Charlotte didn’t know how to explain that she was the polar opposite of cold. Heat throbbed through her body like she’d never been kissed in her entire life. And she hadn’t, not really, certainly not like this: not a first kiss with someone she already knew could rule her and worship her until she was a gutted mess. Reece remembered everything that she liked and knew everything that she needed.
They weren’t picking up where they left off. They brought everything they learned while they were apart with them to this kiss, and to the next one.
As she struggled to form an answer, Reece pressed his lips to her neck, just below her ear.
“Oh, that’s not fair,” she whimpered.
He huffed a laugh against her skin. His teeth grazed a sensitive spot that never failed to scramble her brain.
“You don’t feel cold to me,” Reece teased. “But the hair on the back of your neck is standing up.”
“Rude.” She twined her arms around Reece’s neck, hugging him close.
He dropped a gentle kiss to her shoulder before finding her lips again. Pure delight leapt in her chest.
It was new, the way they touched each other now. No part of her held back. No part of her was too busy battling intrusive thoughts to appreciate how Reece tasted, how he smelled, how he felt against her. Tonight she breathed him in and gave herself away in return. Reece kissed her with a smile in his mouth and that overjoyed her, even as she craved more.
Reece pulled away and she whined like a newborn kitten plucked from a fleece blanket. He chuckled, rubbing his thumb across her cheekbone. “We’re in a public place,” he reminded her.
Charlotte knew.
Charlotte didn’t care.
She tugged the hair at the nape of his neck and he hissed through his teeth. “No one here knows who we are.”
“I don’t care what people think,” Reece said. He stole another kiss from her, making her gasp, making her think that private might be an excellent idea. “But we’re adults. We have other options.”
She liked the dark edge to his words, a promise for the rest of the night and what it might hold. His bare skin against hers, her nails marking his back, the tangy sweetness of his sweat on her tongue. Yes, other options. She wanted those other options.
Except…
“Oh no,” Charlotte said. “We have roommates.”
His mouth went slack. In all their newfound maturity, they forgot they were still operating in the reunion’s time warp. The rules were different this weekend, shower shoes and shared bedrooms.
“Shit, Garrett.”
Garrett would definitely not be cool with getting kicked out of his room so that Reece could have sex with his ex-not-quite-girlfriend.
“Jackie?” Reece suggested.
Charlotte dug out her phone.
TEXT MESSAGE FROM CHARLOTTE THORNE TO JACKIE SLAUGHTER, 12:07 AM: Are you okay to not go back to the room for a while?
Reece kissed her forehead while she waited for Jackie’s reply.
Worst-case scenario they could find a blanket and curl up under a tree. Or stuff themselves into Reece’s car. Charlotte winced at the thought of a seat belt shoved into her spine. Not exactly erotic.
TEXT MESSAGE FROM JACKIE SLAUGHTER TO CHARLOTTE THORNE, 12:09 AM: sure. don’t you dare touch my bed.
Thank goodness for understanding best friends whose idea this was in the first place.
Charlotte turned her phone to let Reece read Jackie’s text.
“I’m going to bake that girl a cake,” he said.
She twined her fingers through his. “Let’s go.”
Reece followed her through a side yard and onto Atwood Street. They rushed across the pavement. God help her, she felt giddy. Happy. Drunk off disco and Reece’s eyes glinting under the streetlights.
Had she ever held his hand before? Surely she had, dozens of times, but she took the opportunity to commit his touch to memory. His hand was bigger than hers, his skin a little dry from latex gloves and sanitizer at the veterinary clinic. She wanted to buy him moisturizer. She wanted to massage the sore spots from the heel of his palm. She wanted to suck on his fingers.
My name is Charlotte Thorne and I’m taking home the hottest guy in my graduating class.
“What’s so funny?” Reece asked. He gave her hand a playful tug until she turned to face him in the middle of the street. A mob of students walked around them in the opposite direction, following the noise of Atwood Street like party zombies. Charlotte and Reece stood together in the middle of the current, hands swinging intertwined between them.
“I was just thinking,” she said, suddenly bashful. It felt so childish, such a reduction of who he was. That kind of thinking led her to put him in a safe, impersonal box the first time around. But it was still the truth, and Reece’s crush baffled her just as much now as it did five years ago. “You could have anyone,” Charlotte said. She reached up to trace his cheekbone with her thumb. Reece leaned into her touch, nuzzling his temple into her palm. “And I’m taking you home with me.”
She could watch his face change colors for the rest of her life. The look Reece gave her belonged in a movie reel, not in the middle of Senior Housing.
He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, his brow furrowing adorably. “Charlie, you are the only person who makes me blush.”
Molten pink gathered like cotton candy in her rib cage. How could that possibly be true? What made her so lucky?
He hesitated, another confession caught on his tongue like he wasn’t sure he was ready for it. Or if she was ready for it.
“You’re the only girl I want.” Reece laughed humorlessly, shocked by his own honesty. “You’re the only girl I can see.”
