Peachy Keen (19 page)

I heard her release a sigh though the sound of my heart pumping pulsed in my ears.

“Georgia, I—”

“You think I’m psycho.”

“Stop,” I said, refusing to let her cut me off again. She was quiet and I knew she was listening. “You’re my best friend, too, baby. But it’s more than that. I’m not going to say it over the phone, but when I see you, I need to say something to you…”

I loved her. I fucking loved her. As the line remained silent, my stomach began to churn. I’d scared her. Shit.

“Harry,” she whispered and the pounding of my heart in my head went quiet for a moment.

“Yeah.”

“I—I’m gonna say it back.”

19.

Fooled Around and Fell In Love

Georgia

Mama D: Just got to Evan’s. Have a good weekend, lady!

I smiled at Danielle’s text, sent a quick reply, and set my phone aside. Alone again for the weekend. It was starting to feel normal, having the place to myself, but deep inside I recognized loneliness simmering. Evan had called me a few days ago letting me know he made an offer on the house he’d shown me when I first got home from Desire. While it made my heart soar for Danielle knowing he’d be surprising her at some point over the holidays, it also made that little devil on my shoulder attempt to reclaim his position, whispering doubts in my ear about my ongoing, albeit untitled, affair with Harrison.

I stretched my arms above my head and tossed my hair with my fingers. A few months ago, with Danielle out of the apartment and a weekend ahead of me, I would’ve been in the shower prepping for a night out, but tonight I was perfectly content in my sweatpants and tank top, Netflix the only date on my roster.

A knock at the door caused me to squint at the clock. It was almost eight o’clock at night. I padded toward the door, pressed my eye to the peephole, and promptly flung it wide open the instant I saw him.

Without a word, I jumped on Harrison, throwing my arms around his neck and pressing my body to his, reveling in the rumble of his chuckle through my bones and the scratch of his beard against my face. Cold, wet snowflakes melted off of his coat and onto my skin as I simply melted against him. He clasped one arm around my back, lifted me as I squeaked, and walked me inside the apartment as I clung to him.

“Surprise,” he breathed against my ear.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, finally pulling back to look up into his eyes. His cheeks were pink from the bitter cold outside and his hat was dotted with glimmering snowflakes. I didn’t know where to start. Pull off his hat to see his sexy mess of hair? Tug open his thick wool coat so I could run my hands across his stomach and make my way into his jeans?

Harrison smirked at me as though he knew my thoughts had turned saucy and pulled the hat from his head. I sighed at the sight of his reddish-brown mop.

“I missed you. It’s only for the night. I told Evan I had family stuff. I had to see you. Hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ll have to make some calls to let everyone know the orgy’s off, but…” I teased, shoving his shoulder. “Of course it’s okay. Aside from the fact that I look like trash, it’s perfect that you’re here.”

His hand reached for me after he set down his overnight bag and the two grocery sacks I’d barely noticed he had when he walked inside. He smoothed over the back of my head gently, adding his other hand to the nape of my neck, drawing me near effortlessly.

“You look gorgeous,” he said before claiming my mouth with a kiss.

When he pulled back, he gazed down at me with one palm still on my cheek. He didn’t smile or speak and suddenly I remembered what he’d said on the phone. Before he had a chance to let the words slip out, I forced a smile and picked up his bag.

“I’ll put this in my bedroom,” I said, turning quickly on the balls of my feet. “What’s in the grocery bags?” I hollered out as I walked down the hall. My hands trembled as I tossed his bag on the floor next to my bed. A deep breath filled my lungs, attempting to cleanse me of my concern over Harrison potentially uttering the three words I’d never once heard from a man. A salacious thought popped into my head, quieting the anticipatory fear of the L word, and I quickly shucked my clothes, digging into my top dresser drawer where I kept my lingerie. I hadn’t seen him in weeks—I’d better let him know how much I missed him.

Dressed in a pale pink, sheer babydoll that split down the center to show my midriff, I reached for a condom from my bedside table and tucked it in the front of my matching pink panties. I rounded the corner to find Harrison in my kitchen with his back turned to me and moved to slide my arms around his body from behind, pressing my cheek to the middle of his back.

“You said you couldn’t stop thinking about root beer floats so I figured I’d satisfy your craving,” he said, turning in my grasp.

The counter held two glasses with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream, fizzing root beer, and a spoon sticking out of each one. When he looked down at me and saw my costume change, his eyebrows shot up and his hands found my waist.

“Funny, I figured I’d satisfy yours,” I quipped, letting my teeth catch my bottom lip for a moment before taking a few steps back. My fingers toyed at the ribbon that closed the top together at my cleavage and just for fun, I swiveled my hips and shrugged one strap down my shoulder—an homage to my previous striptease. Harrison gulped then laughed lightly but he couldn’t keep his eyes off me. One more step back and my ass met the rounded edge of the kitchen table. I gently pulled on one end of the pink satin ribbon, undoing the knot, and felt goosebumps prickle my flesh when the fabric shifted over my exposed nipples, hardening them to points. Another chill scattered through my body when I watched Harrison’s mouth fall open.

“The ice cream will melt,” he muttered.

A whisper of a laugh fluttered past my lips and I took a seat on the kitchen table, leaning back just barely, letting the sheer fabric fall away from my breasts completely. “So let it melt…but make it interesting.”

Harrison let a slow smile curve his lips and took the bait. He took careful steps over to me with one glass in his hand, taking a sip before he set it next to my hip on the table and leaned down to kiss me.

He tasted like root beer and his cool tongue moved against mine eagerly, without hesitation. My hands caressed the thick dark hair along his jaw tenderly but firmly enough to make sure his lips didn’t leave mine. I’d been aching between my legs at every thought of him for days. Weeks. The sight of him at my door had made my pulse jump and even a chaste touch from him made me wet. I moaned when his mouth unlocked from mine but the darkness that clouded in his deep brown eyes made it clear we were far from finished.

With strong but gentle hands, Harrison guided me back against the table by the shoulders. My eyes locked on the ceiling for a moment and I couldn’t help but smile knowing what he’d find. Harrison traced his fingertips across my collarbone and over the curve of my breasts, plucking my nipples enough to make me groan and lift my pelvis off the wooden table. He breathed a laugh before circling his tongue around one nipple and my back arched, pressing it into his mouth. He denied me more, though, and continued grazing his lips—and his beard—down my middle. When I felt him exhale against my navel, I let my hands thread through his hair, shivering as he swirled his tongue around the jeweled barbell I wore. A ragged breath tripped out of me the moment his fingers brushed the seam of my panties. I pushed up on my elbows and saw him wetting his lips and grinning. He met my gaze and pulled the fabric down, revealing the condom I’d hidden.

“Eager girl.”

“You have no idea.”

He pulled the condom out of my panties and shed his shirt, tossing it aside. Then he smiled, moving to kiss the inside of my thigh. I spread my legs for him easily, lying back against the table again and shutting my eyes, enjoying the feel of his lips dragging across my skin on some random route to pleasure. I heard the clink of metal on glass and by the instant that I registered it, a cold spoonful of vanilla ice cream slid onto my lower belly, just above my panties.

Shocked by the cold, air rushed out of my lungs, but a moan followed as Harrison’s warm tongue lapped at the sweetness that melted on me.

“You said to make it interesting,” he murmured against my skin before licking the last remaining drips of ice cream off of me and yanking my panties down with a growl. He suddenly seemed intent on playing as he ran in a line of vanilla from my breasts to the apex of my thighs, promptly licking it up from bottom to top. Then he teased me with another light trickle over my bare pussy. I panted as the melding sensations of the icy spoonful of cream and his hot, expert tongue sent me into a trance. Sliding his soft tongue up my core to my clit, giving it a suck, he swiped away every last trace of dessert from between my legs then rose to look at me with a smirk. I giggled and claimed his lower half, locking my ankles around his waist and pulling him to me. He lurched forward and caught himself above me, bracing his hands on the table. I gripped the back of his neck and kissed him, tasting vanilla and craving his body more than ever. Holding onto him, I pulled myself up to sit on the edge of the table and let my lips find his neck.

“I’ve missed you,” I breathed as my hands pursued the button of his jeans. “Don’t make me wait.”

He growled and pushed me back down on the table before unzipping his jeans and reaching for the condom. I felt the electric hum of my heart lighting up inside as he positioned his cock against me. I longed to be filled by him. To be stretched almost to the point of pain. I was wet with anticipation, my chest heaving. I gasped through swollen lips when he pressed into me. A deep, guttural cry slipped from my lungs the moment he thrust all the way inside.

Lost in a daze during his first slow strokes, I reveled in each tiny movement as I felt it all on another plane. His thick cock pulling out, trailing tingles along my inner walls and sending shivers down all of my limbs. I grabbed my own breast and heard him sigh. When our eyes met, he pulled my legs closer to him, impaling me a little deeper. He held my thighs firmly to his sides and fucked me harder and more intensely somehow without ever pulling too far away. I didn’t ever want to be too far away from him again.

I let my other hand find my clit and watched Harrison’s lust-filled eyes gaze at my fingers playing against my wet flesh. His breath was quickening and noises came out of me without my permission as I rubbed fiercely at my clit while Harrison pounded me. The passion within me built to its pinnacle and I pulled myself off the table to grab him and kiss him. The move spread my legs wider and his cock buried deeper in my pussy, causing me to cry out as my orgasm took me by surprise. My head rolled back as more wild noises ripped from my lungs, Harrison still slamming into me without relenting.

“Fuck!” Harrison gritted out.

My pussy was still pulsing around his dick when he came, kissing me hard, fisting my hair roughly. When his grip loosened, I pressed my forehead to his chest while both of us tried to regain steady breaths. His arms encircled me, wrapping me tightly to his body, and I instinctively held onto his neck. Hoisting me up, he put his arms under my ass; I let out a laugh when he pulled me off the table, clinging to him as he walked.

“Where’s your bedroom?”

***

He kissed me until I fell asleep, tangled in his legs and latched to his side. When I opened my eyes again, the moon shone in through my window and my bedside light was on. I shifted and felt his stomach tense beneath my touch. Looking up at him, I saw he was wide awake, reading the copy of
Great Expectatio
ns I had sitting on my nightstand.

“Is it too late for that root beer float?” I asked, stretching my shoulders forward like a cat then snuggling closer to him. He smiled and closed the book around one finger.

“Not at all. Where do you want it?” he teased.

I shoved his shoulder lightly and grinned. “In my belly, not on it, mister!”

He tucked me close to his side and kissed the top of my head, letting a laugh dissolve on his lips. Neither of us moved for a moment and I felt him breathe in deeply, his nose still pressed into my hair. When he exhaled, I felt it coming. And while it scared the shit out of me—that impending word, every implication of it and the tangled web of questions that would follow—I yearned to say it back. I’d never known just how badly I’d always wanted to have someone to say it to.

“I love you,” Harrison said into my blond mess of waves.

It flowed out of him naturally. Nothing had ever sounded truer on anyone’s lips. The way my heart bounced around my ribcage was equally terrifying and exhilarating. I loved him. This was love. I saw miles ahead when I looked in his eyes. The first man to solidify himself in my soul as a friend. The only man I’d ever feared losing. The one and only.

“I love you, too.”

My face craned up to view the expression I knew I’d adore. He grinned ear to ear and I reached out to gently scratch my nails through his beard. His lips pressed against mine tenderly and a smile split my mouth just before he pulled back.

“I’m glad we cleared that up,” he whispered, a smirk to his tone as he gave me one final peck. Harrison rose from the bed and reached for his bag that sat on the floor. He dug out a pair of sweatpants with some hockey team logo running down one side and tugged them on. I watched, naked from the sheets, half of my lingerie rumpled at the foot of the bed and half left in the kitchen.

“Hey, do me a favor,” he said, turning to me. “Put your sweats back on.”

I sat up, letting the sheets fall from my body impishly. “Worried you won’t be able to concentrate if I don’t?”

His eyes narrowed on me, then softened barely. “I’ll never be able to concentrate around you,” he replied, then roughly dragged a hand through his hair as he seemed to mull over his next statement. “The makeup, the lingerie, it’s all great…you’re sexy as hell in it, don’t get me wrong. But when you’re just
you
—with freckles across your cheeks and the way your skin smells before you put on perfume—when you’re comfortable, when you’re real, you’re absolutely hypnotizing.”