“Evie,” he murmured, splaying his hands over her ribs, his grip tight, like he was forcing himself not to touch her everywhere. “You feel so good.”
“You have no idea how good I feel.” She rocked against him, nearly crying out from the shock of raw pleasure.
“You’re sure?” His fingers worked their way down to her T-shirt hem, inching it higher.
She eased him back enough so she could study his expression. “It’s going to change us, Dec.” It wasn’t a question.
“About damn time, if you ask me.”
Instead of answering, she looked into eyes she knew as well as her own. She knew every gold fleck and long dark lash. She knew how to read the expression in those eyes. She’d seen them red from smoke when he got off a terrible shift, and she’d seen them sleepy in an eight a.m. algebra class. And lately, she’d noticed his eyes were constantly on her. And not always on her face.
Just the thought of how his heated gaze had coasted over her body when she walked to his truck tonight made her ache.
Silently, she sat up and pulled the T-shirt over her head.
“Oh.” His gaze dropped down to her lacy black bra. “Pretty fancy for camping.”
“I had a feeling…”
“You did?” He pressed his hand to her breastbone, his palm grazing the lace. “Probably the same feeling I had when I packed some, uh, extra gear.”
He’d brought a condom.
Biting her lip, she looked up at him. “I’ve always hoped it would be you.”
His whole body went still, eyes widening. “This is your first time?”
“Don’t you think I’d have told you if I’d slept with someone?”
“Um…I didn’t tell you.”
She started to respond, then closed her mouth. She couldn’t be surprised at that. Declan was twenty-one, super cute, and a Mahoney, for God’s sake. Girls were always floating around him and his younger brother Connor. Plus, she’d spent most of the past three years at NC State, three hours away. Up until tonight, they’d simply been the best of friends and she’d had no claims on his body. Yet.
“Well, I haven’t,” she admitted. “Does that make a difference?”
He considered that, silent as he so often was when his wheels were turning and he wanted to make the right decision.
“Like you said, everything is going to change. But you being a virgin?” He took a shaky breath. “I’m not sure—”
“Declan.” She fisted his T-shirt. “I waited for something. Someone. You.”
“I’m not sure anything has ever made me happier,” he finished, putting a hand on her cheek. “I won’t hurt you,” he whispered, his breath already tight. “We’ll take it slow and easy and—”
She pulled him down for a blistering kiss on the mouth.
“And like that.” He chuckled into the kiss, sliding his hand around to unclip her bra. “Happy birthday to us, E.”
“Happy birthday to us, Dec.”
Chapter Two
When the sun came up and bathed the world in a soft golden glow, Declan awoke deep in the sleeping bag they’d hardly needed for the oppressive summer night, his arms painfully empty, his whole body on fire with an unfamiliar sensation. What was that ache, other than what he woke up with every morning?
He blinked into the light, then squinted at a silhouette down on the dock, where Evie stood peering over the rolling hills and navy blue water of the lake.
Evie. That was the feeling pressing on his chest. Evie, when she lost control, and when he was finally deep inside her, and when they fell asleep, knotted together.
His navy BBFD T-shirt skimmed her bare thighs, which were long and lean, and holy God, he’d never known anything could be that insanely smooth.
He took a full minute to drink in the sight of her, still reeling from the discovery that the girl he considered his closest friend was now the woman who’d given him everything last night.
And then he knew what that unfamiliar burn was. Declan Mahoney was completely, totally, and undeniably in love with Evie. She had everything he wanted—a wacky sense of humor, a brain like a damn computer, a body that drove him absolutely crazy, and she was the best friend he’d ever had.
Did Evie know that this was it? Game over? It was them, together, forever and ever, a-freaking-men. She would, eventually.
“Hey, gorgeous.” His voice came out sleepy and gruff. “Come back to…bag.”
She turned, silent for a long moment, but he couldn’t see her expression with the rising sun behind her.
“You okay?” he asked when she didn’t say anything, pushing up to his elbows.
“Yeah, I’m good.” She walked over the wooden dock and to their campsite hidden in the trees, finally reaching the blanket. She dropped to her knees next to him, her blue-fire eyes too bright for her to have just awakened. “Was that weird? Last night?”
Weird? “I’d use a lot of words to describe what happened in this sleeping bag, E, but ‘weird’ would not be one of them.”
She pulled her long black hair back to look hard at him. “I mean…we had sex, Declan.”
“Oh, is that what we did? Good addition to the birthday traditions, don’t you think? Gives new meaning to pin the tail on the…” He let the joke go and put a hand on her bare thigh. “Please tell me you’re not having second thoughts or morning-after regret.”
She didn’t answer right away, and that made his chest clench. “Can we still be friends?” she finally asked.
“What kind of question is that? We’ll be friends forever. Best friends. I tell you everything.”
She lifted a brow. “Apparently not.”
“Everything that really matters. I haven’t been with that many girls, if that’s what you’re thinking. And no one was…” He shook his head. “There’s only you now. There’s only ever been you, honestly. And
