She held out her hand for me to shake. “I’m Low Hardy. Trisha and Rock are really good friends of mine. And Amanda is my sister-in-law. I saw you at Daisy May’s party, but I had just walked inside when you were defending Krit and then leaving.”
I shook her hand and felt a small little bubble of excitement that someone knew me. Had I made enough connections in town that people were starting to actually know who I was? The idea that I was fitting in for the first time in my life was thrilling.
“It’s nice to meet you, Low. Sorry, I didn’t get to meet you at the party. I wasn’t, uh, well, I was learning. Friendship with Krit is a learn-as-you-go thing,” I explained.
She studied me for a moment with a pleased smile on her face. “I can only imagine,” she replied.
The urge to defend him rose up in me again, and I had to shove it down. She was agreeing with me, not attacking him.
“You going to lunch?” she asked. “I normally head home right after class because I hate leaving Eli with a sitter too long, but today his daddy is home with him so I have a little time.”
We walked out together, and I glanced down at my phone. “I have to be at work in twenty minutes. It’s a ten-minute drive, so I can’t today. I would like to sometime, though,” I told her. She reminded me of Trisha. There was no judgment in her eyes, and she wasn’t sizing me up. She just accepted me and wanted to get to know me.
“I’ll see if Marcus can stay home one day next week. Or better yet, you can come back to my place after class and have grilled cheeses with me and Eli,” she said, smiling.
Eli had to be her son. She didn’t look old enough to be a mom. I started to respond. but the words fell away when my eyes locked on the tall beautiful man leaning against my car with his arms crossed over his chest and his sunglasses covering his blue eyes.
“Oh, looks like you got a visitor,” Low said.
Krit dropped his arms, and I stood there and watched as he made his way over to me. His long legs were in a pair of faded jeans, but his muscular thighs could be seen through the snug fit as he walked. This was what a swagger looked like. It was something not many men could do, but when Krit walked, girls stopped and watched. I couldn’t even get mad at them. He was impossible not to look at.
Krit’s eyes stayed on me as he wrapped an arm around my waist, making me want to melt after that performance. “Hello, Low,” he said, glancing over at her with a smile. Then he turned back to me. “Hey, love.”
He called females love. I had heard him do it before, and he had called me that before he even knew me. But something about the way he said it to me now, the way his voice dropped when it curled around the word, meant more. Or maybe it was my wishful thinking.
“Hey,” I replied, knowing that I was staring up at him like I was completely mesmerized. I couldn’t help that. though. I was.
“It was nice meeting you, Blythe. We’ll do that lunch next week. I’ll see you later,” Low said, reminding me that she was still there.
I jerked myself out of the Krit haze I was under, and turned back to her. “Oh, yes, I look forward to it. And it was nice meeting you, too.”
Low’s grin was one that was both pleased and knowing. She wasn’t making fun of me for being so obvious about my feelings for Krit. It made me like her even more.
“See you, Krit,” Low called out.
He nodded at her briefly then looked back at me. “Low’s in your class?”
“Yeah,” I replied a little too breathlessly.
“She’d be a good friend,” he told me, then leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. I molded into him readily, letting him taste and nibble my lips before I enjoyed the feel of his tongue and the bar in it that excited me.
When he pulled back, I wanted to grab his head and force him back down.
“Missed you when I woke up. You should’ve woken me. I’d have helped you get dressed,” he said with a naughty smirk.
I squeezed the arm that I was holding onto. “You were sleeping so sweet. I wasn’t messing that up.”
He cocked his pierced eyebrow. “Sweet?”
He didn’t like being called sweet. Well, too bad. He was sweet. Especially right now, coming to see me because he hadn’t been awake this morning. “Yes, very sweet.”
“I think I lose badass points for sleeping sweet. I need to fix that,” he said, then bent down and kissed me again. “But first I want to take you back home and keep you locked up in my arms all day.”
Home. He was calling my apartment home a lot now. Not my home, just home. And he wanted to spend the day with me. And he was at the parking lot of my college campus. What was going on?
“Krit? Why are you here?” I asked.
He frowned for what seemed like a minute then ran his thumb over my lips with a soft caress. “Because I missed you.”
I got that. He had told me that. But why did he miss me now? “You never missed me before?”
Something flashed in his blue eyes. They were more expressive than he realized. “I’ve always missed you. Don’t think I didn’t. I just didn’t let myself act on it.”
He had always missed me. Were we still just “going with it” like he had said when I asked him about us?
I nodded, not wanting to make him answer anymore questions. When Krit had to say too much or was pushed too hard, he ran. I loved that he had come to see me today. I didn’t want to ruin this. So I kept my questions to myself.
“I’m glad you came,” I said instead.
He tucked his hands into the back pockets of my jeans, pressing me closer to him. “Me too,” he replied.
I would have been happy standing there like that with him for eternity. However, I had a job to get to. “I have ten minutes to get to work,” I told him with a sigh.
A scowl crossed his face. But he knew I had to work today. I had left him a note. Besides, he knew I worked Monday through Friday.
“Will Linc be there?” he asked in a deep gravelly voice.
Linc. Oh. Oh. Butterflies went off in my stomach and tried to beat their way up into my chest. Krit was jealous of Linc. I shouldn’t have been excited about it, but the fact that I was capable of making Krit jealous made me giddy. I hadn’t wanted to make him jealous. I just hadn’t thought I ever could. It meant he cared—enough.
“He doesn’t normally come to the office. He sometimes brings me sweets from the bakery, but not every day. And he never stays. He just drops them off and says hi. But I doubt he’ll do that anymore . . . after I told him . . ,” I trailed off. I couldn’t tell Krit that I’d all but told Linc that I’d kissed him. That would sound like I had been trying to make Linc jealous.
“Finish that thought, love,” he said, tightening his hold on me by squeezing my bottom.
Crappity, crap, crap. I didn’t want to finish that thought. But he wasn’t going to let this go. “I explained to him that you were my friend, and he might have taken it as you were more than that, and so he left and hasn’t been back or called or anything.”
A pleased grin slowly transformed Krit’s face. “You told him what, exactly?”
Oh no. I wasn’t admitting all that. “I’m gonna be late. I have to go. We’ll talk about this later.”
Krit’s mouth covered mine one more time in a harder, more intense kiss. Nothing like he’d given me before, and I wanted more of that. But he was gone too soon. “Get to work. I’ll see you when you get home. And, yes, love, I want you there with me tonight. You’re riding with me.”
I managed to nod and not swoon into a heap on the floor. Something was very different, and if he kept this up, I wasn’t going to be able to remember that friendship line anymore.
KRIT
The next week was a balance of perfection and control. I had sworn off any woman but Blythe, and I couldn’t get enough of her. Just being around her was enough. Most of the time. Other times I had to watch her come for me. I was trying like hell to go slow with her, but I was at a breaking point. I wanted inside her.
For the last few nights, she hadn’t gone to listen to me play because she had had to study. Not acting like a selfish brat and seducing her into coming with me was hard. Tonight she had said she could go, and although having her backstage with me messed with my head because all I wanted to do was stare at her, I was excited. I hated leaving her home at night while I went to play. She was always asleep when I got back.
Coming up with shit to do while waiting on Blythe to get off work wasn’t easy either. I felt caged. I wanted to go sit up in that office with her all day, but I knew I couldn’t go to her work. Not being able to get near her was eating at me.
When the door to her apartment finally opened, I stopped pacing the floor in front of the window and went directly to her. I didn’t take the time to greet her. I wanted her mouth on mine. That sweet tongue exploring my mouth and making me okay again.
Blythe’s hand immediately went to my shoulders as she held on and kissed me back with just as much enthusiasm. I grabbed her waist and picked her up. “Legs around me,” I said against her mouth before plunging back into her warmth. Sunshine and f**king apples. I couldn’t get enough.
Blythe wrapped her legs tightly around me, and I carried her to her bed. I had made it up today while I’d tried to kill time until she got home. I didn’t used to have such a hard time finding ways to spend my days. But now all I wanted was her, so it made everything else seem pointless.
I sank down onto the bed, keeping her in my lap, then lay back while she moved her legs to straddle me, and her mouth was on mine again. Fuck, this was what I’d needed all day. I didn’t want to go tonight. I just wanted this.
Blythe’s hands were tugging at my shirt. I lifted my back up off the bed and used one hand to jerk my shirt over my head. Both of her hands were on my abs instantly. Her short perfectly manicured nails sent shivers through me as she grazed the skin there. When her thumbs began rubbing my ni**les, I groaned, and my restraint broke. I had wanted to let her play, but damn, I needed her shirt off too.
I began unbuttoning her blouse, trying my best not to rip it off. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly under my touch, and I smiled against her mouth, remembering how sensitive her br**sts were. She had had an orgasm several times just from my mouth on her ni**les. I wanted to do that again but not today. I had gotten a taste of her pu**y by licking my fingers the other night, and I wanted the whole meal now. I had eased her into sexual play this past week. But it was time I got my head between her legs.
When the last button popped free, I shoved the shirt down her arms and started working on getting rid of the bra. Blythe shrugged off both while I tore my mouth from hers and cupped both her br**sts in my hands and stared at them in wonderment. “I really f**king love these,” I told her.
Her eyes sparkled with pleasure like they always did when I complemented her in any way. It was as if she needed me to but didn’t expect it. Which made me want to do it more.
She lowered herself until her tits pressed against me and her mouth was once again on mine. “I like the piercing in your tongue,” she whispered against my lips.
“I know,” I replied, unable to keep from grinning. She’d made it very obvious that she liked the piercing in my tongue. Made me wish I hadn’t let my nipple piercings close up. She’d have loved them, and I would have loved letting her play. But I did have one more piercing she hadn’t seen. The thrill of her being as fascinated with that piercing had my blood pulsing and patience snapping.
Grabbing her by the waist, I flipped her over onto her back and began unsnapping her jeans. “I want them off,” I told her, almost afraid to give her time to say no. When she lifted her h*ps so I could tug her pants down, I almost wept with relief.
Simple white satin panties had never looked so damn sexy. Running my hands down her legs, I took a moment to worship her sweet untouched body. Only me. No one else had seen her like this. Just me. Fuck, I wanted to beat my chest and roar. I had never been with a virgin, and I sure as hell had never been with someone so damn pure.
“Take yours off,” she whispered. Her eyes were focused on the button of my jeans. Each short fast excited breath she took did amazing things to her chest. I was torn between taking my time undressing so I could watch her like this, and covering her hard little ni**les with my mouth.
I started out slow, but the heat in her eyes sent my good intentions out the window. My jeans came off with one swift movement, and then I was back on top of her. Soaking in the feel of her satin smooth skin against mine. Kissing my way down her neck, I inhaled her scent. It only made my head lighter.
“Love, if you need me to stop, then I need you to tell me now.” My voice sounded like a growl. Instead of frightening her, she shivered and clung tighter to me.
“Don’t stop. Please, Krit, don’t stop,” she begged.
That was all I needed to hear. I moved down her stomach one kiss at a time. I licked the skin pulled tight over her ribs, then circled her naval with my tongue before trailing a line of kisses along the lacey edge of her panties. She bucked her h*ps restlessly, and the smell of her arousal met my nose.