Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have kissed him—or anyone else—without asking first. Not unless I knew for sure they were okay with it.
You’ll thank me later.
Yeah, sure, he’d bethrilledabout it. I loved it when strangers kissed me out of the blue, too.
… I probably didn’t hate it nearly as much as he did.
We got through the front door and I hung the keys on the hook beside it so we’d be able to find them in the morning.
If Carter still wanted me to be here in the morning.
“I’m so sorry,” I said as soon as Carter sat down on the end of the bed.
He frowned at me, a tiny line forming between his brows. “What are you apologizing for?”
“For kissing you,” I said, suddenly uncertain. I’d definitely done that and it’d definitely been a surprise for him.
“You were rescuing me.” Carter shrugged. “Like you said, I’m grateful. Thank you for stepping in. I had no idea what to do.”
“But…”
“Way less weird than the time your brother kissed me,” Carter added.
What?
“I…” I began, not sure what to say other thanwhat?
Carter chewed on his lower lip, like he maybe hadn’t meant to say that and regretted it now.
“When did he… why…what?” I blurted out, still trying to work the whole thing out in my mind.
Carter had kissed my brother.
Mybrotherhad kissedCarter, which seemed really unfair considering how badly I’d wanted to.
“Uh.” Carter scratched the back of his neck. “The summer before college. He… we… it was…”
Pleading grey eyes looked up at me, real distress written all over Carter’s face. I couldn’t unhear what I’d just heard, but Icoulddrop the subject.
“Never mind,” I said, forcing myself not to think about it or ask any other questions.
Maybe I could get it out of Kieran sometime.
“Is it cold in here?” I asked as a shiver ran through me. I was still wearing my coat, but I’d thought the lingering cold was just because we’d been outside for a while and my body was still warming up.
But no. The air in here was cold.
“Did we forget to put the heating on?”
“It’s central,” I said. “Climate controlled. There’s an instruction manual. Maybe they forgot to switch it on for us when we checked in?”
“It was warm before,” Carter said.
“I’ll call the front desk,” I volunteered, striding over to the actual, real-life landline in the corner.
It’d been years since I’d used one of these, but there was a handy list of numbers on a laminated card next to it.
Don’t think about Carter making out with Kieran, I told myself as I dialed the number.Don’t think about Carter making out with you, either.
