“Gotta kick someone out. Need backup.” I lowered my head and told Kenzie to stay there and I’d be right back. She nodded and stared up at me with the clearest green eyes and hopeful expression. It took every single muscle in my body to pull myself away from her. I hated drama, but it happened in a house filled with high-profile athletes. Aaron beckoned me to the basement where some kid I’d never seen before was yelling his head off about something incoherent.
“Shut the fuck up, Steven. You gotta go,” Hilly said, the venom in his voice hard to miss. The kid argued and I did my part. I moved his arms behind his back and Aaron and I shoved him up the stairs and out of the door. He fell when we let go, but it wasn’t our problem. I checked his pockets and took his car keys. He couldrememberwhere he’d left them the next day.
Aaron hissed and said, “Fuck, I forgot why we used to love this shit.”
“Young, drunk and stupid,” I replied.
“Man, my buzz is killed. Hey, is Kenzie having a good time?” His jaw tightened and a part of me was pissed. He’d left her alone, too.
“She is now. I don’t think she appreciated us all leaving her after the game, but she’s strong.”
He stared at me with his unblinking intensity and I didn’t flinch. Then he said, “I don’t like your friendship with her.”
“You don’t have to.” I shrugged, meaning every word. He could be as pissed as he wanted, but I hadn’t crossed any line. “She’s great to have around. Zade likes her. I’m allowed to, too.”
He didn’t have time to respond before Greta walked up and his attention went to her. She had that effect on him and, while it’d annoyed me at first, since I’d lost a little bit of both my best friends, they were perfectly created for each other. I left the two of them with their lovey-dovey expressions and went back outside to find Kenzie. She was leaning against the deck, her elbows on the ledge and two inches of her skin on display. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and hoped I didn’t look constipated.
I must’ve missed the dude next to her, the one leaning forward and running his nose down her neck. She giggled. I saw red. He brought his hand up to her bare skin and I clenched my fist, ready to knock him over the railing.
“Kenzie.” I didn’t mean to sound so pissed, but fuck it, I was. She blinked and looked back and forth between the soon-to-be-punched dude and me. She had the gall to look embarrassed and pushed him off her.
“Sorry, Keith. It was, uh, nice meeting you.”
“I’ll see you again, Mackenzie. That’s for damn certain.” He kissed her hand and gave me a look that saidshe’s mine.
Nope. Nope. Nope.I took her hand with more force than I should and dragged her inside. “Why are you—Who is that?”
“Are you upset with me?” she asked in the smallest voice. It made my chest feel squishy, a feeling I had never had before and one I instantly hated. “I’m sorry. Was I embarrassing? I was, I know it.” She hung her head so her chin rested against her chest, and I didn’t think before picking her up.
It wasn’t romantic. It was more caveman-like with how I carried her up the stairs and set her right outside her door. I tilted her chin up with my fingers and hated how sad she looked. “You didn’t embarrass me. I promise. I shouldn’t have made you feel that way.”
“Why did you?”
“I didn’t like seeing that fucking creep kissing you. Why did you let him?”
She leaned her head against her bedroom door and let out a small laugh. “I wanted to check off the other part of my list.”
“What part?”
“The part aboutforgetting Sean. He was the last guy I kissed and I want to erase that.” It was the way she said it. The words meant one thing, but the attitude and the subtle dare in the words were meant for me. I knew it. I could feel it in how she jutted her chin and wet her bottom lip.
I didn’t think. I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her. Our mouths met with an explosion of lust, her taste my new personal favorite flavor. She moaned, the little sound sending something rivaling electricity through my blood, and I deepened the kiss with my tongue, the need to have her strong enough for me to forget how to breathe. I was helpless, lost in her sounds and the way she met every stroke with one more daring, with how she clutched my shirt in her hands in a quiet desperation and with how her mouth was made for mine. Seconds, minutes, hours slipped away, and it wasn’t until a door slammed that I realized what I was doing. Whatwewere doing, and where we were doing it. I pulled back, loving how swollen her lips were from me and how her wide eyes looked at me with the same longing I felt.
“Did you forget about Sean?”
She nodded, moving her fingers to touch her bottom lip.
“Good. Now, go inside your room and lock the door. Don’t forget to checkforget Seanoff your list.”
She nodded again and snuck inside. I waited for the lock to click before I went into my own room, wondering how the fuck that had happened and what it meant. Because if I learned anything that night, it was that I wasn’t going to get only one taste of Kenzie Hill.
Chapter Nine
Kenzie
It was moments like these where I wished I had a girlfriend to confide in.Tanner Johnson kissed me.He’d kissed the hell out of me eight hours ago and my body hadn’t stopped humming. Never in my life had anyone been able to completely disarm me to the point I forgot where I was, who I was or why it was happening. It didn’t matter. I felt like one of the heroines in a romantic comedy, like the birds would start chirping in sync and rainbows would cover the sky.
Okay, that was a bit stupid, but it was the most passion I’d ever experienced and I’d never forget it. The way his soft lips pressed against mine, his strong hands gripping my chin like he never wanted to let go, and the way our tongues fought for control…that kiss destroyed me and I wasn’t mad about it one bit.
