Page 45 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

“What’s up?”

“Are you a no-touch stud?”

My eyes widened, and I started choking on the chicken. Jucee grabbed the glass of water on the table and shoved it into my hand. Then she jumped to her feet and ran off, returning with a glass, artesian bottled water. My coughing had subsided, but I still took the bottle and drained it quickly.

“Seriously, Jucee?” I wheezed, tapping at my chest.

“What?” She looked genuinely confused.

“You can’t say shit like that out the blue! That’s the kind of question that needs a warm-up. Prep me first, dammit!”

Grinning, she shrugged and sipped from the blackberry lemonade. “Prep first. Got it. I’ll file that away for future reference.”

Rolling my eyes toward the heavens, I groaned. “Marie...” This called for her middle name, because she was really out of pocket for that question.

Folding her arms on top of the table, she leaned forward, giggling at my exasperated expression.

“Yes, Poppa?”

Dropping my eyes from the ceiling, I swung them toward Jucee, pulling a smile outta her. Her attention was glued to my face. The expression on her face said that all she wanted to do was put her mouth on me, and my skin heated at the thought.

“Why would you even ask me some shit like that?”

I spoke the question in a low tone in an attempt to mask how turned on it had me. We didn’t talk about this kind of stuff. On purpose. Somehow I’d always known that it would be awkward, and now I knew the real reason was that I’d want to do whatever it was we were talking about.

“I asked ’cause I wanna eat your pussy again, and from the way you acted last night, I figured it wasn’t something you received often. I know you get pussy, so I could only assume why that was.”

My lips parted and my mouth fell open. Sitting back heavily, I cast my head from side to side, flitting my eyes around the wide-open space, trying to see if someone might’ve heard her. How in the hell did we get here? And why was her declaration that she wanted to give me another round of head heating me from my toes to my fitted?

Actually, I knew the answer to that second question. I wanted it. I wanted her.

Finally, after a full minute of feeling unexpectedly shy at her bold question and avoiding her gaze, I faced her, licking my lips nervously as I did so.

“I...”

Raising her eyebrows, she waited for me to continue, but nothing followed. I didn’t know what to say. Couldn’t even form words beyond yes and please, neither of which I could say because they had nothing to do with what she’d actually asked me.

“You...?” she prompted.

“You’re one of my best friends—”

“Your best friend.”

I chuckled and shook my head, glad to have something else to focus on. “Don’t let Xeno hear you say that shit.”

Rolling her neck from side to side, Jucee squared her shoulders. “She know what’s up. Besides, she don’t want these problems. I’m short but I can fight and these hands are rated E for Everybody.”

My chuckle grew into a boisterous laugh, and I cocked my head to the side and eyed her in amusement. She sounded serious too.

“So, you’d fight for the title of my best friend? Seriously?”

She quirked an eyebrow and met my gaze.

“I’d fight for that, among other things of yours.”

Like your heart went unsaid, but I felt that shit with my entire being like she’d shouted it up to the rafters. It was corny as hell but I got it because that’s how these newish feelings for Jucee made me feel as of late. Hell, that’s how I felt during my songwriting sessions these last couple of weeks. Goofy, and corny, and giddy, and horny as fuck. Which was why I wanted to eat her for breakfast, lunch, and dinner before taking her for a long ride that ended with soaked sheets and the both of us passed out from exhaustion.

I groaned, running a hand down my face as I tried to clean those thoughts from my brain. The mental images seemed seared into my mind’s eye. The numbers six and nine floated past my eyes, and I thought that maybe I needed to schedule a visit to my optometrist.