Chapter 64: Best friend shouldn’t know how I taste

MAYA’S POV

I should’ve left twenty minutes ago. But no, someone had to pull out a damn bottle and yell “Truth or Dare!” like we were seventeen and bored. Unsurprisingly, it was one of the Bennett triplets. I think the loud one. Or the one with the killer winged eyeliner. Honestly, they all blurred together. I see why Evan was confused.

I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, clutching my third red cup of sugary wine punch, already tipsy and deeply regretting my life choices.

Evan was behind me on the couch, half-listening, half-scrolling through his phone, looking like every girl's summer sin. Shirtless again. But of course he was, and yes, his abs had their own gravitational pull, but no, I wasn’t about to admit that out loud. Like ever.

“Maya,” one of the triplets said in her usual sing-song tone. “Truth or dare?”

I sipped. “Truth.”

Triplet One leaned forward. “Have you ever had a crush on Evan?”

I snorted. “Please. He’s like a golden retriever with abs.”

I heard Evan laugh behind me, low and smug. Great more fuel to fire his ego .

“Liar,” one of the other triplets mumbled.

Triplet Two’s grin widened. “Okay then Evan. Dare. We dare you to give Maya a lap dance.”

Evan sat up. “Yeah, no. I’m out.” He stood, flashed me a look, one of those unreadable, slightly-too-long stares and walked out of the room.

Of course the triplets wasted no time after he left. “You’re so in love with him,” one said.

“I’m not,” I snapped, too fast.

“Then stop acting like his bodyguard.”

I stood, slightly wobbly, heart pounding harder than it should. “You know what? If you want him, go for it. I’m not his keeper.”

They exchanged glances like I’d just handed them a free pass. Maybe I had.

But my throat felt tight. And my hands wouldn’t unclench around my cup.

Fifteen minutes later, I was barefoot, hoodie on, and walking to Evan’s apartment instead of my own.

I told myself it was to yell at him.

To finish the fight I forgot to start.

But when he opened the door, half-asleep and entirely too gorgeous, I knew exactly how this night would end.

And I didn’t stop it.

I didn’t even remember how I got into Evan's room. I definitely remembered tequila, a whole lot of it. I slightly remembered yelling to the triplets about how they weren’t Pokémon and he couldn’t possible “collect them all.” Then I remembered wine. And now I was in his kitchen, barefoot, wearing his hoodie with no pants, and very much regretting telling my friends I “wasn’t into him like that.”

Because Evan was standing there. Still shirtless and still sinfully attractive.

And I was so very drunk.

“I came to yell at you again,” I said, slurring just a little, as I held onto the counter like it was the last slice of stability in my life.

Evan blinked at me, his eyes heavy-lidded with sleep and exhaustion. “You’re drunk.” He stated.

“No shit... Sherlock.” I hiccupped. “You’re still hot and that’s fucking annoying.”

He raised an eyebrow at that and a little smirk appeared on his lips “You think I’m hot?”

“I think you’re dangerous.” I took two wobbly steps toward him and almost fell in the process. “You’re like… like one of those stove tops. Looks cool but you touch it and boom, blisters.”

“I’m flattered. I think.” He said with a full blown smirk now.

I stared at his bare and very built chest, then his jaw, then his mouth. God, that mouth. Why did she suddenly remember all the times she imagined what it’d feel like against her skin? Those pink plump lips on mine swallowing my entire soul.

“I should go,” I whispered to myself, but my feet didn’t move.

“You came here to yell.” He moved closer to me.

“I forgot the yelling part.” I said scratching my head.

Evan stepped even closer. “You’re really looking at me like you want to commit crimes. Very bad ones.”

“I feel like I already did,” I mumbled, my fingers moving away from the edge of the countertop and reaching out for him.

Evan stopped a breath away from me. “You sure you’re not mad about the triplets because you wanted to be one of them?”

That did it.

I grabbed the collar of his shirt, wait, no, he wasn’t wearing one, and instead just yanked him by the necklace he always wore, dragging his mouth down to mine.

It was meant to be fast. Angry. Just enough to wipe the smirk off his face. But it wasn’t one bit.

His hands found my waist instantly, pulling me against him like he had been waiting years for this moment. Our mouths collided in a heatwave of sloppy urgency, tasting of tequila and months of tension we had never admitted to anyone, not even ourselves.

I moaned into him as his tongue slid past my lips, claiming my tongue like it had always belonged there in his hold. My fingers reached his head and tangled in his hair, and I arched into him when his hands firmly gripped my thighs and lifted me onto the kitchen counter with one effortless move.

I wrapped my legs around him before my brain could even catch up.

“Evan” I whispered between kisses.

He was trailing his mouth down my jaw, to my neck, his breath hot against my skin “Say it.”

“Say what?” I panted harshly, my breath catching as he pressed against my core through my thin panties.

“That you want this.” He said while grinding into me cause a wave of pleasure to wash over me.

“I shouldn’t want this,” I breathed out, my nails digging into his shoulders. “But I do. I desperately do, I have been thinking about you so much I'm running crazy Evan. I can't understand anything."

He kissed me again, this time slower, deeper. Like he was trying to memorize the entirety of my mouth.

“Then stop thinking,” he murmured, lifting the hoodie just enough to expose skin. “Let me give you what those triplets never got.”

My laugh came out like a gasp. “A brain cell?”

“No,” he growled, kissing down my chest. “Me. When I mean it.”

And that did something to me. Because this wasn’t a random hookup. It wasn’t tequila and bad decisions. This was Evan, my best friend.

The guy I had thought I could never have. And tonight, he was all mine.