Page 59 of Fearlessly Us

Emmy snorts out a laugh, and forget about melting through the floor. I’m pretty sure this is how I go. Dead of embarrassment right here in my office. I’m oddly relieved I repainted my toenails this morning so at least I’ll have a perfect pedicure for the occasion of my demise.

“Okay, I think maybe we leave them to it,” Emma says, and I practically sigh with relief when she ushers everyone else out in that efficient way of hers. She waves and tosses me a grin before closing the door behind her, and Drew is in front of me before I register the movement.

Sliding his hands into my hair, he bends, lips landing on mine before either of us utters a word. Angling my head just the way he wants it, he runs his tongue along my bottom lip and dives in, devouring me right where we stand. He kisses me like he’s been thinking of it since the last time. Like he’s been anticipating this moment for days.

Every part of my body ignites at the feel of his lips moving over mine, kissing me until I’m breathless with want, and I know he’s right there with me. His mouth is hot and ravenous and somehow this kiss feels like the first time all over again and also like we’ve been doing this forever, our mouths in perfect sync like they were made for each other.

He wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him, and I can feel every ridge of his muscled body pressed right up against mine. His cock is hard between us, and when my hips rock involuntarily against him, he groans, the sound rumbling in the back of his throat and sending a curl of desire into my belly.

“Fuck, Catie,” he mutters, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth and grazing it with his teeth. “Fucking love kissing you.” He trails his lips over my jaw, working his way down my throat with lips and tongue working in tandem until I’m ready to strip us both naked right where we stand. “Could kiss you for fucking ever.”

He returns his lips to mine, tugging on my hair just enough to angle my head back further, to take the kiss deeper. And when he tears his mouth away from mine, chest heaving and pupils blown, I have to resist the urge to beg him to put that mouth right back where it was.

“Why’d you stop?” I manage, and I can’t even regret the way I sound like I’m begging because I think I would beg for this man without any hesitation, and there’s a thought I’ve never had before.

Drew chuckles, pressing his lips to my forehead as he takes a slow, deep breath. “You needy for me, Princess?”

I scoff. “I’m needy for nothing.”

When he leans down and hovers his lips directly over mine, the sound I let out is somewhere between a moan and a whine, and it’s definitely one I’ve never made before. One I didn’t even know I could make.

So, maybe a little needy.

“Sure you aren’t,” he whispers, standing straight but keeping one hand on my hair and the other on my waist. “Anyway, sorry to just barge in here.”

“But are you really?” I ask, more than a little breathless from the kiss and how good he smells and the way his hair falls over his forehead in that perfectly messy tousle and the way he’s focused so intently on me it’s like I’m the only person in the world.

“Nah.” His boyish grin makes my insides go a little haywire. “I’m never sorry when I get to see your face. It’s a really, really good face. I missed it.”

I roll my eyes, not wanting him to see how much his words affect me. “You saw me four days ago.”

He shrugs. “That’s four days too long. I had practice earlier and then a whole bunch of media shit to deal with, and when I was done, all I could think was how I needed to see you. So, wanna do something?”

“What kind of something?”

Turning us towards my desk chair, he takes a seat and pulls me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me until I’m tucked into his body. It’s not at all bad to lean on someone, it turns out. Both literally and figuratively. And it’s not so hard when that someone is him. “The kind of something where you get in my car and I take you somewhere and we do a fun thing together.”

“Like a date?” I ask warily.

Drew presses a kiss to my neck. “We never did have that first date. This can be our do-over. I promise I won’t even stand you up a little bit.”

I huff out a laugh. “Well, with an offer like that, how could I possibly refuse?”

The grin that spreads over his face is so big and so happy I almost need to look away from it. “Seriously?”

Feeling a shot of tenderness towards this beautiful man, I brush his hair back from his forehead, thinking that I like who I am right now. Who I am when I’m with him. “Very seriously.”

When he leans in and kisses me softly, murmuring, “This is going to be the best night ever,” I think that maybe it already is, because he’s here with me.

CHAPTER TWENTY

DREW

“Kennywood?” Caitlin asks, looking from me to the massive, old yellow-and-black arrow-shaped sign, voice filled with a kind of wonder that makes me smile.

Reaching across the center console, I lay a hand over hers, feeling a warm glow when she flips hers over and laces our fingers together. “I assume you’ve been here before?”

Caitlin laughs. “Yeah, I’ve been here before. I mean, aside from the fact that I’m a Pittsburgh kid and Kennywood is a Pittsburgh institution, my parents had their first actual date here a million years ago. They used to bring us here a few times every summer as a sentimental kind of thing, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been here in the fall.” Her eyebrows furrow in thought. “It’s the end of September, though, so that means Fright Night. You can’t just come to the park randomly—it requires advance planning and different tickets.”