Page 45 of Something Cheeky

She opened her eyes slowly and found Derek’s kind and patient dark brown eyes. This man had seen her at her worst during college. When she’d lost everything that she’d worked for because she dared to stand up to their professor. Even her Boss Babes had never seen her in such a dark place.

He’d done everything in his power to help her then. And now he was back to help her find her way back into theater. A way back to the person she’d wanted to be all those years ago.

“I’m scared, too. As beautiful as your sketches are, they’re not why we’re doing this.” He licked his lips and swallowed hard. “We’re going to make this show so fucking Asian that people will either love it or hate it. No in-between.”

“No in-between,” she whispered.

“Theater is supposed to make people feel something, but we can’t tell them how to feel about it. We can only control what we put into it.” He squeezed her right hand and placed it on her chest over her heart.

Her stomach did another flip when his fingertips grazed her bare skin. She leaned into his touch. Without breaking eye contactwith him, she reached up with her free hand and pushed the hair that had fallen behind his glasses out of his eyes. Derek stiffened at first but relaxed as she ran her fingers down his cheek and then his jawline.

Had he always been so beautiful? She traced the five-o’clock shadow below his bottom lip, the one he bit when he was learning new choreography or when he was nervous. His expression didn’t change as she ran her thumb over it.

Zoe leaned in and kissed him. His lips were soft and inviting. Like she’d found her way home where she belonged. He kissed her back gently, as if she might break. Tiny shocks flicked through her body and her chest grew warm. She shivered as Derek ran his hand over her bare shoulders.

She deepened the kiss. He groaned and invited her to explore his mouth, causing a deep moan to escape her throat. A hunger like she’d never felt before possessed her body the same way she tried to possess his mouth. She pulled herself into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He broke free of her mouth to drop kisses on her neck down to her upper chest. Zoe tossed her head back as each one seared her skin. She reflexively rolled her hips into him and gasped as his hardness pressed into her mound. They’d never been this physically close to each other. Not in this way.

Her body was responding to his touch in ways that it shouldn’t respond to your best friend. Derek was her best friend. What was she even doing kissing him? Zoe pulled back abruptly.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” She stood up and walked to the other side of her living room.

“Zoe, it’s okay.” Derek’s face was red. He seemed as flustered as she was.

“I-I think you should go home.” Zoe’s face was hot, but thistime it was from embarrassment, not because his kiss had woken up these new feelings inside her.

“We should talk about this.”

“Let’s talk tomorrow. I’ll be up all night fixing this.” She waved at the mess on the coffee table. Zoe didn’t—couldn’t—talk to him because she didn’t know what was going on or why she felt compelled to kiss him right then.

Derek stood up and tried to grab her hand, but she backed away. She couldn’t trust herself to touch him. What if she couldn’t control the desire welling up inside her?

“Here, you can borrow my flip-flops and I’ll put your shoes in a bag.”

He nodded in resignation as she handed his things over. He was silent as she walked him to the door.

“You can always text me,” he said as she shut the door behind him.

Zoe leaned on the door as the kiss replayed in her mind. She touched her lips. With one kiss, she’d ruined years of friendship. But that moment had felt so... natural. So right. Her life was stressful enough. She’d complicated it even more by crossing the line with her best friend, who was also her director. This should never have happened.

So why did she want to run down the hallway and pull him back into her arms?

Chapter 20

“Exit, pursued by a bear,” Derek quoted Shakespeare’s infamous stage direction. “My friendship with Zoe is over.”

“You actors are so dramatic.” Th?o rolled her eyes. “Awkward, yes. Over? Probably not.”

He plopped on the plush black leather couch like some television patient in their therapist’s office. Th?o, who sat in the love seat opposite him, was scarfing down one of the burrito bowls she’d brought for them.

“You didn’t have to cut your night short for me. I should’ve waited. It’s your first night out since you got here.”

He’d texted a 911 to Th?o after walking out of Zoe’s building. Th?o was waiting in front of his apartment, food in hand, by the time he’d made it back.

“I needed an excuse to bail. TJ’s boundless energy was wearing me down.”

“You didn’t tell him, did you?” Derek sat up too quickly. The room spun.

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