Page 37 of Charming my Best Friend

I swallowed.

She walked back over to me, keeping her eyes on the box of band aids while she pulled a few out. “Do you want Batman or Spiderman?”

“Is there no more Superman?” I asked, pretending to pout.

She groaned and dug her thin fingers inside the box. “Ah-hah,” she said, pulling out a Superman band aid.

I held my finger out in front of her and watched as she wrapped the cartoon bandage around it. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she said, lifting the box of band aids off the counter. “I feel like it’s kind of my fault for leaving you alone with the knife and the peppers.”

“Lucy.”

She looked up at me, her breath catching in her throat.

Then, before she could say anything, I lifted my hand and dragged my thumb across her cheekbone, sliding my palm against the side of her neck.

She froze when I touched her, neither blinking nor breathing.

I searched her eyes for a moment before lowering my gaze to her parted lips and kissing them, pressing my mouth against hers softly enough that she could’ve pulled away.

But she didn’t.

Instead, she inhaled, and I felt the breath she sucked into her lungs move past my lips and fill her with the energy she needed to kiss me back. I slid my other hand around her waist just under her shirt, a waist I had only ever held before to help her hop fences or for brief moments at school dances. But it was different this time because there was nothing between my rough hand and her silky skin.

I slipped my tongue in her open mouth and swirled it around hers, tasting my best friend for the first time and feeling her go slack in my arms as I did so.

I willed her to put her hands on me, to run them up my chest, but she seemed too overwhelmed by my kiss.

And it only made me want to overwhelm her more.

I dropped my hand from her cheek and scrunched the bottom of her shirt in my fists, eager to see the breasts I’d been thinking about since she bent over in the salon. But as soon as I started to lift it up, her hands came down on mine and pushed them away.

I craned my neck back and looked at her.

Her eyes were wide and her face was white except for her pink lips. “I have to go,” she said, backing away from me.

“No, you don’t,” I said. “Stay.”

“No, I really need to,” she said, grabbing her purse.

“I didn’t mean to upset you, I just got carrie-”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said, avoiding eye contact. “I just forgot I have to do something.”

“What?! What are you talking about? Wait! Lucy!”

She stuffed her feet back in her shoes without untying the laces and slipped out the door.

“I said I was sorry,” I called, swinging my front door open just in time to see the staircase doors closing.

I couldn’t believe it. She was in such a hurry she didn’t even wait for the elevator.

I closed the door and slammed my fist against it. “Goddamnit!”

What the fuck was her problem? I couldn’t have been any gentler.

And the truth was I wasn’t sorry I did it. I was only sorry she hadn’t given in to me.

Cause I thought she was going to. I really did, especially after she’d let me press right up against her and explore her mouth with my tongue. That was a fucking green light as far as I was concerned, and I never would’ve stopped there if she hadn’t fled like a goddamn Okie.

Worst of all, kissing her had been more amazing than I ever imagined it could be. I mean, I thought it would be fun, but the way she felt in my hands, the way she tasted...

It wasn’t like kissing my sister at all. Not that I’d ever kissed my sister, not like that anyway. And it wasn’t like kissing a friend either.

On the contrary, there were sparks, and everything that was familiar about her seemed to disappear in that moment until…

No, I definitely wouldn’t have stopped there.

So why did she?

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