Sunday Stud Snippet the Fourth
For the last four Sundays, I’ve been posting little bits of the first couple chapters from my current WIP, King Stud. (For those of you just joining the party, here’s #1, #2, & #3). To recap, Danielle’s camped at her grandmother’s run-down old Craftsman house, at least until Ryan points out what a fire hazard her electrical system is, and in last week’s snippet she accepts his invitation to crash at his place for the night – a situation complicated by their 9-year age difference and the fact that she’s his older sister’s best friend.
Now, I write romance, so y’all can pretty much guess where this is going, although in my defense, Barnabas the cat did jump into the middle of things to move them along…
Woody, doing his best Barnabas imitation.
The cat picked that moment to plant a paw on the small of Danielle’s back with enough force to push one claw through her sweater and into her skin. She jumped to her feet. “What the hell?”
Ryan jumped up too, and swatted at Barnabas. “Git, cat.”
With a squall, the cat sprinted across the room. Danielle and Ryan ended up facing each other about arm’s length apart. Before she could back away, he reached over, resting his fingertips on her sleeve. When she didn’t move, he lowered his hand to hers, interlacing their fingers.
Intruder alert! Danger!
“It’s my roommate’s cat,” Ryan said, tugging a little. Instead of backing away she rocked forward.
“I don’t think he likes me.”
His free hand reached up to cup her jaw, warm and sure. “Well, I like you,” he whispered as he leaned in.
The first kiss was gentle, testing the water, giving her space to push away. It tasted malty and masculine, a flavor she could very well get addicted to. She let him move closer, and then both his hands were around her waist and she pressed herself full against him. All of her reasons for stopping ran through her head on a continuous loop. She ignored them.
They left her sweater on a dining room chair and his sweatshirt somewhere in the living room. In the hall he reached for the hem of her lacy undershirt. She stopped and gripped his wrists. “Wait. No.”
He eased back and Danielle fell against the wall. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“’S alright. I’ve wanted to kiss Dani Jacobsen since I was a kid, so I’m already ahead of the game.”
She covered her mouth. “No way.”
“Way.” He dove in for round two, nipping and nudging her hand till she moved it and he could reach her lips.
The kiss went on for awhile, but he kept his hands on her arms and shoulders and there was almost a Bible’s worth of space between their bodies.
“You know how good you feel, right?” she gasped as he worked his way down the side of her neck, lips and tongue tasting, teasing, driving her crazy.
“About as good as you do.”
She pulled him up so she could look him in the eye, caressing his cheek with her palm. “No, I mean it. I want…”
“Me too.” He turned his head, dragging the bristles of his five o’clock shadow across the sensitive skin of her palm before planting a kiss on it.
“But we really shouldn’t.”
“Because of Maeve.”
She tugged on his lower lip with her index finger. “Because I just broke up with someone and Maeve says you have a girlfriend and I want you to work on my house and if we have sex and end up hating each other it’ll be awkward.”
“I broke up with Cherry three days ago, which means the only reason you’re turning me down is a house.” He stretched his hands along her ribs, lifting a little and pulling her closer.
“I’ve done stupider things than that.”
Though I can’t think of any offhand.
~~
Next week will be the last of the King Stud posts, though I’ll likely start mining a different WIP. And now that you see where this one is going, what do you think? Is it too weird to have a make-out scene between a hot young stud and his older sister’s best friend? What do you think is the biggest challenge involved in dating a friend’s sibling?
Peace,
Liv
