She speaks with such determination there’s no doubt that it’s a goal she’s had set in her mind for a very long time. While the passion with which she talks about that vacation and her desire to pass that on to her own kids one day is touching, it’s also a bit of a mystery to me. Vacation for me was my parents shipping me off to my grandmother’s house for long weekends when I was growing up. Trying to imagine my mother and father at Disney World is quite ludicrous, actually. It wasn’t until I was an adult and playing professional hockey that I started to appreciate the time off in the summers and made efforts to travel for pleasure and play, but never once did I feel like I was missing anything growing up. I guess when you don’t have something or know of something, it’s hard to miss it.

Lexi starts picking out a tune on her instrument and I recognize it immediately: “Let It Be,” by the Beatles.

She starts to sing the song that most everyone in the world knows, using a combination of strumming and picking at the strings, alternating back and forth fluidly. I watch her carefully, love how she closes her eyes sometimes when she’s particularly feeling a lyric or melody, and when she opens them back up, they’re on me and nowhere else. That voice of hers…smoky, husky, so fucking sexy. She has no hesitation holding my gaze as she performs, always doing so with a sweet smile, and I admire that there’s not a moment of shyness or doubt in herself that causes her gaze to drop.

When she finishes the song and only after the last chord fades away, I nod toward the ukulele in her hands and tell her in a gruff voice, “Put that down and come here.”

Her eyebrows rise, but there’s clear interest in her eyes. “Come there?” she asks for clarification as she points to my body.

I tap my chest. “Right here. Right on top of me.”

Lexi’s cheeks flush and a little puff of breath blows out of her, but she immediately leans to her side and places her instrument on the floor.

With absolutely no hesitation, she comes up to her knees and slowly crawls up my body. Our gazes are locked tight and her eyes darken with intensity. When her chest comes level with mine, and her knees are pressed into the cushion just inches from my crotch, she asks me softly, “You going to kiss me?”

“I was thinking about it,” I tell her as my hands come around her lower back, and I press on her until her body lowers and presses flush against mine.

And fuck, she feels good against me, just her soft curves and warmth starting to get me hard before I even lay my mouth on hers.

Lexi’s forearms support her weight on my chest and she looks down at me with sizzling eyes and her long dark hair framing her face. We just stare at each other, knowing that once we take this step, our casual, light, and flirty friendship is going to change.

Fuck is it going to change.

Leaving one hand on her lower back, I slide the other up and over her shoulder, letting my palm glide up her neck so my fingers can tangle in her hair. She shivers when my thumb strokes her jaw before I cup my hand around the back of her head.

Lexi’s hands reach out and circle behind my neck, which causes her chest to lower to mine, the soft curves of her breasts feeling fucking fantastic against me and causing her face to lower just a little bit more toward mine.

“So this is it?” she whispers as she licks her lower lip.

“This is it,” I agree, and because I absolutely cannot wait one moment longer, I put pressure on the back of her head to force our mouths to close the distance. The first touch of her lips against mine causes a pleasure to punch straight through to my groin and she has no hesitation in immediately accepting my tongue. I give it to her slowly, angling her head a bit with my hand. My mouth moves against hers, gently but deeply, my hand at her lower back keeping her tight to me.

I could probably be content with just this slow mouth fucking, my nerves humming and my blood on a low boil, but Lexi moans softly into my mouth and I involuntarily react by nipping at her lower lip. I grab it with my teeth, press into the soft flesh with a low growl, and Lexi’s entire body jerks against mine.

And Christ, my dick goes full-on hard, lengthening and swelling against her as our hips start to move and gyrate.

Giving a tiny suck first, I let Lexi’s lip pop free, then she immediately presses her mouth against mine, rougher this time. Her head turns one way, mine goes the other, and our tongues engage in an almost pornographic battle.

Lexi moans again and grinds down on my erection, and suddenly I can’t even begin to imagine why we would have tried to keep things slow. My hand on her back slides down, over her ass, where I squeeze it as she continues to rotate her hips, and that only makes me want more. I drop my hand lower, run my fingers over the seam of her ass, which I can feel in exquisite detail given the thin material of her leggings, and then I press hard against the back of her pussy.

It’s like I just pulled a fucking trigger the minute my fingers grind into her warmth, and Lexi groans so deeply into my mouth with such yearning that I start to kiss her harder. Our teeth clash as our mouths battle, trying to devour each other. Lexi pulls one hand away from my neck and wedges it in between our bodies. She lifts to one side to make more room, and then her hand is on my dick, squeezing it in just the right way through the denim.

“Christ,” I mutter into her mouth, and she starts a slow stroke against my aching shaft.

I shift my body, extend my shoulder, and get my fingers down deeper in between her legs. She’s hot and slightly damp, and I try to push my fingers into her through the restrictive material of her leggings and panties.

I’m on the verge of losing control, and images of me ripping her clothes off and plunging into her start pulsing vividly in my imagination. I consider pulling my hand up, snaking it down the back of her leggings and panties so I can get my fingers into that wet warmth I know is begging for my touch.

“Roman,” Lexi gasps as we both stroke and fondle and press against each other. Her voice is needful, so full of yearning that it causes an ache in my chest.

I want to fuck her so bad. Right here on my couch. Screw the rest of the foreplay, my cock wants inside of her right this very fucking moment, and I think I might go crazy from wanting it.

No…from needing it.

I absolutely fucking need it right now.

And with a burning realization that actually causes a twinge of fear to course through me, I think that I might need this more than I’ve needed anything else in my life.