I rolled my eyes. “No, why me?”
Those curly lashes fell over his eyes again. “Why not you?”
“There are about a million different reasons,” I answered seriously.
“You’re really asking?”
“Just did, didn’t I?”
Part of me expected him to make some sarcastic comment. Maybe to glare. I even kind of thought he would say “never mind.”
What I didn’t expectat allwas for him to say, “Maybe there are two million reasons why it should be you.”
He couldn’t have stunned me more if he’d pressed a taser to my neck.
And he took advantage of it. Those purple eyes glowed, and his voice was dead serious as he said, “Your lips look soft.”
The bunny in my chest turned into an Olympic champion, long-distance jumper.
And it was me who sat there without a single comeback.
I knew he’d been looking at my mouth… but like that?
I could make a joke. I could be the one to brush it off. I could even be the one to say that this was too much pressure—kissing The fuckingDefenderfor the first time?
But he was so much more than that, and I knew it.
He was Alex. He was my hero. My friend. My protector. At least a handful of other things first before he was The Defender to me.
I’d been forced to be closed in my whole life, and so had he.
And the fucking monumental weight of being his first kiss… well, I’d shouldered heavy shit my whole life too. Maybe it didn’t physically weigh as much as the things he’d been burdened with, but they could have been crippling for me.
This… it’d be an honor and a privilege. And if it was all I’d ever get, then it was all I’d ever get. A kiss from Alex. Who knew what life would throw at you?
My voice was wary as hell as I said, “Only 1,999,999 other reasons to go.”
His nostrils flared. “Your mouth is pretty too.”
Of all the things he could have said….
“You know you’re more than all right looking, don’t you?” he asked in a low voice. “Everyone says you’re pretty, but they don’t know you look that way even when your face is covered with mud and you feel like shit.”
The breath I let out shuddered, and I gulped, making a split-second decision. And before I could convince myself of the million reasons why this was a shitty idea, I scooted across the mattress, crossing the distance between our pillows.
That power that radiated from him brushed my skin gently. It wasn’t hair-raising anymore, maybe because I was getting used to people like him, but more of a tickle. A nice, pleasant tickle.
His eyes followed my every movement as I got closer and closer, my heart doing fucking laps around a football field at superhuman speed. But he didn’t make fun of me for being nervous. He just… stayed there, with his head on a pillow, watching and watching and watching.
I was pretty sure he was holding his breath.
“Are you positive?” I asked.
Alex just nodded. That gaze settled right on my mouth.
“Promise you won’t regret this or disappear on me if you feel uncomfortable afterward?”
His features went rigid, but he dipped his chin in agreement.
