Anything For You. Kristan Higgins

with hope, with please say yes.

      She nodded.

      Connor didn’t wait. He stood up, lifted her onto the bar and kissed her, a different kiss this time, hungry and full, his tongue against hers, his hand pulling out her ponytail and sliding his fingers through her long, damp hair.

      She wrapped her legs around him and kissed him back, and that thrum of electricity became a lightning storm of white heat, and all that mattered was Jessica, her mouth, her neck, the shoulder blades that shifted under his hands, her long, beautiful spine and perfect ass.

      He stopped kissing her for a second. “I live upstairs,” he muttered against her neck.

      She answered with a little smile, and that smile, it just killed him. “I guess I should walk you home, then.”

      Rather than let her walk him anywhere, he just lifted her up and carried her up the rickety stairs to his apartment, kissing her as he did. Kicked open his door, set her down and started on the buttons of her shirt, kissing her neck as he worked. His hand seemed to be cupping her breast. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her nipple hardened against his palm, and there it was, that blinding, stunning flash of want.

      “Wait,” she said. “Wait. Hang on.” She pulled back a little, gripping his hands in hers. “This has to be a secret, okay? Because Davey will... He might... You know.”

      “Okay.”

      “Really?”

      “Yeah.” Right now she could’ve said You have to cut off your right arm before we do this, and he would’ve answered Hey, not a problem! “Don’t worry. We can take it slow.” Slow. And fast. And hard. And—

      “I don’t want your sister to be—”

      “Nope. Me neither.” Because Colleen would be insufferable if she knew.

      Jess looked at him, and for the first time all night, she really looked at him, and Connor got the impression it wasn’t easy.

      Then she reached up and touched the scar on his cheek, and her fingertips slid down to the place under his jaw that dented in. The scars from Chico, all those years ago.

      “Take me to bed,” she whispered, and Connor couldn’t help thinking that God did exist and was smiling on him for no good reason.

      He’d take it. He’d take anything Jessica Dunn and the universe saw fit to give him.