“The best.” I cock my head to look at him sideways.
He angles his body toward me. His face is half in dark, half in light, highlighting the sharp angles of his jaw and cheekbones, accentuating the shadow of his full lips. “How so?” he asks softly.
My blood is hot, my heart pumping fast and steady. “He was powerful. He could be as rough or as delicate as he wanted to be.” I know full well I’m not talking about Sam anymore. I barely remember who Sam is. Reeve swallows and I watch the small movement of muscles in his throat. I feel weak. “And he knew what I wanted.”
Reeve’s eyes fall to my lips. I didn’t see him move, but somehow there are just inches between us now. “Is that right?” His voice is gritty and barely above a whisper.
It takes only an instant for the distance between us to close and our lips to come together. Everything that came before disappears. The brush of his lips contains enough electricity to fill my whole body. Our tongues collide, and the taste of him ignites a fire that rips straight through me to my core.
His kiss is slow, sensual, and I follow his rhythm, but inside I feel frenzied with need. There’s a hunger in me I don’t recognize that only builds as my senses go into overdrive. I don’t realize until it’s all around me how well I know the scent of him, that cool, masculine smell. He makes a sound in his throat. Maybe he’s holding back as much as I am.
He cups a hand under my jaw, angling my mouth to kiss me deeper. The heat of his fingers sends still more sparks flying into the farthest recesses of my body. My back presses against the wall. I urge him closer, pleasure sinking into me at every point where our bodies touch. His free hand moves to the back of my neck. His fingers twist carelessly in my hair, gripping me firmly so I’m at his mercy. He’s not gentle and he’s not rough. He gives me exactly what I want.
Some small part of me knows how deeply I’ll regret this as soon as the kiss ends. But that moment seems like a future lifetime, so far off it’s irrelevant. Or maybe the inevitable regret is the part that turns me on.
I’m vaguely aware of noises nearby, muffled voices closer than the pulsing music from inside the building, then the sound of someone banging against the door. My eyes snap open, finding the door, but it remains closed. Reeve, meanwhile, still has both hands on my head, not giving a damn who discovers us.
There’s a chorus of laughter, another bang, and then Phoebe and Lori are spilling out onto the patio as I slap Reeve’s hands away and take a giant step from his body.
“Oh my god, Phoebe, it says pull, not push!” Lori giggles drunkenly, then turns, noticing us. “Oh. Hey, guys. Does anyone have a cigarette? I swear nobody smokes anymore.”
“Nope,” I say, thanking heaven that my coworkers seem oblivious to the implications of me and Reeve alone out here. I brush past them and reach for the door. “I was just going in, actually. See you in there.”
Despite every brain cell screaming at me not to, I can’t help glancing at Reeve. He’s staring at me like I’m the only thing that exists. Like his life depends on it. The expression on his face is only a shadow of a smile, but I can read it like a book: He knows that kiss just knocked me off my feet, and he’s not going to let me forget it.
FIFTEEN
jade
The kiss won’t leaveme alone.
It lingers on my lips, and its potent effect fills my head like a cloud of poison. I can’t stop thinking about it, and not just because it was an amazing kiss.
I’ve kissed a lot of guys before. Good kissers are nothing to lose my head over. Even amazing kissers are nothing new. Reeve’s kiss was beyond amazing, though. It was ... transformative. I was somewhere and then he kissed me and I woke up somewhere entirely new. Where? I don’t know; land of confusion?
I don’t tell Lenni about it because what’s the point? It was a fluke. No meaning except that I was emotional and vulnerable and that Reeve, predictably, did whatever he felt like without thinking. I bet he thinks he’s some big hero the way he stopped that humiliating scene with Sam, but it only proves what a cocky bastard he is. I didn’t need to be rescued. Even if it did feel good. So good I keep trying and failing to remember whether I’ve ever experienced a singular moment as perfect as that kiss.
I haven’t told her about seeing Sam, either, mostly because it seems insignificant now. It was ridiculous to get soworked up. I shouldn’t be allowed to drink when I’m tired. My emotions always get the best of me. Maybe that’s why the kiss felt so powerful—I was weak. There’s no other reason that kissing someone I can’t stand could light such a fire in me.
One thing I’m certain of: I don’t ever want to kiss him again.
I don’t want to be transformed. I know what I want and where I’m going. Besides, there’s a rational explanation for that kiss being so damn good: Reeve has kissed a lot of girls. It doesn’t make him magic; it makes him a player.
Tuesday evening,Lenni and I take an express yoga class at the gym before she meets Cam for dinner.
“Let’s wait here,” Lenni says when we walk outside after class. “He’ll be here in a few.”
“Nice boob sweat. Cam’s gonna like that.”
Lenni looks down at her bright-pink top and groans. “That’s what I get for wearing anything other than black. Why am I the only one who walks out of yoga class looking like I just got hosed down? I can’t go to dinner like this.”
“Big boob problems, maybe? I wouldn’t know.” I unzip my gym bag and pull out my white button-down work shirt. “Here, wear this over top.”
Lenni slips the shirt over her shoulders. “You’re the best.”
“You look good in a button-down. You should definitely wear that to your grad school interviews. That button at the chest threatening to pop open is your ticket into any program you want.”
She laughs. “I wish it was that easy.”
