Page 1 of Fundamentals in Flirting

ChapterOne

As a first kiss it was pretty devastating, actually.

I mean, it wasn’t my first kiss ever, just the first time I’d been kissed without wanting to throw up in the other person’s mouth. Usually, I was put off by too much tongue, or saliva, or lips that suctioned on in a wholly uncomfortable fashion, like a toilet plunger to the face. In fact, in my fairly limited teenage experience of kissing, it had felt more like my mouth had been subjected to the turbulent effects of snogging a washing machine drum, rather than the seductive and emotionally satisfying experience I had hoped kissing might be. Who wants to have to wipe spit off their whole face when you pull apart?Gross.

But kissing Teddy Fraser at his eighteenth birthday party, on a bench at the edge of the rugby club field, was an enlightening occasion. The evening was surprisingly warm, bright stars blanketing the sky above, the steady thrum of the bass from the disco a distant noise reverberating through the club building behind us, the heady smell of Lynx Africa filling my nostrils. But it was Teddy’s languid technique, unhurried yet thorough, large hands featherlight on my face, threading into my hair, that made me feel like I was the only person in the whole world who he wanted to kiss.

We were alone and a bit tipsy, and I thought for a few brief moments that I might truly be in love.

Until he pulled away and huskily uttered the following words, “Shit, Hannah Havens, I never thought someone like you would kiss like that.”

It took me a minute to register what he had said. Someone like me? What did that mean? We were still quite close together, noses almost touching, the orangey hue of the lamppost casting a shadow over Teddy’s face, but even in this light I could see that his pupils were blown, his ragged breathing fanning over my lips.

“What?” I asked, confused, my mind still a little slow after the three generous rum and Cokes that I had consumed. And the mind-altering kiss that I was still reeling from.

“You kiss like a porn star,” Teddy laughed, stroking a finger lazily down my cheek, leaning back in for round two if I wasn’t mistaken.

“Aporn star?” I replied incredulously.

In that moment, I think it dawned on him what he’d just said, and he lurched away sharply. “Er, well, that’s not quite what I meant. It’s just that you’re a surprisingly good kisser.”

“Surprisingly good?”

“Shit. What I meant to say wasunexpected. That was unexpected.” He was flustered. I could see that, but I wasn’t about to let him off the hook. Not Teddy Fraser, one half of the infamous Fraser twins, and cocky, confident, arrogant heartthrob of the upper sixth form.

“Unexpected? What were you expecting when you followed me out here and kissed me then, Ted?” Because he had most definitely instigated this kiss, not me.

I’d come out to get some air, my head pounding with the incessant drone of cheesy pop music. All my friends were either getting off with, or attempting to get off with, someone on the dance floor. Even my best friend, Betsy Okoro, who I knew wasn’t really into guys at all (although, I was the only one she’d tearfully admitted this to over our biology homework one evening), was snogging geeky Rob Parsons rather passionately by the girls’ loo. I’d been blissfully alone, and enjoying the peace, when Teddy had taken me by surprise, casually sitting next to me, even though there were at least half a dozen other benches he could have chosen. We’d spoken briefly – irrelevant chit-chat about his birthday and whether we were enjoying the party, then he’d leant in, close, tucking away a stray piece of hair that had blown across my face, his fingertips brushing my skin before slowly moving even nearer, lips hovering over mine.

With a soft exhale, he had said, “I’m going to kiss you now, if you want me to?”

I’d nodded. And in that second, I definitely had wanted him to, wondering if this would be the moment that finally lit up my eighteen-year-old brain with passion and longing for another person. Or if I was just in line for another wet-faced disappointment and would have to employ awkward avoidance techniques in the sixth form common room from now on.

But no, the kiss had been spectacular, and I was feeling wholly awkward for an entirely different reason now. And pretty bloody annoyed, actually.

In a practised move, Teddy ran his fingers through his floppy hair and gave me a wry grin. “If I’m honest, Hannah, I wasn’t expecting you to let me kiss you at all.”

“So why did you even try?”

“Because I really wanted to kiss you. Didn’t you want to kiss me too? It certainly seemed like you did,” he replied smugly, knocking his knee against mine.

He was infuriating. And gorgeous. But mostly infuriating.

I was in maths with both Teddy and his twin brother, Henry, and they were insanely good at it. Henry was pleasant and charming, kind to a fault really, and a few times he’d helped me get to grips with some particularly tricky homework. But Teddy spent more time chatting up the bevy of girls that followed the twins around than actually working, seemingly able to pull out eighty or ninety per cent on all the tests we’d had, without even having to try, like some sort of super genius. How was that even fair?

Yes, being around Teddy Fraser annoyed me greatly, and I should have remembered that before snogging his face off.

I shifted a little on the bench to give myself some more space. “It was an ok kiss, I suppose.”

“Just ok? Are you sure? Because you made this seductive little moaning noise, which made me think that you were enjoying it, Hannah,” Teddy murmured, glancing sideways at me.

My face heated a little as my mind flew back to a few moments ago, a time when I’d been lost in the feel of his lips and tongue, in the soft and insistent way they’d caressed me, the gentle nips and the feeling of his hands in my hair, warm breath over my skin as he teased his mouth down my neck.

“I’ve had better kisses, Teddy,” I lied, noticing with some satisfaction the slight slump to his shoulders. “But things definitely took a nosedive when you compared me to a porn star.”

I got up from the bench and smoothed down my slightly wrinkled top. This was the last party I’d be attending before knuckling down to revise for my A levels followed by a summer packed with the hours and hours of placements that I’d committed to since being offered a conditional place at vet school. There was no other option, no plan B for me. I’d wanted this for as long as I could remember and was on the cusp of realising my dreams. Boys were not on the agenda and I fully intended to get away from this particular one as soon as I could.

“I’m sorry I said that. It was meant to be a compliment. A fucking shit one, granted, but please don’t go yet.” Teddy reached out to take hold of my hand.

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