Page 144 of The Ruse

Like I was exactly where I needed to be right now.

We just stared at each other for a long moment. And I was pretty sure it was probably time for me to kiss her again—it’d been almost two weeks since the last time I’d done that. But before I could, she started pulling off my coat that she had been wearing and asked, “Do you feel like you got to say everything to Bailee that you needed tonight?”

She wanted to talk about Bailee right now?

When we were finally alone in a secluded room, and she was looking gorgeous in her white dress? The skin of her shoulders and collarbone begging for me to touch them?

But then, of course she would ask about that. I had told Elyse that the last time I’d been with Bailee, I had fallen for her. It was only natural for Elyse to wonder if any of those feelings had come back tonight.

“I think I said what I needed to say.” I took my coat from Elyse and tossed it to the piano bench behind her, so I could take her hand back in mine. “Tomorrow morning, I might be wishing I’d chewed her out for running away and leaving me to deal with the mess, but…” I shrugged. “I think she realizes how much what she did affected everyone and that she wishes things had been different.”

“I think so, too.” Elyse let her fingers curl around mine. “Though, a tiny part of me does think you shouldn’t have been quite so nice.”

I chuckled and lifted my other hand to trace my thumb along her cheek. “Is this your way of saying that sweet and innocent Elyse Cohen likes to get revenge?”

She laughed her cute little laugh that always made me smile. “Maybe I just pretend to be sweet and innocent sometimes.”

“I guess I can see that.” I shot her a half-smile. “Since I’ve had the pleasure of seeing your bad-girl side come out once before.” The memory of how she’d kissed my neck and unbuttoned my shirt on that couch backstage came to my mind.

Her eyes flashed wide open for a second, like she was remembering the exact moment that I was.

“That only happens every once in a while.”

“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow. “Has anyone at Eden Falls Academy besides me experienced that side of you?”

Nash had said their ride home after their Broadway date had been epic.

But she shook her head and said, “Not even close.”

“Really…?” And since it was right there staring at me, I lifted the rose pendant on her necklace and said, “Not even the person who gave you this tonight?”

She pressed her lips together. Then meeting my gaze with soft brown eyes, she said, “I know I was at the ball with someone else tonight. But…” She glanced down for a second before looking back up at me. “All I could think all night was that I wished I was with you.”

“You were really thinking that?” My heart caught in my chest, suspended with the hope that she had actually felt the same way as me.

She nodded. And my heart, instead of falling back into position, just grew to fill up even more space.

Man, I loved this girl.

It was crazy how much.

“Well, that’s interesting,” I said, releasing her necklace so it could drop back in place. “Because that’s exactly what I was thinking all night, too.”

“You weren’t just glaring at me because you’ve always secretly wanted to dance with Nash and I was keeping you from him?”

I laughed. I slipped my hand up her arm, along her shoulder, and up to cradle her neck, and then whispered, “You’re way more my type.”

“Well, that’s good,” she said, angling her head back against the wall and licking her lips as if anticipating what was coming next as much as I did. “Because you’re exactly my type, Asher Park. Everything about you is exactly my type.”

And with that settled, I bent my head down the rest of the way to kiss the beautiful girl I could never get enough of. Her lips parted, and she seemed to sigh into the kiss, like she’d been waiting just as impatiently as I had for this moment.

But even though I’d been dying for this moment and hoping it would happen again, it was different from the last time we’d kissed.

When I’d kissed her backstage, it had felt like I was racing to kiss her. As if I was fighting against time and only had one chance to hold her in my arms and show her how I felt before something came and snatched the moment away.

But now?

Now we took our time. We kissed each other slowly. Savored each touch, each taste. Let the moment linger and grow and take on a life of its own.

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