I press a finger against his lips, silencing him. “I don’t want to talk about it. It was stupid. I shouldn’t have…you’re leaving tomorrow. This is what it is.”

“Yeah,” he agrees quietly. “It is.”

I can feel my heart fissuring, tiny cracks forming that feel audible in the quiet room.

But I paste a smile on my face. “Sorry for crashing your boys’ night earlier. Noah didn’t really give me much of a choice.”

“It’s fine. It was nice, actually, having you there.”

“Oh. Good.”

“Worth it to see Ledger squirm about picking you up.”

I seize the opportunity to lighten the mood. “Why? You think you could do better?” I cock my head in a clear challenge.

Gray smirks, slow and delicious. “Could? I did.”

“Do you want to get out of here?” I quote. “That’s your big pick up line?”

He rolls his eyes, then nods toward one of the kitchen stools. “Take a seat.”

I listen and look at him expectantly. He sidles around the edge of the island and takes a seat on the stool next to me with a serious expression that makes me want to laugh.

“This seat taken?”

I make a show of looking him up and down. “Now, it is.”

“So, aside from being sexy, what do you do for a living?”

I snort before I lean forward. “What’s your name?” I lower my voice. “So I know what to scream later.”

He’s shocked. Of the two of us, he’s always been the dirty talker. “Fuck, Evie.”

“I didn’t tell you my name,” I tease, staying in character.

Gray smiles. “Lucky guess. If you’re feeling down, I’d love to feel you up.”

I laugh. “You’d better do more than that.”

He stands and steps closer. I wind my legs around him as he jerks my shirt up and over my head.

“I changed my mind. I don’t want to pretend like this is our first time. I like that I know when I do this”—he lowers his mouth and sucks on the curve where my neck meets my shoulder, and I moan—“you moan. And that when I take these off”—he tugs at my jeans—“you’ll be dripping for me. Right, baby?”

“Right,” I gasp.

And then he’s kissing me, and neither of us is doing any talking at all. Joking or serious. Sweet or dirty. Familiar or foreign.

We stumble into my room and onto my bed. His eyes heat when I pull his shirt off, but his smile is still playful. He rains kisses over my temple and jaw. Even once he finds my lips, they’re light pecks. I squirm, and he laughs before our mouths fuse together.

Gray continues teasing me with his tongue. Then, slowly, the mood shifts. It turns serious. Hands linger and kisses deepen.