Free Ignite (Legacy) by Rebecca Yarros

closer.
    His nose ran along the line of my neck, and I arched to give him better access. “It was.”
    “Maybe,” I said, intertwining our fingers. “But this is worth it. This is pretty perfect.”
    “Yeah, you are.”
    His arms flexed around me and I melted. River relaxed me in a way no other man had. In so many ways this could still be just my best friend holding me, but it wasn’t. Sure, it was still River, still the guy who had changed my flat tire freshman year, the guy who’d punched Troy Williams when he’d kissed me during sophomore year after I’d said no. He was the guy who had helped me with Addy, Dad, and my life in general.
    He was my best friend.
    But this desire to roll him over, climb on top of him, and explore every line of his body until I’d wiped away the thought of every one of those bar-bunnies he’d taken home over the years…well, that wasn’t so friendly.
    Was our friendship—and this blatant craving I had for him—enough to uproot my entire life?
    “Avery?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Stop thinking about it.”
    “How did you—?”
    “Because I know you. Stop thinking there’s any expectation for this weekend and just be with me, okay? Try to forget anything else. Can you try?”
    If this was really my only chance to be with him, then I had to try. I had to throw myself into this headfirst and see what was really there, because if his leaving didn’t kill me, then the never knowing would.
    “Yeah.”

7
    River
    T here was something to be said for waking up with Avery in my arms. She was soft, warm, and fit my body like she’d been made to do exactly that.
    I’d already been up this morning, untangled her hair from the stubble of my beard and snuck off for a shower. Once I’d finished brushing my teeth, it was already eight thirty and she still wasn’t awake.
    I should have gone downstairs and found us food—I was fucking starving, but instead I crawled back into bed with her. As soon as I slid between the sheets, she rolled at me like a heat-seeking missile, using my chest as a pillow and tossing one of her thighs right across my dick.
    Her best friend—I was.
    A saint—I was not.
    I wrapped my arm around her back, tangling it in the thick blonde strands of her hair. She felt perfect wrapped around me, and it was far too easy to envision this as our life.
    My free hand rested on her knee, then lightly stroked the soft skin up her thigh. I kept myself to a six-inch limit, savoring the silk of her skin under my fingers but going no higher because I knew my shirt was bunched around her waist and there was nothing between my hand and her softness besides her panties.
    When she’d walked out in my shirt last night I’d had a moment of primal possession, and it had taken everything in me not to send my hands beneath the fabric.
    Even thinking about it had my dick hardening, or maybe it was the way her thigh moved against me. Either way, my body had zero issue reminding me that she was nearly naked, and so was I.
    “Mmmmm,” she moaned, moving even closer.
    Her head shifted until her lips were pressed against my neck, and my pulse pounded beneath her innocent caress. If she honestly knew how badly I wanted her—the effort it took to keep my damn hands to myself—she never would have wanted me in bed with her.
    Avery usually liked time to think things through. To examine every consequence of a possible action and then take the course she thought safest. I was damn lucky to have even stolen her away for five whole days, let alone be thinking of how easy it would be to slip my fingers inside her and bring her to orgasm before breakfast.
    Not helping the hard-on situation.
    She shifted again, lightly kissing my throat, and my hand tensed on her thigh, gripping the toned limb.
    “Good morning.” Her voice was husky from sleep and sexy as hell.
    “Hey there,” I said, waiting for her to understand the situation we were in.
    Instead of moving away, she slid over until she rested on