Page 43 of The Kiss Countdown

I go back to my phone. At least he doesn’t seem so sad anymore.

When he shifts, he rests his right hand down in the space between us. It’s dangerously close to my thigh, and all those images I managed to suppress come dancing back up like they’re in line for a soul train. In my head, a miniature Amerie dances down the middle, shaking her hips while beckoning Vincent forward with a sensual curl of her finger.

I catch myself just as I begin inching my leg closer to his hand. What is going on here?

“Is there a full moon tonight?” I ask. That would explain why I can’t get ahold of my libido around him.

“Uh...” Vincent turns his head to me, eyebrows pinched. “No. It’s a waning crescent.”

I blink, having no idea what that means. “Well, how many days is it until the full moon?”

“Twenty-one.” He studies me and tilts his head to the side. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious.”

If it’s not the moon, it must be that the long, stressful drive has gotten to me. What I need is a rest. In the morning, I’ll be back on my game and not thinking of all the things I’d be doing with Vincent right now if our relationship were real.

Abruptly, I place my phone on the nightstand and turn off the small lamp. “Well, good night.”

“Good night,” Vincent says after a moment of hesitation.

He’s probably wondering why I’m acting so erratically, but it can’t be helped. I turn to the wall—away from Vincent—and close my eyes.

It’s ages before I finally fall asleep.

Chapter Fifteen

What I hated most about moving as a kid were the first few days of disorientation from waking up in a new room. A sense of knowing, before I even opened my eyes, that something wasn’t quite right. That the sounds filtering in through the window were coming from the wrong side, or the hum of the ceiling fan was off pitch.

So when I wake up after a restless night, the first thing I notice is that the suburban noise of cars and buses passing outside is absent. The second thing is the hard body I’m plastered to.

My eyes pop open, and I find my face burrowed into the back of Vincent’s neck. Good Lord.

There was plenty of space between us last night, but I guess at some point I must have turned over, and now here I lay, wrapped around him as tight as an anaconda, with my breasts smashed against his back and a thigh thrown over his hip.

What I need to do is keep a cool head. Hyperventilating will only wake Vincent up, and he’ll feel how close I’ve gotten. Probably think it’s on purpose too. It’s one thing to fall asleep on the couch in his office, but to sleep glued to him? Yeah, he’d never let me live that down.

A little voice in my head, which sounds a lot like Gina, tells me to enjoy this wake-up call. My body is quite comfortable with him under it. Why ruin the moment when Vincent is quiet for once?

Gina is such a bad influence. With even breaths, I slowly move my leg to extricate myself as calmly as possible. Then I realize it’s sandwiched between Vincent’s hip and arm. With the slight movement, his hand flexes and his fingers move along the outside of my leg. At the same time, something nudges against my calf. It’s hard and growing bigger by the second.

I swallow. Vincent—allof Vincent—is waking up. I ignore the pulse of heat rushing through me and yank my leg back. I scoot back to my half of the bed, stopping before I roll off the edge.

My sudden movement causes Vincent to jerk awake and he faces me with wide, bleary eyes. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s great.” I look down and quickly cross my arms over my hardened nipples.

Vincent yawns and stretches before grabbing his phone and checking the time. When he speaks, his voice still has a layer of sleep over it that gives his deep timbre some extra rumble. “That internal clock of yours is on point. In another five minutes my alarm was set to go off.”

What I get out of that is, I could have enjoyed the warmth of his body for a few more minutes. What a shame.

“I’m a fine-tuned machine,” I say. “It was the plan to leave early for the hike, right?”

“Yup.” Vincent stretches again. I can’t help but appreciate the up-close-and-personal view of his biceps flexing, but quickly avert my gaze when he turns to me. “We’ll eat breakfast first, then head out while the sun is still low.”

“Sounds good to me.”

I’m in a better mood now than I am most mornings, looking forward to the planned hike with everyone. Vincent told me how his mom, having grown up in this town, taught them how to navigate trails as they were growing up. Before moving to Houston, she volunteered as a trail guide at Garner State Park in her free time. And even now, she comes back regularly throughout the year for a dose of fresh air and weekends spent outdoors. Her birthday wish was to spend a few days hiking with her children.

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