This was the worst prom ever.”
He started laughing too. “The prom was great, but the afterparty is worse than the time I got dumped.”
That made me laugh harder. I knew he was kidding but our terrible luck kept me giggling. When we pulled up to his garage, I was still laughing.
We made our way from the garage to the front door before Emmett paused, took his jacket off, and placed it on the railing.
“Leave your dress out here, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to rain,” he told me, undoing his tie, and I frowned.
“What are you talking about? What are you doing?”
He gave me an are you crazy look. “We were inside your apartment earlier. We could be carriers.”
“Ewwwww. You think there’s a bedbug hitchhiker on us right now?”
“I have no idea, but there is no way I’m letting either of us inside with these clothes.”
A jolt of excitement sparked through me. “I’m not getting naked in front of you!” At least not without a little warm-up, I thought.
He took his shirt off and I had a front-row view to every ridge and muscle down his torso. My mouth parted.
“I won’t look. I’m going to go inside and get you something to wear,” he told me. He snorted as my gaze raked down his abs. “See something you like, Adams?”
My face burned. His hands came to his belt, and I whirled around, facing the other way. This was not what I had in mind when I wanted Emmett naked. Stupid bedbugs. Stupid Carter and his stupid gross friends, ruining my night that was supposed to be filled with orgasms. I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I’ll be right back.” He stepped inside. Moments later, he returned, still shirtless but wearing sweatpants and holding a t-shirt.
“That’s it? Don’t you have a bathrobe or something? One of those flannel ones?”
He laughed. “What? No. I’m not seventy-five. Come on, Adams, it’s cold.”
“I know it’s cold.” All the hairs on my arms stood on end, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the chill or the ridges down Emmett’s stomach. I wanted to scrape my teeth over them and feel them jump.
He hung the shirt on the doorknob and stepped back inside.
“No looking,” I told him.
“I won’t, I promise. I’ll make us some tea.”
Tea. If I wasn’t sure sex was off the table at the threat of bedbugs, now I knew for sure. No one had sex after drinking tea. Tea was the least horny drink.
I sighed and undid the zipper of my dress. Thank god Emmett lived in the forest, surrounded by dense fir trees. The last thing I needed was some creepy neighbor spotting me naked at his front door. I slipped the dress off and draped it over the railing beside his suit. I glanced down at myself—underwear and bra too?
I didn’t want to go commando in Emmett’s home (or did I?), but I also didn’t want to bring any bedbugs with me. I gagged again at the thought that there could be one hiding in my bra or underwear and whipped them off lightning-fast before slipping Emmett’s t-shirt over my head.
It smelled like him. Woodsy, musky, and masculine. Desire curled low in my stomach.
The horny devil on my shoulder opened one eye, awakening a little.
