"Are you hot, Sunny?" His icy voice took on a teasing tone. "Already? We haven't even begun the class. Maybe we should turn on the air conditioning."
"No, I'm fine, I…" I broke off, too flustered to finish that obvious lie. "I just don't understand what tonight's dinner has to do with right now. Why are you doing this right now?"
"We've got fifteen minutes before class starts. We should practice."
"Practice what?"
Cole answered my question by dropping his gaze to my lips.
"Oh, you want to kiss me?" My heart was pounding so loud inside my head, I was afraid I might not be able to hear his answer.
"No," he replied, the word soft but succinct enough to be heard over the chaos in my brain. "I'm not in the habit of PDA. Ever."
"Oh..." I wasn't sure how to feel. Relieved or...something else. Something else I refused to believe was disappointment.
"I want you to kiss me. Show everyone exactly how you charmed me into that proposal."
"Oh, you wantmeto kissyou." Was it possible to die from embarrassment? It truly felt like a possibility, the way my face had caught flame.
"Yes," he answered without a quaver in his voice. “I believe everyone would agree you're the kind of affectionate that could be contagious. Even for a cold bastard like me."
Well, he had a point. And I could probably stand some aversion therapy, if only to make sure I didn't turn into a puddle of goo in public whenever he got too close to me.
I rose on my tiptoes and gave him a peck on the lips. Just a peck. A press of the lips to prove I was a big girl who wasn't scared of him—even if his closeness made me feel like a gangly high schooler again with no idea what to do with her hands outside of ballet class.
My kiss was teasing, more of a challenge than a serious gesture. At least it started out that way.
But his mouth was warm. Surprisingly warm. It wasn't like kissing an Ice King at all.
Before I could think better of it, my tongue darted out, pressing into the seam of his lips.
Once.
But not twice.
Because Cole suddenly inhaled me, his strong hands cupping either side of my face. His long, lean body pressing me into the mirror.
Emotion surged inside of me, overwhelming my good sense with its intensity.
This wasn't a kiss. It was something else. A greedy claim. A devouring hunger.
Cole's kiss ate me alive. And I could do nothing at all to stop it—just bunch my fingers into the front of his knitted shirt as I completely surrendered to his all-consuming fire.
"Ooohhh!!! Teacher’s got a boyfriend! Teacher’s got a boyfriend!"
The singsong voice crashed me back to reality.
I shoved Cole—and the unexpectedly hot kiss—away to find Lucia Reyes, one of the show group's principal dancers, pointing at us from the door.
She was only eleven years old. But she'd just started middle school last September. And mid-schoolers could gossip. Like, in another language that I barely understood, but with so much pointing and giggling when it was about you, youknew.
Oh, this is bad. This is so bad!
Still, I tried to play it off. "Oh, hi, Lucia. You're early!" I slipped out from between Cole and the wall. What had I been thinking, taking his dare right before class? I'd obviously lost my entire mind.
No, I corrected myself, Cole had purposely gone out of his way to make it so I couldn't think straight. I threw him an angry sideways look, even as I kept my voice level to introduce him to Lucia. "This is my friend Cole."
"You mean your boyfriend!" Lucia singsonged back. "You mean your boyfriend!"
