“Okay.” I hated that he caught me looking at them. First dinner and now this? I was starting to wonder if he viewed me as one of the “less fortunate” his father always preached about. But the fact was, I didn’t want corndog breath so I snatched one, unwrapped it, and stuck it in my mouth.
Jett turned the laptop screen so it faced me this time. “Want to work your magic?” He reached for a notepad and began scribbling out a few notes.
“Sure,” I said. I grabbed my backpack and retrieved a notepad of my own, along with my favorite purple pen. I typed in the wordswhy do people kissand hit enter.
“Oh, that’s good,” he said. “I should have searched for it that way.”
I tucked the candy in my cheek so I could speak. “What did you type in?”
“About kissing.”
“Those two words? About kissing?” I glanced over in time to catch a hint of color appear in his cheeks.
“Yeah. Is that lame?”
I shrugged and set my eyes back on the screen. Now that I wasn’t starving anymore—in fact, I was more satisfied than I’d been in a long time—I could smell Jett’s incredible spicy cologne. I felt him looking at me too. I couldn’t decide if I liked that or hated it.
“Here’s one,” I said. “About why kissing feels so good.” I felt myself blush after saying the mere title. How was I supposed to read this one aloud? Getting rid of the candy was a good place to start. I crunched it up (an act my mom swears will make my teeth fall out) and took a quick gulp of water. I clicked, sighed out a deep breath, and began to read.
The article started with a few facts like the ones Jett read, but soon it moved onto possible reasons humans were so attached to the activity in the first place. My palms grew sweaty as I spotted the next line. This was starting to feel a little…personal, but there was no going back.
“‘The combination of abundant nerves and thin skin make the lips more sensitive than most areas of the body. In fact, there are more…’” I tried not to trip over the word, “‘neurotransmittersin the lips than in the genitals.’”
“Wow,” Jett said with a laugh. “Glad my dad didn’t walk in and overhear that line.”
I glanced over at him, laughter bubbling up my throat. “No kidding.” I set my eyes back on the article, pausing for a moment to find my place, when suddenly Jett picked up where I left off.
“‘The sensation of kissing sends signals to the brain’s reward and pleasure centers, unleashing a spectrum of neurotransmitters and hormones. These are so powerful they can cause addiction and even withdrawl.’”
Hearing those words in the masculine tone of his voice sent a ton of transmitters into motion in my own brain. In fact, I felt it everywhere.
“Oh, this is interesting,” he said. “‘The first draw of a kiss just might be traced to the fact that women often paint their lips a shade of red, a color which men are often attracted to.’” He glanced over, his gaze meeting my eyes, which made me realize how very close we’d gotten. His face was mere inches from mine.
I watched as his gaze dropped to my lips. I tried to remind myself of what the article said. Something about lipstick. Was he checking to see if I’d worn any? Ihadput on a color stain. One that would stay right in place and not even smudge. But it wasn’t red by any means—pink was more like it.Frosty Rose,that was the name of it.
Jett shook his head, an absent-looking motion, and turned back to the screen. I decided I should have been taking notes on that, so I grabbed my notebook and scribbled some of the things he’d said.
He read a bit more, something about a smelling test suggesting that women were attracted to men who had a difference in MHC which, from what I understood, had something to do with one’s immune system. The women from the study were attracted to men whose immune systems carried what theirs lacked, meaning their babies would have even stronger immune systems.
“Huh,” Jett said as he leaned back into his seat. “Guess that’s a little different from theromantic chemistryTolken was talking about.”
“Yeah,” I said. “To think I could be drawn to some guy, all because he was going to help me make healthy babies one day…”
Jett chuckled. “Yeah. Pretty crazy.” He was holding my gaze again. “But I liked the part that talked about, you know, how good it feels to kiss. I mean, it feels good tome, but I like knowing that it feels good for women too.” He shrugged with just one shoulder.
I wanted to speak up and say that yes, it was true. But I hadn’t had the best experiences so far, so I just nodded instead. When that didn’t feel like enough, I added to it. “Yup.”
Jett tilted his head, seeming to study my face.
“What?” I asked. Dang; my cheeks were going pink, I could feel it.
“You don’t like kissing,” he accused.
“Yes, I do.”
He shook his head, still reading my face like it was the latest game plan. “No, you don’t.” He nodded as if I’d actually given him confirmation. “Huh, that’s too bad.”
“What’stoo bad?” Now my defenses were picking up.Thiswas the pompous Jett I remembered. Heat spread over the back of my shoulders.
