Nothing good came from listening to my heart.
It was careless and irrational and became way too invested when I read a romance novel.
So I put her under lock and key.
I only had a few rules, and I always stuck with them.
1. Never get attached.
2. Always run before the feels become contagious.
3. No matter what, under no circumstances, never fall in love.
He was a playboy who ran by the same set of rules.
What we had together was fun, it was hot, and it was temporary.
Until he screwed everything up.
We were never meant to be each other’s happily ever after, but the harder I tried to push him away, the further I fell.
“Oh, fuck.” Oh, God. “What were we thinking?” This was crazy. I paced around my wrecked room and gripped my hair in my hands.
“Calm down.” His voice was gruff as he buttoned his jeans, and I was momentarily distracted by the muscles that disappeared into those jeans like a map. I was in so much trouble.
“Calm down? Calm down? I just fucked my best friend’s brother. How am I supposed to calm down?”
He just smirked at me, and even though the damn curve of his lips made my thighs tighten involuntarily, I wanted to kill him for how calm he was.
“You have to get out of here before everyone sees you.” I looked up at the little clock on the wall and cringed. How in the hell had we managed to spend the entire night together when it had only felt like minutes? “Your sister and Parker will be here in an hour.”
He pulled his t-shirt down over his shoulders, and I winced when I saw his tattoo. I hadn’t cleaned it. I hadn’t wrapped it. Instead, I just got on top of him and rode him like I had lost my damn mind.
“Hold on.” I slid gloves onto my hands before grabbing more supplies out of my drawers. He let me lift his shirt, and he only winced slightly when I squirted the cold solution against his skin. He watched me intently as I covered his tattoo and pressed the tape against his skin.
“Here are the care instructions for your tattoo.” I handed him a little card that had all the instructions. “Make sure that you…”
“I’ll leave on one condition.”
My eyes jerked up to his. “What condition?”
“Kiss me.”
God, I watched his lips as he said the words, and there was nothing in the world that I wanted to do more. But that was why this wasn’t a good idea. He had to know. He had to see the damn line we were crossing.
“This isn’t a good idea, Mason.”
“I think it’s a little late for that. Don’t you think?”
I shook my head so I would stop staring at his mouth. A mouth that was surrounded by his scruffy beard. A mouth that I had no business looking at and sure as hell had no business kissing. “I don’t date.”
“Great.” He pulled his boots onto his feet, and I realized I was still standing there in my bra. “Neither do I.”
His grin was so intoxicating that I knew I would easily become lost in it if I wasn’t careful.
I pulled my shirt over my head and stepped into my jeans. My panties were nowhere to be seen.
“I’m not going to be your fuck buddy.”
He watched me as he leaned against the wall. “Fine. Then we can just be buddies.”
“Buddies.” I rolled my eyes as I slipped my feet into my shoes.
“Yea. You know? Friends.” His eyes were twinkling, and even though I knew how bad of an idea this was, my blood heated at the mischief that sparked in his eyes.
“Friends sure as hell don’t kiss each other.”
“You’re right.” He nodded his head slowly. “Just give me one last kiss then we shall enter the friend zone that is impossible to escape.”
I took a tentative step toward him and his grin only widened.
“One more kiss.”
He watched every step that brought me closer to him. “That’s all I’m asking.”
“Then this little game that we’ve been playing is over.”
“Done.” He reached his hands out and gripped mine as he jerked my body roughly into his. My core tightened and he knew. He knew exactly what he was doing to me.
He dipped his head low, and he ran his nose along the skin of my neck. Chill bumps broke out across my skin. His bottom lip touched the edge of my ear lobe, and I bit down on my own lip because I refused to give him even one more whimper.
“I won. You know?” His teeth bit down on my ear lobe.
“You ass.” I pushed my hands against his chest to get away from him, but he wasn’t having any of it. Instead, his fingers slid to my jaw, tipping my face back so I had no choice but to look up at him.
His smirk was gone from his face as he stared down at me. As he looked over every inch of my face like he was trying to memorize this moment, memorize me. He pressed his thumb against my bottom lip dragging it down as he watched the movement then his mouth devoured mine.
It didn’t matter that it was a goodbye kiss. That it was our last kiss.
It somehow fueled me more than any kiss that we had shared all night. Somehow it tore into every part of me. Every part of me screamed to not let him leave.
But I knew that none of that was logical.
I wasn’t this girl. I wasn’t the hopeless romantic who got butterflies from a one night stand.
But as soon as I thought the words, my chest ached. I had plenty of one night stands in my life. This didn’t feel like that. Even if it was completely foolish to think it, this felt like something more.
He gripped my hair in his hand and pushed my head back so I was completely open to him as he devoured my mouth.
And when he pulled away, I instantly felt this loss.
I wasn’t even sure who I was as I lifted my fingers to my mouth and ran them over the tingle that still lingered there.
He looked as completely dazed as I did. Lost in whatever the fuck this was.
