“It’s shitty.”
The silence settled between us as we continued driving down the highway. Eventually, we pulled into the school parking lot where my car was.
“This is you,” Austin murmured, pulling the car to a stop.
He got out and opened the door on my side.
“Like a proper gentleman.”
He shook his head and laughed. “I have competition with Southern gentlemen, so I figured I’d have to pull out all the stops.”
“Ha. No competition.” I thought of all the douchebags my mother tried and failed to set me up with in the past.
We stood there in silence before he took a deliberate step toward me. “Thank you for everything, Ms. Honey.”
My eyes desperately scanned his.
This most definitely was a date.
And this was the part where we were supposed to kiss. I could feel it, the tension growing between us, the urge so strong. But I wasn’t sure if he felt the same thing, or if he was ready to take this step.
“Charlie,” he murmured, but his voice was so different compared to mere moments earlier.
It was rough and low. It touched something inside me.
He prowled forward, lifting his hand to my chin and tilting my face up so I was looking right into his blue eyes.
“Charlie,” he repeated. “I’m going to kiss you.”
I nodded, the anticipation almost killing me. My toes were tingling, my hands were shaking, and I felt like a teenager waiting to be kissed for the first time.
“I need to hear you tell me it’s okay.”
“Please. Yes. Kiss me.”
The moment the words left my mouth, he closed the distance between us, crashing his lips onto mine. His hands slipped around my back, pulling me into his chest, holding me like he’d been waiting for this. His warmth enveloped me, and I tasted the sweetness of chocolate from earlier. His mouth moved against mine, gentle at first, before he deepened the kiss, a slow, intoxicating intensity building between us.
Until this moment, I’d never truly been kissed like this. This kiss felt like it transcended everything else, like time itself hadslowed. It was an escape, a messy, urgent, imperfect rush of emotions and sensations. It was everything a first kiss should be—raw, real, and electrifying.
He pulled away but kept his arms around my waist. “Charlie,” he breathed.
“I’ve never... ever been kissed like that before.”
He dropped his forehead to mine as he held me there, in the dark parking lot of my school. “Me either. You’re so warm.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I felt the same way. He was safe and I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to feel this emotional release ever again in my life.
After a while, he eventually pulled away from me. “I-I should get going.”
Come with me.
My brain logically knew I needed to go and take a moment to process what this meant, but my heart and maybe my vagina desperately wanted him to come with me.
He swallowed audibly.
“I should too,” I murmured.
He walked me over to my car, and once I unlocked it, he opened the door for me. “Can I see you again?” he asked, his voice low as he cupped my cheek, his mouth so close to mine that I could feel his breath. He smelled like a good rainstorm, and I wanted to bottle it up.
