Page 36 of False Start

I drop my hand down enough for my thumb to sweep over his lower lip, plump and soft. “Please, just answer me.”

“I told you, I don’t think I’ll ever stop.”

“But you’re trying to, right?” I don’t know why that sends fear through me, but it does. I don’t want him to stop loving me.

“What’s this about?” He’s watching me carefully now, but he doesn’t push me away.

“I just want to know.”

“If I’m trying not to be in love with you?” I nod. “I don’t know. I can’t think with you standing this close.” That gets my attention, and I look from his lips to his eyes, seeing his confusion. “You make me dumb.”

The right side of my mouth kicks up into a cocky grin now. “Because you want me to kiss you?”

“Vaughn.” His eyes darken a little as his hand wraps around the wrist of the hand I currently have on his cheek. “Don’t.”

“Don’t kiss you?” I’ve moved in closer to him. The cloth of my shirt brushes the bare skin of his chest, and I curse the fact that I didn’t take my shirt off.

My eyes dart to his mouth as he licks his lips, his pink tongue subtly running along the full bottom lip my thumb was just on. “Don’t tease me. It’s cruel.”

I swallow hard now, letting my hand slide back into his soft hair. “I would never tease you, and I would never hurt you. I just need to hear that you want me to kiss you before I do it.”

He smiles, but it’s cautious. Like maybe this is a trap. Which tracks for Austin. He’s smart—sometimes too smart for his own good. He overthinks everything. “I’ll never say no to you kissing me...”

That’s really all I need, even though I know there was likely more to that sentence. All I needed to know is that he wantsme to kiss him, and I don’t think about anything else. It doesn’t matter. The only way to actually know if kissing him will feel good is to do it.

So I do. I let my fingers thread through his hair, and I crash my mouth into his, making him grunt in surprise. But as soon as our lips touch, it’s all over for me—because that spark is there.

It’s not a guy I’m kissing instead of a girl. It’s Austin, and it feels right.

He finally starts to move with me, his arms wrapping around my neck as I feast on his sweet mouth. Sucking on his bottom lip, making it swollen and so very mine. That’s what this feels like right now—a claiming.

He’s mine.

My tongue licks across the seam of his mouth, and he doesn’t hesitate to open for me, allowing me to stroke his tongue with my own. To explore his lush mouth. The whimpers he makes as he holds onto me and kisses me back with everything he has should be illegal because I get why he said I make him dumb. I can’t think. I can barely breathe.

All I want is more.

But then he starts to pull back. I chase his mouth with my own, and he laughs, kissing me over and over, biting at my lips as he seems to force himself to pull back. We’re both panting, hungry for each other. I can feel his hard dick against my leg, and my own cock is throbbing, but I can tell he wants to talk.

I’d much rather kiss some more, but I’m not going to be a pushy asshole.

“What’s happening?”

I can’t resist a quick peck against his pouty mouth and grin. “Kissing. Lots and lots of kissing.”

“But...” He drops his arms from around my neck, and I watch in fascination as he brings two fingers to his lips, running them over them. “We don’t kiss.”

“We didn’t. We do now. Or at least I want to.”

“But you’re . . .”

“Straight?” I say on a laugh. “I think we’re past that.” He bites on his bottom lip, and I can’t resist reaching up and freeing his lip from his teeth because—mine. “I really want to kiss you some more.”

But instead of doing that, he moves past me and goes to sit on my bed. He looks up at me. “What changed? Is it because you and Vanessa broke up?”

I sit down next to him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Are you lonely?”

---