Read When It's Right for Free Online Page B

could feel his breath against her lips. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.
    His eyes blazed, but his hands and voice were so, so soft.
    “Cassie. I will go to that office and I will change this room.” He paused, and something in his expression seemed to melt. “But…”
    Her heart went cold and hot inside her chest. “But?”
    “But what if it’s not wrong?” With his thumbs, he caressed the centers of her palms. “What if it’s not wrong at all? What if it’s right?”
    For an instant, absolute silence reigned. And then things got very loud in Cassie’s brain. Against the rising tide of incredulous voices all clamoring for attention, she shook her head and clenched her eyes shut tight. When she looked again, though, he was still right there, his face as earnest as she had ever seen it.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean…” His hands were still rubbing hers, and the contact made her whole body tremble. These weren’t the touches of two friends. Oh, no. This was more. And she had no idea what to do with that.
    Except take it.
    From the very first moment she’d laid eyes on Nate, she had wanted this. She hadn’t acted on it then, and she’d never regretted that. Her reluctance had kept her from the ranks of the notches on his bedpost, from the long list of women he had dated and resented and never let into his heart. It had been the right thing to do, back then. To never even pursue him.
    And the right thing now would be to let him finish his sentence. Hell, to beg him to explain and to fight for what they’d built these last few years. But what they had was untenable, solid but anchored to the shaky foundation of her yearning heart. And she didn’t care very much about right and wrong. Not now.
    His next word was swallowed by her breath, by the unpracticed, unpremeditated crush of lips on lips. God, his mouth. For a second, he hesitated, his voice fighting to be heard, but she wasn’t listening. Even if this was just an experiment for him, just another effort to get out of a rut and try something new or—her chest ached—just another in this day’s long series of disasters and mistakes, she would take it. Because no matter what happened next…she would always have this to hold on to.
    “Not now,” she said against his lips. She squeezed his hands, begging him to understand.
    “But we should talk about—”
    “Later.”
    She parted her lips around his bottom one, sucking gently at flesh she’d watched for so long. Panic was starting to creep in around the rush of finally tasting and taking, a sudden terror that she’d read this all wrong. That this hadn’t been what he’d been going for, that his hands on hers weren’t—
    All at once, he groaned, and then he was cupping her face, rising higher on his knees. His mouth opened, and there was nothing but this kiss. His kiss. The press of tongue and a glance of teeth. It was wet and sloppy, careless and yet firm. It tasted like letting go and giving in. Like something so wrong and so right.
    They both shrugged off their coats. He pushed her back, and she went willingly, scooting up the bed, bracing herself on her elbows as he followed, knees coming to rest between her thighs. Hovering over her, just inches between their bodies, he pressed her into the mattress and into a well of feeling she didn’t know if she’d ever resurface from—one she wasn't sure she even wanted to.
    His hips grazed hers, his arousal clear, and her body felt like it was giving off sparks. But just as quickly as he’d started kissing her, he stopped. Her eyes flew open as he pulled lips and hips away, his face flushed and breath heaving. With one hand tangling in the scruff at the back of his neck, she tried to pull him back down, but he held firm.
    “Cassie…” There was a pleading to his tone, like he was asking her for something. Or like he didn’t even know what he wanted.
    “Don’t overthink this.” When he still refused to budge, she lifted herself