Page 87 of The Casanova Complex

Shifting on my feet, I reach up and drag my hand through my hair. “Uh… Thanks for inviting me.”

Merritt’s gaze narrows as she studies me, and then her expression shifts, and a wide smile overtakes her face. She steps out onto the porch and pulls the door shut behind her, stopping directly in front of me.

“Are you nervous, Bennet Legros?

“What?” I scoff, shaking my head. “Of course not. I play in an arena full of thousands of people every week, Mer Bear. I’m not nervous. Why would I be nervous? What’s there to be nervous about? Wh⁠—”

Suddenly, her hand slams over my lips, cutting off my clearly fucking anxious rambling, and she’s grinning as she looks up at me. Her brown eyes are light with amusement, her cheeks flushed pink, and Jesus fucking Christ, I want to kiss her.

I need to kiss her.

My thoughts are running together because they’re bouncing around my head like a fucking ping-pong ball right now, but I want to ignore everything and pull her against me, curve my hands along her waist, and kiss her until she’s breathless.

“You don’t need to be nervous.”

“Easy for you to say,” I mumble behind her hand, but it comes out more like “ez fuh u sy.”

Her head falls back, and a soft, fucking adorable giggle tumbles out of her that has me smiling against her hand.

I reach up, circling her wrist with my fingers, and gently tug it away, but she speaks before I can.

“It’s not a big deal. You’ll love my dad. And it’s just for show, Bennett… You don’t have to be worried.”

I hate the way that my chest feels tight as she says it, like I need the reminder that we’re temporary, that none of it is real. At least to her.

The irony of this isn’t lost on me.

That for the first time in my life, the something I want to not be temporary is the only time where it’s supposed to be.

For the first time, my feelings are more real than anything I’ve ever felt, and to her, it’s all fake.

But I’m not sure she’s ready to hear how it doesn’t feel all that fake to me anymore.

I swallow hard, keeping the smile on my face as I shrug. “You’re not meeting someone’s dad for the first time.”

Merritt laughs. “Okay, but my dad is like the least threatening person I’ve ever met.”

That’s supposed to reassure me, but she clearly doesn’t know how dads are when it comes to their daughters.

He might hate me. He’ll probably hate me.

“What about…” She lifts on her toes and stares up at me through her long, dark lashes. “A kiss? For… good luck. Obviously.”

Fuck me.

“One kiss?” The words come out hoarse and low, like they were dragged through gravel.

“Just one.”

My mouth twitches, the corner of my lip kicking up in a tiny grin, and I nod. Sliding my arm around her waist, I haul her against me, sighing when she’s pressed against my chest, her fingers twisting in the front of my shirt. I reach up with my other hand and cup her face, stroking my thumb along her jaw.

She’s right where she should be.

It might be fake to her, but if it was, then it wouldn’t feel this way. It wouldn’t feel like coming home when she’s in my arms. When we’re exchanging one breath after another with the rest of the world drowned out.

I don’t waste another second. Lowering my mouth to hers, I brush my lips gently against hers. The faintest brush that has her tightening her grip on my shirt. I do it again, letting my lips linger for only a few seconds longer, and feel her exhale.

“Are you going to kiss me or what, Legros?”