She sucked in a breath, and all that mattered was kissing her. Not the sounds of the party going on around us, not the fact her dad held my future in his hands, or the fact we were most definitely wrong for each other. I moved my hand to the back of her head, digging my fingers into her hair, and yanked her toward me.
I’d kissed a lot of women, but not once did my skin tingle with anticipation as I closed the distance. Not once did my heart fucking skip a beat before pressing my lips against someone else’s. Her little intake of breath made me pull her closer. Then, I finally kissed her.
Her lips were soft and full, and she opened her mouth to let me in, andmy god,I wanted this woman. I slid my tongue into her mouth, devouring the sweet taste of her. It was all tongue and teeth, and I couldn’t kiss her hard enough.
“Naomi,” I murmured into her mouth, needing her to know how much I fucking loved this.
The way she tasted like vodka. The way my heart raced from her aggressive touches and how nothing made sense any more except kissing her. I sucked her tongue and tilted her head back, deepening the kiss as I trailed my hand down her smooth neck. She moaned, and an aggressive urge rolled through me to kiss her even harder.
She gripped the edge of my windbreaker and kissed me with so much energy I tripped backward. Gravity played tricks on me as I stumbled to catch my balance. I wrapped my arm around her and cradled her against me as I righted myself, and she looked up at me with a goofy grin.
“Damn,” I said, my lips swollen and wet from our kiss.
“My kissing made you trip,” she said, her smug smile doing crazy things to my heart and mind. She wasn’t wrong.
I narrowed my eyes and bent down to kiss her again because that was addictive. But then someone shouted my name from behind. The voice had a familiar ring to it. My arms were still wrapped around Naomi and the sweetness from her drink still in my mouth as I turned and saw Erikson lifting his hand in greeting.
Fuck.Naomi might as well have hit me with a taser. That was how fast I jumped off her and stepped back, regret weighing me down. Did he see us? Me? Her?
What if he told Coach?
“Dude, what are you doing here?” I asked, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, afraid that evidence of the kiss would be right there.
Like,hey yeah, I just made out with the coach’s daughter. How shitty am I?
“For the party, man. You’re cool that I’m here, right?” he asked. He frowned and winced when his gaze landed on Naomi. “Shit. Coach’s daughter. Not the fun one either.”
“I’m oodles of fun, you behemoth! Oodles,” she shouted before marching past me and disappearing into the crowd. If I wasn’t so worried about getting caught, I’d laugh at tipsy Naomi yelling at Erikson.
Erikson raised his brows. “Okay then.”
My jaw tensed, and I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. My brain was still slow since that dynamite kiss, and I thought about his words. Not the fun one? Freddie said something similar at the library, and I didn’t like the insinuation. “Naomi’s cool. she won’t give a shit you’re here. Just don’t act like a dumbass and we’ll be fine.”
“Fair enough.” He nodded and smiled at a group of girls giggling at him. “See ya, Reiner.”
“Yeah, you too.” I waited until he was distracted with the girls before running a hand over my face. The universe had a funny way of telling me to knock it off. Seconds after I got a small taste of Naomi, Erikson showed up. If that wasn’t a sign I shouldn’t be thinking about her like that, I didn’t know what was. My mouth still tingled from her nipping my lip, and I needed to find her. Now.
Shit. I ran a hand through my hair and scanned the crowd. So much plaid and dark colors everywhere. Oasis played in the background, and I only knew that band because my high school coach was obsessed and made us listen to them when we pissed him off. But that didn’t matter. Finding Naomi and talking to her did.
Someone in a tight tank and plaid shirt walked by, but nope, it wasn’t her. Fuck, were all the girls here wearing the same thing? Okay, okay, think. We kissed, and I ditched her the second a hockey guy showed up.
Naomi already had mixed feelings about hockey, so this didn’t help. She was probably embarrassed, or mad, or upset, or any combination thereof, and I needed to fix it. I went from unit to unit, searching for any face I recognized, but they all blurred together. I returned to her apartment, but no one was there. I thought about texting her, but what would I say? Sorry for kissing you and then acting like I wasn’t?
This was why shit got messy when you hooked up with people you saw all the time. Flings were easier. No feelings. No attachments. No wondering if the coach would figure out what you did and kick your ass. I groaned just as I heard a familiar laugh.
My stomach swooped like I was on the downward arch of a rollercoaster, and I scanned the crowd until I found her. She had another drink in her hand, half of it already gone, and she looped her arm around her friend’s waist. A blush painted her cheeks, and she tensed when her gaze landed on me.
I considered myself emotionally intelligent, but I couldn’t pinpoint what was swirling in her brown eyes. Hurt? Lust? My shoulders tensed, and I reached up to massage the part where my neck met my shoulder. It throbbed with tension. Guilt weighed on me more with each step closer to her, the brief yet explosive kiss replaying in my mind on a constant loop. The way she tasted, the warmth of her mouth, her little moan of pleasure when our lips finally touched.
I fisted my hand at my side and forced myself to focus on what was next, already preparing for the conversation to be horrible. How did one exactly apologize for a kiss they enjoyed and planned to never do again? “Naomi, could I speak to you for a moment?” I asked, my voice taking on a real weird formality that made me wince.
I wasn’t a damn waiter asking if she needed a refill of water. I was just the guy who kissed her and ditched her. She worried the side of her lip before slowly unlooping her arm from her friend’s.
She glanced at the ground and shrugged. “Sure, yeah, okay.”
Sure. Yeah. Okay.Not a great start. I put a hand on her lower back and guided her toward a cut-out on the balcony. We werealonewithout being alone. It was secluded enough for this conversation, but public enough that I wouldn’t be tempted to apologize by way of kissing. Again. Even though it wasn’t a terrible idea…
“What is it, Michael?” she asked, her tone missing thatN-energy.She gripped the railing with both hands and sighed as she narrowed her eyes. I followed her gaze to the landscape, taking in the bricked buildings and the hint of campus you could see from here.
