“Sweetie. Look at me.”She did, but it was difficult now, when she could never remember a time she hadn’t wanted to look at his beloved face. She blinked, trying to forcethe fresh torrent of tears back where they belonged. It just wasn’t possible. No, there was no emptiness now. She was bursting at the seams, overflowing.“Don’t cry,” he said gently, swiping her cheeks with his thumbs. “You cry and I want to break something. Or someone. What is it?”

“W-what do you want?”That flat black stare lifted to her face again. This time she felt certain it was pulling her in. “You.”She blinked, pressing her thighs together in a feeble attempt to squelch the unsettling throb between them. “I don’t understand.”“I think you do.”“You want me to take his place? I cannot—”“No. I want you naked and writhing beneath me.”

“I love it when you look at me like that,' he murmured, his fingers kneading into the plump flesh of her cheeks, 'How am I looking at you?' she managed. 'Like you want to eat me alive, but you don't have a spoon.”

“She didn’t brighten the whole room for me when she walked in the door. She didn’t make my whole day better just by smiling at me, or make me ask myself what she would think of me when I said or did something shitty to somebody. She wasn’t the one who made me want to get off my ass and do more, be a better person. Only you’ve ever done that, sunshine.”

“Please dont' look at me like that," she said."How am I looking?""Like your heart is breaking.""It is, sunshine.”

“Evan …” she murmured, wrapping her soft arms around his neck. Their position had her lips near his ear. She’d lost her headband somewhere. He could smell the strawberry of her shampoo, feel the tickle of her sluggish breath stirring his hair. “Evan.”“Kelsey. Move over here, lie down.”She pulled back slightly, her bleary eyes trying to focus on his. The weight of her head still seemed too much for her neck to support and her hair flowed over his arm. “Evan, I always liked you.”“I always liked you, too, honey.” The way she kept saying his name in that intoxicated purr, savoring the v between her teeth and her bottom lip, was unnerving. Unnerving, hell. It had his dick twitching in his pants. “Come on, girl, you need to sleep it off.”“I mean I like liked you.”[…] Her hands caught his face, surprising him. He should have moved away from her long ago, before she could get her hands on him. As it was, he felt like a fly caught in the sticky gossamer of a spider’s den. “Always wanted to fuck you, y’know that? Even when I was a virgin.”He drew in a breath, exhaled it shakily. So much for prudish.Note to self: Kelsey now gets unbelievably horny when drunk.”

“Somebody better be dead or dying."He froze mid-step when he saw her. It might have been wishful thinking but she could've sworn his face lit up."Or just sitting there looking pretty," he finished with a heart-stopping grin.”