Page 24 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

We were sitting beside each other, our arms touching. And maybe it was just me, or perhaps being secluded and away from everyone was messing with my mind, but I could feel the heat of his skin rise with each minute.

“But we wouldn’t know unless we tried, Nick. Sometimes you have to take that leap in life. And if there’s anyone I’d jump off a cliff with, it’s you.”

Was I actually justifying why we should date? He was like a brother to me. But looking at him today, spending this time with him, made me wonder whether that was just an excuse I’d been keeping in the back of my mind.

He leaned in closer, looking straight into my eyes. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

His voice was low, almost a whisper, and I didn’t understand what it meant or why it made me feel all these weird things on the inside. This was the first time ever that I noticed Nick’s freckle underneath his lower lip. His mouth was plump and very inviting.

“You have no idea how badly I want to kiss you now.”

“Then do it.” I leaned forward with permission, feeling my eyes slowly close instinctively, and then it happened. Our first kiss. A real kiss that I couldn’t have known just how much I wanted. The river stopped flowing and the wind stilled. The birds were no longer chirping above and trees paused their swaying motion. The world around us ceased to exist. It was just me and him. His warm mouth on mine as his tongue slipped in gently between my lips. I opened my mouth with a moan, then held my breath as his tongue played with mine. When he pulled away, I couldn’t believe what had just happened. This kiss was nothing like the one Carter had stolen from me earlier in the day. It was delicate, full of emotions, reciprocated and real. It took my breath away, filled my stomach with butterflies and prickled my skin with excitement. It was everything I’d always imagined a first kiss to be, and so much more. It was perfect.

I lifted my hand to my mouth, drawing my fingers over the delicate skin he had just kissed.

“You okay?” he whispered.

“I think so. That was… really good, Nick.”

His mouth curved on one side with confidence and then he grabbed my face between his hands and kissed me harder. This time his tongue dove deeper into my mouth and I felt my chest rise. I drew my hands up his arms, for the first time feeling the strength of his muscles. I could have kissed him like this for hours, if not days. Heck, I wanted to kiss him for days, but if I didn’t pull away my heart would rip out of my chest.

Where had he learned how to kiss like that? Yeah, I definitely would never think of Nick as a brother again.

“That was—”

“Good?” he asked.

“Very good.” I brought my hand to my trembling lips, trying to think about what the kiss meant.

“What does this mean?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, obviously I like you. Actually, I like you a lot, but you already knew that.”

Please don’t let there be abut. I wanted us to try to make it work, like other couples did. Go to the movies as a couple, hold hands as a couple, and date like the rest of the teenagers did. This was it. This was what I’d been waiting for, and I didn’t even know I’d been waiting for him.

“But I think everyone will treat us differently. I mean, do you think your dad and my mom will let us go up on the rooftop together, without peeking through the window every five minutes to see what we’re doing?”

“I… I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it that way.”

“Well, I have.”

“You have?”

“Every guy fantasizes about a special girl.” He shrugged.

He fantasized about me?I was still in a daze from our kiss, and I was afraid it would take some time for me to snap out of it.

“Okay, let me put it this way: if your father knew that I was kissing you on that rooftop, he’d never let us go up together, even if we just wanted to enjoy the stars.”

“I think you’re right.”

“And our friends are going to tease us. They’re not dating, and I don’t want them to push us aside. We wouldn’t be a group anymore.”

I could already see them excluding us from movie nights or swimming at the lake. It had happened before. I remembered when the seniors in our high school started dating and their friends made immature lip-smacking sounds. I didn’t want anyone knowing that we had kissed, or that we liked each other. I didn’t want them to treat us any differently; especially since I’d always been so close to Nick. Was it possible we could keep this a secret? The thought of dating in secret was exciting and I felt my heart skip a beat.

“And all this time, I’ll be thinking about your pink lips and how much I want to kiss them again.”

I gasped.

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