"We both want to take it slow."
Abi snorted in disbelief. "I don't know any guys who want to take things slow. There's got to be another reason."
Serena thought about the way she'd thrown herself at Sean both of the last Fridays. "What if I said I wanted to go back to your room with you tonight?" and "More. Please." Each time he'd been the one with the self-control to make them step back from the edge.
"He knows I'm not ready."
"Like I said, I don't know many guys who would care whether you're ready or not. If you ask me, there's only one reason he'd be willing to take things slow." Abi cradled her chin in her hand and sighed. "He's in love with you."
"In love?" With her? Serena shook her head, so fast and hard that she nearly fell off the bed. "No. He can't be."
"Why not? Like I said before, when the housing office let me know that you were going to be my roommate, I was ready to totally hate you. But not only were you not all stuck up or into yourself the way I figured you'd be, you ended up being nice and real and helpful with my classes. If I were a guy--or swung the other way--I'd be all swoony over you, too."
"Swoony?"
Abi grinned at the way Serena repeated the silly word. "Swoony and smitten." There was a little pause before she shifted slightly on her bed so that Serena couldn't quite see her hands or face anymore. "Besotted. Bewitched. Captivated. Enchanted. Enraptured. Hooked."
Serena grinned. "I think I get what you're trying to say without the online thesaurus."
"How'd you guess?"
"You were saying the words in alphabetical order."
Abi tossed her phone back onto the bed. "What about you? Are you in love with him, too?"
Serena reeled from the pointed question, even though she'd known it had to be coming. "We only met a few weeks ago."
"So what? Are you telling me you don't believe in love at first sight? Or that it can last forever?"
That was just the thing--Serena didn't know what she believed. For nineteen years, her mother had taught her that love wasn't real, that no one would ever love her the way Genevieve did, and that her mother was the only person she'd ever be able to trust. At the end of Serena's first frat party, it had looked like all of those things were true.
But in the past few weeks she'd come to trust Sean in a way she'd never trusted anyone else. Even going so far as to offer to model for him if it would help him get back into photography after the break he'd taken since his mother's death.
She inhaled a deep, shaky breath, before blowing it out. "I'd like to believe it's real. And that forever is possible with someone."
For once, Abi didn't have a snappy comeback. Instead, all she said was, "I'm pretty sure we all would." But before the moment could get too deep, she added, "Hey, didn't you have a question for me?"
With thoughts of love dancing around inside her head, it took Serena a few seconds to rewind to the beginning of their conversation and remember her question. "I'm the one who asked Sean out this week, so I'm in charge of planning our date on Friday night. I was wondering if you'd be able to help me with what I was thinking of doing."
Abi's smile grew as Serena explained her plan, and when she was done, her roommate said, "Of course I can help you. But if you ask me, this plan is bound to send you straight into Sean's bed. Which means you must be more ready for him--and for falling in love--than you think."
*
"How did you sneak this stuff in here?"
Sean's voice was low enough that only Serena could hear it. As he quickly zipped up her backpack to hide the small bottle of tequila, shot glasses, penknife, and lime she'd packed for tonight, her stomach twisted. Had she already screwed up this date night?
"I'm here so much that they don't check my backpack too carefully when I come in."
He sat on the edge of the work table and stared down at her, his expression unreadable. "I know I'm always asking you this, but are you sure this is what you want to do tonight?"
It would have been easier to shake her head, to laugh it off and tell him the contents of her bag were a joke. But what could be more normal for a college student than getting drunk on a Friday night?
So instead of backing down, or apologizing for following her instincts, she told him, "I've never been drunk before. And according to my roommate and every college movie I've ever seen, it's an important--and very normal--rite of passage for a freshman. The thing is...there's no one I'd trust with it but you. Especially since I have no idea how I deal with drinking--" She almost held the rest in before deciding to spit it out. "--and I hate always feeling like I'm a dozen steps behind everyone else."
"You've had experiences, and know how to do things, that ninety-nine percent of people on this campus will never know. Will never deal with. Will never achieve. Getting drunk is nothing special--take it from a guy who knows firsthand. But I get that you want to know that for yourself." He took her face in his hands and gently stroked her cheekbones. "And you'd better believe that I don't want you drinking with anyone but me."
She'd missed his lips on hers all week long, and it was with such relief--and pleasure--that she pressed her mouth to his. Just like always, their kiss quickly spiraled from soft and sweet to desperate and wild.
Finally, he tore his mouth from hers. "So, where are you thinking about getting me drunk?"
He was teasing her, but she'd be lying if she didn't admit that the thought had occurred to her that perhaps Sean might be a little less careful with her under the influence. It wasn't that she didn't love how concerned he was that every step they took should be the right one for her...but at the same time a part of her wondered what it would be like if they both just threw caution to the wind.
"Abi mentioned a path up at the Dish that's off the regular trail." Her roommate had said the park in the foothills at the edge of campus where students and faculty went to exercise would be perfect for the two of them to find a private spot. "I thought we could kill two normal birds with one stone tonight, since I've never hiked the Dish either."
"Your roommate knows about your plan?"
"She's the one who got the bottle for me. She's been really awesome about keeping everything I tell her private, actually." And she thinks you're in love with me. The thought flustered Serena so that she started saying, "If you think there's a better spot, we could go somewhere else. Or we could just forget about the whole thing, since I know it's a crazy idea, and there are probably lots of other normal things we could do together."
"The Dish is perfect." He stood up and held out his hand. "Shall we?"
Loving the way he said it, as if they were going out for an elegant night of dinner and dancing rather than hiking up to a secluded spot on the top of a hill to pound shots, she answered him with a kiss.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Serena had to stop halfway up the hill to lean over with her hands on her thighs and suck in large gasps of oxygen. "Abi forgot to mention," she said around her panting, "how steep this path is."
"Why do you think it's such a secluded spot?" Sean teased.
Despite the fact that the climb was practically vertical, he wasn't even breathing hard. She knew from looking at him--and having touched his rock-hard, rippling chest and abs--that he was in great shape, but shouldn't he at least be sweating? So much for any plans she might have had for seducing him. Who in their right mind would want to get sexy with her when she was like this?
"You knew how hard this was going to be, didn't you?"
He surprised her by lifting her into a standing position and dragging her damp body against his. Before she could protest, he licked her neck just below her earlobe. "Mmm, you taste a little salty." When she went to pull away, he kept her against him. "I like it." As if to prove it, he ran his tongue across the other side of her neck, making her shiver despite how warm the hike had gotten her. "A lot."
"I can't believe you even want to touch me when I'm all wet like this."
His eyes darkened as he looked down at her. "
Promise me you won't talk about being all wet again once we start drinking," he said in a low voice that only intensified her shivers. "Because if you do..."
It was, she realized, a sign of just how incredibly safe she felt with him that she found herself wanting to do just that. To talk about being all wet again, but to mean something else entirely...and then to finally find out what he was going to do about it.
"I've got my breath back now," she told him, even though being in his arms had made her lose it all over again. "Let's keep going up to the top."
She was already heading up the path when he called out, "You didn't promise."
Feeling light and flirty and fabulous for the first time in her life, she threw him a deliberately sensual look over her shoulder. "I know."
*
Sitting on the blanket she'd brought, he let her do it all--unscrew the top of the tequila bottle, put out the salt shaker between them, pour the shots, cut up the lime--and she knew why. Yet again, he didn't want her to feel that he was forcing her to do anything. He wanted to be sure that everything she was doing was her decision.
But while she hadn't changed her mind about her plans for tonight, and the tequila thankfully smelled better than she'd expected it to, that didn't mean she felt all that confident about how to actually drink it.
"I looked up several ways to do the shots on the Internet," she admitted. "But I'm sure you have some favorites."
He reached out and brushed his thumb across her lower lip. "I do." His gorgeous mouth tipped up into a smile. "But I'll need you to come closer so that I can show you what they are."
Every inch of her wanted every inch of him already. It had been that way from the first moment he'd held her in his arms at the frat party, but now that she knew how amazing he was...well, she was barely a heartbeat from shoving aside all the drinking paraphernalia and tackling him.
"Care to share some of what's going on inside that big brain of yours?"
She looked up at him in surprise, feeling as if he'd already read her mind. And since she guessed that even if she didn't say it aloud, he'd know, she said, "I'm having trouble concentrating on my goal of learning how to drink tequila when all I want to do is kiss you."
His mouth curved up wider even as his eyes grew darker. "Who says you have to pick one or the other?"
He poured tequila into one of the shot glasses, quickly drank it, then drew her onto his lap so that she was straddling him. He slid his tongue into her mouth and she instinctively knew to suck the liquor from it, then lick his lips clean, too.
"How was that?"
She was almost too breathless to reply. "Good." She couldn't drag her gaze away from his mouth. "So good."
He poured another small amount into a shot glass, then held it out to her. "Your turn."
She brought the glass up to her lips and tasted it, unable to stop her nose from wrinkling at just how strong it was.
"It's usually better if you just toss it back," Sean coached her. "Although I'm perfectly happy to quit the drinking part of the evening now if you want...and just get back to the kissing part."
Oh, but she was tempted. It would be so easy to skip over this rite of passage. Only, she knew it would keep bothering her that she'd never experienced something that was a part of nearly every other college student's normal vernacular.
Taking a deep breath, she tilted her head back and tossed the shot down her throat. Oh God, she thought as her eyes watered, it burned like fire...but then Sean was there with his fingers tangling in her hair and his mouth on hers as he sucked at her tongue the way she'd sucked at his. As the fire immediately moved from her throat to her breasts and the vee between her legs, the shot glass dropped from her hand and she wrapped her arms around him to try to get closer.
"What did you think about that?" His mouth was still so close to hers that his question felt like another kiss.
"It was hot. But I'm not sure how much of the way I'm feeling has to do with the tequila."
A low sound of pleasure came from his throat as he nuzzled the curve of her chin and into her shoulder. "Do you want to do more?"
She couldn't quite manage to get her lips to form the word yes when what he was doing to her sent thrill bumps running all across the surface of her body, but she could nod.
"You're a hell of a lot more addictive than booze," he murmured as he poured another shot. "And I've got a serious thing for your neck tonight. Tilt your head to the side for me, beautiful."
Her heart raced as she made her neck completely vulnerable to him, and though she wasn't cold or nervous, she actually started to shake as he lightly brushed her long hair over to her other shoulder. His tongue slicked out across her neck, warm and slightly rough, and then he picked up the saltshaker and dropped a few grains onto her skin.
"Doing okay?"
She loved that he was checking in with her, not just with his question but also by running his free hand down her arm in a reassuring way.
"I'm great," she said, and she really was. Simply because she was with him, and he made her happier than anything or anyone else ever had.
His mouth descended to her neck and he sucked on her skin, taking the salt. If she hadn't already been aroused, that would have done it, and when he lifted the shot glass to his mouth, she wished she could be there on his tongue instead.
In a flash, the memory of his mouth on her breasts the previous Friday night hit her and she was nearly moaning aloud by the time he put the lime between his teeth and sucked the juice from it. She was so jealous of all of it--the salt, the tequila, the fruit--that she didn't think, couldn't stop herself from giving in to the urge to tackle him.
She attacked his mouth with hers, her weight over his pushing him onto his back on the blanket. And when his arms came around her back and hips to drag her closer, she realized it was the first time they'd ever lain down with each other. Every other time they'd kissed, they'd either been standing or straddling the bench in the locker room. How easy would it be, she wondered as he nipped at her lower lip, for them to strip off each other's clothes and make good on the sensual desperation that was driving them both to distraction?
But before she could so much as reach for the hem of his T-shirt to find out, he'd rolled them over so that she was beneath him. "Slow." The word came out on a harsh breath. "We're taking things slow."
Remembering what Abi had said, that the only reason he'd want to take things slow was if he was in love with her, she said, "Sean--"
He cut off her protest with a kiss, even as he brought them both back into a sitting position. "It's your turn to do another shot now."
When he poured it for her, she noticed his hands were shaking slightly. At least she wasn't the only one who felt like she was rapidly approaching the edge of insanity.
"How do you want it?"
"Your stomach."
She was as honestly surprised by her answer as he seemed to be. It was just that after reading online about people doing body shots off one other, she'd been unable to shake the idea of doing a shot off Sean's abs.
"Okay." He shifted so that he was leaning back on his forearms. "Go for it."
His T-shirt was already mostly out of his jeans and belt, and she was almost unbearably excited as she reached for the cotton to draw it up and expose bare skin. A few heady moments later, she was staring in awe at his beautifully tanned six-pack.
No, there were more muscles than that, she thought as she momentarily forgot all about drinking her next shot to run her fingertips over his abdomen. His muscles rippled beneath her touch and when she looked up at him, his eyes were darker and more intense than she'd ever seen them.
"Your body is a work of art," she told him earnestly. "You could make a fortune modeling."
He laughed, but it sounded slightly choked. "Good to know." He closed his eyes for a brief moment, as though searching for control. Finally, he opened them and said, "You know the drill, right? Get my skin wet, drop the salt on, then lick it off and pound the sh
ot, chasing it with the lime juice."
She nodded, her nerves making a sudden reappearance at the shocking realization that she was just seconds from licking a guy's stomach. She'd never done anything like this before, and even the way Sean had played with her breasts the previous Friday somehow felt different because he had been the one doing everything and all she'd had to do was let herself enjoy it.
Whereas right now, it was all up to her.
"Serena, it's okay," he said gently. "You don't have to do this."
The warmth in his voice calmed her, and brought her back to her original purpose. "I know," she said, "but I really want to."
With that, she leaned forward and breathed him in for a moment before she slid her tongue over his abs. The muscles tightened as she licked them one by one, and she could see his hands fisting tightly at his sides.
As a model, she'd sold an illusion of sensuality to consumers hundreds of times. But though she'd been taught to be a master at playing her part for the cameras, she'd never before witnessed, live and in person, just what her genuine sensuality was capable of doing to a guy. Or just how much she could make him want her with nothing more than a few kisses, a few touches. Or that Sean's obvious hunger for her would fuel her own for him so strongly.
Though she'd already gotten his skin wet enough to shake on the salt and move on to the shot, she couldn't resist leaning close one more time to lick him again. His groan came as a clear enough warning that he was nearing the end of his rope, so she finally stopped teasing him and shook salt onto his abs.
She pressed her mouth to his stomach and sucked on him just as he had on her neck. It was with no small regret that she finally lifted her mouth from his skin and put the shot glass against her lips. This time, the tequila went down much more smoothly, and when she pressed the lime slice between her lips it was deliciously cool and the perfect mixture of sour and sweet.
Feeling warm and loose all over, she smiled at Sean. "Yum."
He grinned at her as he sat up. "Starting to develop a taste for tequila?"
"Maybe." She licked her lips. "Or maybe it's you I've developed a taste for."