Page 70 of Landon & Shay: Part One

But then, she stopped.

She pulled back, her skin flushed and her cheeks rosy as ever. She combed her fingers through her hair and gave me a wary smile. “There,” she whispered, slowly rubbing her thumb along her bottom lip before she nervously bit that same lip.

Geez, Chick.

Bite it again.

“There’s your kiss, Romeo,” she said, opening her door and climbing out.

“Thank you, Juliet,” I said breathlessly. At least I thought I spoke. My mind was so fogged, I didn’t know which way was up. I readjusted my crotch region and leaned in her direction. “You think we should keep practicing? For the show. I want to put on the best performance possible.”

She laughed, and that sound made me harder.

Note to self, don’t wear jeans when around Shay. Sweatpants from here on out.

“Good night, Landon.” She shut the car door.

Landon.

Say it again.

She began to walk away, and I was still leaning in her direction like a desperate puppy dog craving its owner’s attention. I hurriedly rolled down the passenger window and called her way. “Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow,” I shouted.

She looked back my way, and her lips spread wide as her hands landed against her chest. “That I shall say good night till it be morrow.”

We quotedRomeo and Juliet. I began the line, and she finished it.

What…

The fuck…

Was that?

And who…

The fuck…

Was I?

I was having a hard time recognizing myself, but there I was sitting in my car, at half-past two in the morning, quoting Shakespeare to the girl I’d once hated. Hated—past tense. Truth was I couldn’t have told you the last time I had hated that girl. Maybe when she’d sat with me in my bedroom a year earlier, maybe never. All I knew was my lips tingled from the fact that hers had been against them, and I loved her taste.

I waited to make sure she made it back inside the house, and then I plopped backward into the driver’s seat. My hands fell onto my chest, and I felt my heart rapidly beating against my rib cage.

She did that to me.

She made my heart turn back on.

Her kiss gave me life.

There I sat like a drugged fool, grinning ear to ear because I’d quoted Shakespeare to a girl and she had quoted him back.

Maybe it was all part of the game. Maybe she was just getting in my head to make me feel things toward her. Maybe this was all fake, but in the moment I didn’t care, because it felt so real, felt so good.

Screw you, Shay Gable.

Screw her for making me feel again.

19

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