Squeezing my eyes tight, pushing my face more on the familiar feel of my pillow, and pulling the blankets up to my chin, I try making sense of the flashbacks. I'm sure it was a dream, a fantasy weaved out of my drunken mind because in no world I'd ask Adrian, my best friend, to kiss me. I wake up with a massive headache and follow the startled gasp in the doorway.

"Shit!" Olivia curses, covering her eyes with one hand while holding the doorknob with the other. "I just came in to give you your car keys. I swear, I didn't see you guys naked."

Her words jolt me out of my sleepy mode, and I realize I'm not alone on my bed. I look beside me to find Adrian sleeping on his stomach with his hand draped around my waist and covers completely off his naked torso. His soft brown hair tickles my shoulder, which appears to be exposed too, and I snap my head under the blanket, releasing a sigh to be in last night's dress.

"We're not naked, Liv," I say, lending my blanket to the still sleeping hunk and covering his back.

"Oh," she sighs, pulling one finger at a time away from her eyes and finally looking at us. "Anyway, I liked what I saw."

I glare at her as she tosses the keyring to me and winks at the sleeping boy, her lips twist in a suggestive smile. Before I can say anything else, she busts out of the room, closing behind her. I fall back on my pillow and massage my throbbing forehead.

And all the fragmented memory starts making sense. I inside the club doing tequila shots with Alex, Adrian, crashing my fun time, then us ending up in the empty nook. Me licking salt off his wrist, him licking it off my shoulder, him kissing my neck, me asking him to kiss my lips, and then him saving it for after our first date. Date, he asked me out for a date. It was never supposed to happen, not when I'm still trying to understand my newborn feelings for him.

Now what? Do I still have a best friend? I'm sure, after letting our feelings out in the open, we certainly can't go back.

"Ugh...What have I done?" I mumble, squeezing my eyes and trying to yank his hand off my waist. It tightens instead, the blanket slides down my chin, and something soft pressed against my neck. I'm suddenly aware of his intoxicating touches and how they burn over my skin.

"Mmm, you smell so good," he whispers in my ear while nuzzling my neck.

"Adri!" I growl, pushing at his jaw as the scrape of his whiskers tickles my skin. "I probably smell like stale tequila."

"No, you smell like me." He groans, running his nose down my neck and places a soft kiss below my ear. He peppers a trail of kisses along my collarbone and sends shivers down my body. It's not a secret anymore that his kisses drive me crazy, and I want him to kiss me for real, in my mouth. It's still too soon to go all the way because I don't want to lose my best friend for a moment of lust.

Being drunk and losing control is easier to digest. In my full senses, I know we need to wait till we are into this for real. But the way he lifts his face from my neck and caresses my face with those deep emerald eyes shows me how real this is for him. His brown hair falls rebelliously over his brow. Thick dark eyelashes brush his cheekbones, and the day-old whiskers feather my cheeks.

"Where's your shirt? Liv almost drooled over your exposed body." I play my hand over his muscled back, enjoying the feel of his spine. "You fulfilled one of her ultimate fantasies."

"Noah will kill me if I tell him this." His timbre rasps, a sleepy baritone as he runs his thumb over my chapped lips. "If I don't have a shirt on, it's because of you. You tell me where you threw my shirt when you pounced on me last night?"

Mischief dances in his eyes, and my cheeks heats with the thought of me going wild on him. But exactly how far did I go has me blushing furiously. I push at his shoulder and scramble off the bed. My feet land on the soft material of his t-shirt lying beside the bed.

"So, did we?" I ask, picking up his t-shirt but sitting on the edge of the bed, unable to face him.

"Did we do what?" He whispers in my ear, removing the strands of hair from my shoulder and placing his chin. "Don't tell me you don't remember anything?"

"Stop playing with me, Adri," I twist around to face him and throw the shirt at his face. He releases a throaty chuckle, then pulls me towards his massive exposed torso, and the next thing I know, our heads are hanging from the other side of the bed.

"I'm not playing, not with you." His calm voice has hidden depths in them as he holds me above himself, placing his hands around my waist in a most possessive of embraces. "Do you at least remember what you said to me in the uber back home?"

"I remember how you crashed my fun time with Alex," I comment dryly, pushing at his chest to get away from his gorgeously arousing body, but he doesn't budge an inch.

"And do you remember the game we played after that?" His lips twist into a lazy smirk.

"Yes, yes, I remember doing tequila shots with you-"

"And you asked me to kiss you, here," he says, running his warm thumb over my bottom lip, making me suck in a breath, and continues, "in the club, then in the uber as you created this beautiful artwork on my neck."

My eyes bulge out as I move them towards his neck and see the evidence of my violence. "Oh my god, did I...?"

"Yes, and for the missing shirt," he gestures towards the black material, and as my gaze shifts from the shirt he was wearing to his body, I feel like digging my own grave. The fading scratches on his shoulders buzz my head with the flashes of my wild action the previous night before. "I'm pretty sure you asked me to never wear them around you."

"Did I do that to you?!" I point at the pink marks on his shoulders and then the slightly blotchy skin of his neck. My cheeks burn with embarrassment, and I'm sure they're a deeper shade of pink by now.

"You did," he says, placing a finger under my chin and making me look into his sea-green eyes. "And I won't mind if you did that again when we're sober."

I push his finger away from my chin and look down to run nervous circles on his chest, unknowingly. "So, did we...did we like-"

"Did we have sex?" He completes me without a stutter and scowls at me.

"Adrian!" I slap his bicep and grit my teeth. "You don't have to be smug about it. Just tell me if we crossed some lines."

A low laugh rumbles from his chest, and he holds my face in his hands, laughing some more. "You know if we did, you would feel it in every cell of your body. Thankfully, I'm a gentleman, or you would've seduced me in the uber ride itself."

"Oh, thank god!" I relax against him and smile, releasing a sigh.

"But do you not remember what you said on our way back home?" He tugs my face closer to his, making me shudder as his breath fan over my heated face.

"What did I say?"

"You said," he rasps against my cheek, then brushes his nose, and I remember every single touch we shared. Then he goes on to complete, "I want you to f-"

"Adri!" I slap my palm over his mouth before he can complete and blush profusely. "I did not say that, you obnoxious prick."

He winks at me, then throws his head back and laughs. I yelp as I feel a warm, wet sensation on my palm placed over his mouth.

"Did you just lick my palm?" I gape at him, pulling my hand away from his mouth.

"You weren't complaining last night." He grins cheekily, tapping a finger on my nose. My jaw drops open with sheer disbelief.

"You are something, Adrian Hayes. Just let go of me. I need to pack for the trip home." Before his adorning eyes flutter my heart into a non-functional creature, I push off his body and climb off the bed.

"Hey, wait!" He rolls off the edge and grabs my wrist, pulling me back to himself. The vulnerability mapped on his face works like a magnet. I stand in front of him from where he sits on the edge of the bed. He pulls me closer, still keeping a firm hold on my wrist. His laid-back personality fades in a second and replaces it with a sudden edge of urgency. "Do you regret what happened between us?"

I look anywhere but his desperate eyes and try subsiding the anxious feeling. "I don't regret a thing, Adri. But that's what's wrong here. Are we still friends? What if we mess this up and never come back to how we are-were?"

"Look at me, V," he says, brushing away the strands of hair draping my face and touching my chin, nudging it upward. I've no option but to look at him.

"I meant everything I said last night," he says, a deep timbre of certainty. "I do want to take you on a date, but I want you to be sure about this, about us. I want to kiss you, but I don't want to rush over it and spoil any chance of a deeper connection. And if we mess up this new thing between us, it doesn't have to ruin what we already have. You're still my anchor, my best friend, and practically the only girl who can break my heart and still reign it."

My lips part on a stalled breath, catching a gleam of warmth in his ocean eyes. "You want me to be sure about us?"

"Yes, very much." He stands, pulling on his t-shirt in a swift move, then tips his head down, studying me. My eyes capture the marks I've left on his neck and move towards his messy hair, standing out in all directions. Almost on instinct, I reach out to brush them off of his forehead and chuckle when they behave rebelliously. He holds my hand when I pull away and kisses my knuckle. I'm once again into his spell, but unlike last night, I can feel a tug at the back of my mind, a shadow of uncertainty lurking inside my heart. As if he can read it on my face, he holds both of my shoulders and swivels me towards the dresser. "Stop thinking much and get ready. I want to get something for mom before you head home."

"She would prefer you instead," I say over my shoulder as I pick out a random dress and almost evaporate when he places a kiss at the back of my head. "You know, we haven't yet gone to our first date, and you're already clingy."

He turns me around, capturing me against the dresser while his fingers glide towards my lips in a gentle caress rendering me breathless for the millionth time.

"If it bothers you so much, just wait until after our first date," he whispers, flashing me a cheeky smile.

I might not be sure about a few things in my life, but I'm about the necessity of his presence.

***

Author's Note: I know, I know. It took me a while to finally update, but I'm trying to be more productive. Also, I'm not very happy with the small chapter. I hope you guys don't feel disappointed.