Hot jolts of desire whipped through him, so powerful he was liable to burst into flames. His pants had become unbearably tight, his dick throbbing painfully against his zipper. He was nearing his breaking point, that critical moment of desperation where he either kissed the living daylights out of her, or ran far, far away from her.

The latter. Christ, he definitely needed to do the latter.

Unfortunately, Darcy seemed determined to push him to the limit. “Why can’t I say any of that?” she repeated.

“Because I’m a selfish bastard. Damn it, Darcy, when a woman tells me I’m getting her hot, it just makes me want to prove how much hotter I can get her.”

She moaned.

The goddamn temptress actually moaned, and the throaty sound sizzled into him and tingled in the tip of his cock. He was so hard he could barely breathe, and he wanted to shout at her to stop eyeing him like she was an addict and he was her fix.

“But I can’t do that,” he said helplessly, his voice strangled, tormented. “I can’t do any of the things I want to do to you.”

“Like what?” she murmured.

This time he was the one moaning. “I want to kiss you again. I want to bite on that sexy bottom lip of yours. I want to slip my tongue in your mouth and tease you until you’re begging me to put my tongue somewhere else.”

Her eyes went as wide as saucers, but he couldn’t stop the wicked details that growled out of his mouth, couldn’t censor himself even if he’d tried.

“I’d give you what you want, Darce. I’d lick my way down your body, and then I’d f**k you with my tongue.”

“Oh God,” she whimpered.

“I’d lick you for hours. I’d get you nice and wet and drive you crazy with my tongue, and then, when you’re lying there limp with satisfaction, I’d crawl back up and f**k you with my c**k until neither one of us can see straight.”

His mouth snapped shut, breathing ragged as his explicit play-by-play came to an end.

Darcy’s eyes had glazed over and her cheeks were so flushed he knew her body temperature must have skyrocketed.

Silence crashed between them. Long and deafening and simmering with sexual awareness.

“I should be offended and disgusted,” she blurted out. “I should be angry at you for saying all those dirty things. But I’m not.” Something resembling defeat flashed in her eyes. “Come upstairs.”

Surprise jolted through him. “What?”

“I’m inviting you upstairs, Reed.”

There was no mistaking the lust in her eyes. Or the cloud of unhappiness.

“I know it’s wrong. I know it. But maybe…” She bit her lip again. “Maybe we need to get it out of our system.”

“We can’t.” It took every ounce of willpower he possessed to say those two words. “I can’t do that to AJ.”

“You already did,” she said softly.

“Well, I can’t do it again.” Fighting a rush of regret, he took several steps back and did his best to ignore the insistent pleading of his impossibly hard cock. “You weren’t there tonight, Darce. The guy is devastated over your breakup. If you and I hooked up, it would kill him.”

She looked genuinely confused. “Neither of us was devastated by the breakup, Reed. It sucked, yeah, but we made the decision together.”

“You didn’t see him tonight,” he insisted.

“You must have misinterpreted what you saw.” Frustration filled her eyes. “I’m not saying he’d be thrilled if you and I…if we…” She didn’t bother finishing the thought. “But it won’t kill him. Eventually he’ll come around to the idea of—” She stopped abruptly, and the dark look that swept over her face could only be described as self-loathing. “Oh, for f**k’s sake! What am I even saying? Why am I pushing this?” She shoved both hands in her hair, her distress obvious. “For some reason I turn into a sex-crazed lunatic when I’m around you. What’s wrong with me?”

He sighed. “It’s lust. Regular old lust, and it will pass.”

“Will it?”

Reed bit the inside of his cheek so hard he tasted blood in his mouth. “Yes.”

He decided not to mention that this particular case of lust had been wreaking havoc on him for months. He ran his tongue over the tiny cut in his mouth, stepping even farther back, needing to put as much distance between them as humanly possible.

“We just need to forget Saturday night ever happened. It’s the only way for us to move forward.”

Darcy looked upset. “We should tell AJ.”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said gruffly. “I’ll tell him it was my fault, that I took advantage of you.”

“But that’s not the truth,” she protested.

Reed exhaled slowly. “There’s no reason for him to hate both of us, Darce.”

“No. I can’t let you do that. It’s not right.”

She sounded so distraught, he couldn’t help but reach for her again. The hug was meant to be gentle and reassuring, but somehow turned into a desperate embrace that resulted in her face buried against his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around her slender body.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He was unable to resist stroking the small of her back. “We messed up, okay? Turned out there was an attraction there, and we gave in without thinking. I’ll make sure AJ knows it was nothing but a random, stupid mistake, and that it won’t ever happen again. Right?”