Page 37 of One Night With You

“I didn’t blame you, that’s not why I didn’t answer my phone. That’s not why I pushed you away.”

“You ever going to tell me why?”

And that would be telling my feelings, but I’d already let him inside of me, so why couldn’t I do this?

“Because I had a crush on you,” I said point blank, knowing that if I could be strong here, I could be strong anywhere. His eyes widened, and I wanted to kick myself.

“You had a crush on me. As in past tense? So you pushed me away.”

I ran my hands through my hair, annoyed when I forgot that I had already had my hair in a ponytail. “It’s not that. It was more that I was going through a thousand things at once, and I needed to get over a crush, when it clearly wasn’t reciprocated.”

“I wouldn’t say clearly.”

“And yet you did nothing, and you never looked at me like that until recently.”

“Because you were Phoebe’s friend, and you were off limits.”

I exhaled. “I’m not off limits anymore?”

“Well, now I’m breaking the rules, and we’re going to have to deal with the consequences if there are any.”

“There won’t be. At least not with them. They’re our friends.”

“Then why haven’t you told Phoebe?”

“How do you know I haven’t?”

He smirked. “Because Kane would’ve told me.”

“Maybe Phoebe wouldn’t have told Kane because it would’ve been between us, or if she did share with her significant other, maybe he didn’t share with you.”

He shook his head, letting out a breath. “This is too fucking complicated.”

“So maybe we shouldn’t make it so complicated. Whatever this is.”

“You’re right. But that means we actually have to have answers.”

“You got me on that one.”

He leaned down and brushed his lips against mine. “How about we just work on keeping you safe?”

I nodded and fell into step next to him. I followed his moves, tried my best to put my thumb where it was supposed to when I punched out, and knew this was only day one. In the end I was sweaty, a mess, and had my back pressed to him, with his arms around me, only I was trying to get out of his grip, and it wasn’t working.

“You can do this.”

“I really can’t.”

I wiggled my butt, trying to get out, and Kingston groaned.

“Well, that’s one way to do it.” And that’s when I felt the hard length of him against my backside, and I swallowed hard.

“Oh.”

“Oh. Me holding you like this right now, this has nothing to do with self-defense, okay?” he asked, and his hold changed infinitesimally. And suddenly he was holding me softly, his hand sliding down my hip, and I groaned.

“Well, this is one way to end the lesson.”

“Sounds like it.”

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