Page 113 of The Ruse

I stopped that thought. Thinking about it would only make me think of taking this to another level and we were not going to that other level with each other right now.

Right?

Not when she was still going to a stupid ball with another guy.

Plus, she was wearing a white blouse, and you didn’t wear a black bra with a white blouse.

At least, I didn’t think that was how it worked. I’d never had to worry about that myself, but I was pretty sure I would have noticed the hint of black beneath her blouse a long time ago if it was there since I’d basically been staring at her all afternoon.

She sighed, and it was such a sweet and contented sound that made me inexplicably happy for some reason. I kissed her forehead. When she looked up at me with those golden-brown eyes I could gaze into forever, I had the overwhelming feeling that for once in my life, I actually had a home.

That I’d been lost and always felt out of place because I hadn’t known Elyse.

I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, letting my fingers continue to trace along her shoulder and back up again along her cheek.

She closed her eyes and gently moaned, saying, “That feels so good.”

And then we were kissing again. She rolled onto her back and pulled me on top of her. Any coherent thoughts that I might have been having before then went out the window, because I was lying down with the most beautiful girl in the world and it felt amazing.

Her curves against my edges.

And when her tongue flicked against mine, I literally couldn’t think anymore.

32

ELYSE

CouldI just do this forever? Could I just lie here on the couch with Asher and kiss him until I died?

Could I forget about school, and the musical, and homework, and eating, and just stay right here and kiss him for the rest of my life?

Because if this was how it felt to kiss him, to really kiss him when I knew it was him and when we were just ourselves instead of acting for a play, I might just become an addict.

Could you be addicted to a person? Was that a thing?

I knew you could be addicted to substances. Addicted to getting the high you got from them.

But could you be addicted to a specific person? Because I had never felt this level of a high from kissing anyone else.

And I wanted more of it. More of his lips on mine. More of his body pressing into me. More of the way his skin felt beneath my hands.

Until this afternoon, I didn’t think I even knew a guy could have so many muscles. Ava had bragged to me about how Carter had an eight pack, and how he basically had muscles everywhere, but I’d thought she was exaggerating because she was so obsessed with him.

But now that I’d seen Asher’s impressive upper body and had the opportunity to slowly graze my fingertips across the ridges of his stomach muscles, I knew firsthand that such a thing did exist.

He was a work of art, and I was the girl who wanted to memorize every part of him.

“You still okay with this?” Asher asked breathlessly.

“Yes,” I said. “I want this.”

Way more than I dared tell him. Way more than I’d realized until we were here and doing this.

“And I’m not crushing you?” he asked, pulling back and lifting his weight off me a little.

I shook my head. “It’s perfect.”

He was heavy—muscles weighed a lot. But it felt amazing.

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