Page 46 of Adorkable

CHAPTER 9

“What’d you call this again?” I gasped.

Becks lifted his head from my neck only an instant to mumble, “Nuzzling,” and then was back on the attack.

“Oh.”

If lesson one was hot, lesson two was freaking explosive. From this day forward I’d have to list nuzzling as one of my favorite pastimes. I was ready to burn up as Becks worked me over. His lips were hitting all the right spots, and whenever he found a particularly sensitive patch of skin, he’d mount a full-scale assault, kissing, nibbling, and stroking until I was a mushy heap of girl flesh at his mercy.

I think he knew it, too, because every time I gasped or stifled a moan, he’d double his efforts to make it happen again.

This was insane. I was insane for coming up with the F.B.F. idea, and Becks was insane for agreeing. It was impossible to separate my true emotions from the current situation. With every pass of his mouth, I became a little more his. Becks was already a part of me, but the reality of him was more than I’d ever hoped for. When a month’s time was up, I wasn’t sure I could go back to being just friends. I loved him so fiercely, had loved him before this, would continue to love him after. And all he’d ever feel for me was friendship.

This one, I thought sadly as Becks drew another gasp from my lips. This one could only end badly, and when it did, it was going to hurt.

A lot.

“How’s it going up—Oh my!”

Becks froze like a stone, arms anchored to my waist and back, lips attached to my throat, while I tried (and failed) to will myself invisible.

When I finally got the courage to glance up, Mrs. Kent was immobile, straddling the threshold of Becks’s room, one foot in one out, eyes staring at us on her son’s bed, mouth gaping in pure, unadulterated shock.

We were pieces on a chessboard, each waiting for someone to make the first move.

Clayton sauntered in, saw us, saw his mom, and smiled.

“Guess the jig is up, Bally.”

Mrs. Kent raised an eyebrow at that.

“Well,” Clayton explained, “I could’ve gone with ‘Secks,’ but considering the current situation—”

“Everyone downstairs,” Mrs. Kent ordered. “Time for a talk.”

It turned out “everyone” meant me, Becks and Mrs. Kent. Clayton had to get back to CHS for the JV game, but he assured us he’d rather have stayed and watched the real action. His wise-guy humor did nothing to lighten the mood. Mrs. Kent seemed to have taken a page out of my mom’s playbook. She was steely-eyed, pitched forward in her recliner as Becks and I sat side by side on the couch, but instead of finger-tapping, she sucked her teeth. It was a tossup which was worse.

“So you and Sally are a couple now,” she said after a particularly long suck, and I was glad she’d asked him, not me.

I’d already lied to one parent, but that had been about self-preservation. I wasn’t sure I could do it again, especially with the compromising position Mrs. Kent had found us in. Part of me wanted to deny it until I was blue in the face.No way, Mrs. Kent. Your son’s a girl-magnet equipped to give nuzzling lessons. He’d never be interested in someone like me.Another part wanted any denial to be a lie, but I was too smart for that.

“Yes,” Becks said.

“How long?” his mom volleyed back.

“Little over a week.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d demonstrated his acting chops from day one, but I’d never seen Becks lie to his mom. He did it with ease and confidence, like he did everything else. Even I almost believed him.

“And Sally—” Her eyes went to me, and I tried not to look too guilty. “—what were you two doing up there in Becks’s room?”

“Well,” I hesitated, unsure how to explain our lessons. “Well, Mrs. Kent…you see, we were just—”

“Doing what normal couples do,” Becks said smoothly.

“Watch it, mister,” Mrs. Kent warned. “You know you’re not allowed to have girls in your room.”

“Mom, Sal’s been coming to my room since we were seven.”

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