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She laughs again, then sobers. “Colby, I don’t want to kiss Dexter.”
The way my heart leaps at those words should be embarrassing. I squeeze her knees with my hands, wanting to keep touching her and trying to hold back. “You don’t?”
She quirks her lips to the side. “No.”
“Good,” I say seriously, reaching up to tuck one of her blonde curls behind her ear. “Don’t kiss Dexter. Don’t kiss anyone but me, Noel. Please.”
She shakes her head, not breaking eye contact. “I don’t want to kiss anyone but you.” She pauses. “And you’re sure I’m not a bad kisser?”
I ignore her question and kiss her again.
CHAPTER 28
NOEL
Wow. I thought I’d been kissed before, but whatever is happening right now is completely erasing every kiss from Travis from my memory. Colby’s lips have magical, memory-erasing powers. All I want to do is yank his face back down and kiss him again and again. I’ve never had this frenzy of sensation before. This is what all my books are talking about… the chemistry between both main characters, the undeniable pull to one another.
Colby pulls back, his eyes dilated in a way that tells me he’d like to keep this up. But we have to talk about this. We can’t simply make out and go back to eating our pancakes, then leave Pancake Palace. Like, bye, thanks for the tongue action, buddy.
“When you blew me a kiss, was it honestly just for show?” I ask before I can chicken out.
He laughs, still sounding breathless. “Of course not. I wanted to jump over the glass and kiss you in front of everyone. Every time I see you, I want to touch you, kiss you.” He eyes dip down to his lap, his usual confident demeanor slipping. “Noel, I just want you to be mine, damn it.”
A watery laugh slips out and I slip my hand into his. “I’m sorry it took me so long to see it, to see how good we could be. But Colby, I think I’d like to be yours.”
The way his face lights up at my admission makes me fall a little harder. He takes my hand in his, his expression sobering. “What about Dexter?”
“Our date was truly horrible,” I admit. Colby grins and I give him a playful push. “And my heart wasn’t in it from the start. You crashed into my world like a literal wrecking ball. Miley Cyrus would be proud.”
He laughs at my joke, then I continue, “I’ve thought about you constantly since the charity auction. The way it felt to dance with you, the way you drive me crazy. And how annoyingly confident you are.” I groan. “You even ruined sweater vests for me!”
Colby breaks into a full-on laugh at this. “You were into that, huh? I knew you would be. You little freak.” He winks, and I roll my eyes.
Colby’s expression grows serious, and he absently rubs the back of my hand with his thumb. “Where do we go from here?”
“Can we just keep doing what we’ve been doing?” I ask. “But with more kissing?”
“I think that’s called dating,” Colby says slowly, a smile spreading across his face, showing off those magnificent dimples.
“I’m aware,” I tease. “But can we take things slow? My last relationship ended horribly. I never thought I’d recover. And it’s hard for me to trust because of it.”
He nods. “We can go slow. You set the pace. And I know I’ll need to keep earning your trust. I know I have a past, but I need you to know I would never, ever cheat on someone. After watching my mother go through that, I could never treat another person that way. Your well-being… your heart… is important to me.”
“Thank you.” My voice is thick with emotion. “I think I needed to hear that.”
“Another thing you should know,” he says carefully. “Never believe everything you read online. And stay away from comment sections.”
“I’m afraid you’re too late. PuckBunny69 already put me in my place.”
“Who?” he asks, his brow furrowing adorably in confusion.
“Nevermind.”
* * *
I could have talked to, and kissed, Colby all night.
We sit in the sticky, yellow booth for hours, but I have early classes tomorrow.
