Page 20 of A Break in Communications

I didn’t even realize what I was doing, this close to Anna staring into where those dark eyes glimmered from the lights like stars all around us, and before I could realize what I was doing and catch myself, I’d leaned in, just enough to touch thetip of my nose to hers. It hit like flipping a switch, and she scrunched up her face more, blushing wider.

“I-I do not consent for you to kiss me,” she mumbled, a hundred different things in her eyes all at once. I laughed softly.

“I’m sure you spend a lot of time picturing that,” I said idly. She scowled.

“I’m not—”

“Good to establish these things,” I said lightly. “Consent is important.”

“Hm.”

“You’re so embarrassed,” I laughed. “I never thought I’d see Anna Preston herself get shy.”

She pursed her lips. “Too repulsed for words, actually.”

I smiled. “You can pull away anytime, darling.”

“And lose?”

I laughed. “Maybe that’s the reason you’re never dating anybody. Nobody’s challenged you to do it.”

She scowled harder, but that little pout in her lips said she couldn’t exactly summon a lot of venom. Probably hard to when you were touching noses with somebody. “I date people plenty.”

“Gutsy, as far as lies go, but I love a woman with some guts.”

She flicked her eyes away. “Don’t really care what your type is, Masters.”

“Hell of a thing to try claiming when your face is touching mine.”

She laughed—caught herself and rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t hide the fact that she’d laughed. Or that she had the most beautiful laugh. “Your breath smells like garlic.”

“You’re the one who put it in my mouth.”

“I’ll put something else in your mouth.”

I raised my eyebrows. She did a double take.

“I mean—that doesn’t sound right—”

“Damn, Preston. But kissing is where you draw the line?”

“No—I mean—” She wasredred now. She broke eye contact, looking down. “I just meant I’d… punch you in the mouth or… something like that… let’s move on past this—”

I couldn’t help the smile spreading over my features, even when I tried to suppress it. “What, get too nervous around a girl’s mouth?”

“Ugh—Lucy—stop that,” she muttered, putting a hand over her eyes.

“It’s okay. Only natural to be nervous at first.”

“Ugh, god. It isnotat first, thank you,” she said, looking away. “I’ve dated women before, I’ll have you know.”

Well, that was one way to make me painfully jealous. I never thought I’d be a possessive partner, but in another universe where I ascended to godhood and got the chance to be with Anna Preston, I believed I’d be a jealous harpy over her. “You strike me as the type to have experimented in college.”

She glowered. “How could you possibly know that?”

I smiled wider. “That means I’m right.”

She looked away, pinching the bridge of her nose, our little moment of linked eyes and touching faces broken now. I think I’d won. Maybe we needed to go to best of three. “So invested in my life story, Masters…”

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