Page 30 of Lips of an Angel

At fifteen, Raleigh was already a pro at kissing. I’d watched him make out with Kelsea Bryan at her house party over the summer. He was already six feet tall and filling out in all the right places. I didn’t want to think about how scrawny I was compared to my best friend.

“Hey!”

I spluttered, failing to catch the black shirt he threw at me before it hit me in the face. “What was that for?”

“I’m talking to you, but you’re on another planet.” He waited for me to pull on the fabric of the shirt, then he shook his head. “I changed my mind. The burgundy looks better on you.”

Stripping out of the darker shirt, I took the burgundy graphic tee and tugged it on, then frowned at the jeans he handed me. “These are a size too small.”

Raleigh’s eyes sparkled. “I know, and you’re welcome. David’s going to lose his mind.”

I rolled my eyes but wiggled into the constricting pants. “The only thing he’s going to lose his mind over is the fact that I’ve never kissed anyone.”

Raleigh froze so quickly, he nearly tripped. He spun around to face me, eyes wide. “You’ve never kissed anyone?”

Sheepishly, I shook my head.

Raleigh placed a hand on my shoulder and plopped me back down on my bed. I couldn’t fight him in those too-tight jeans. “What about that guy from last year?”

“I lied.” I’d been pushed into a closet with a boy during a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven, but neither of us had an interest in the other. We’d faked it together, rubbing our lips raw with our hands to make it look like we’d been making out the entire time.

“What time is David picking you up?” Raleigh asked.

I glanced at my phone, wondering how I was going to fit it into my pocket. “Half an hour.”

“All right.” Raleigh snatched my phone from my hands, set a timer for thirty minutes, and tossed it onto the bed. “Welcome to Kissing 101 with Raleigh Jenkins.”

My thoughts screeched to a halt so violently that I swore I heard a record scratch in my head. “Wh-what?”

He pulled his long legs onto the bed, moving in close. “You don’t know how to kiss; I do. I’ll show you what to do so you don’t make a fool of yourself.”

I blinked. Surely, he was joking.

“Come on,” he said, nudging my shoulder. “All you have to do is follow my lead. You’ll be fine.”

Okay—we weren’t joking. I swore my heart was beating out of my chest like a fucking cartoon. Swallowing hard, I shifted on the bed, folding my legs under me. I flinched when Raleigh brushed a lock of hair away from my face, then I settled into his touch, eyes fluttering shut. In that moment, I vowed that I would always wear my hair long enough for him to run his hands through it.

“Look at you,” Raleigh praised, and my breath hitched. “You’re a natural.”

When I opened my eyes again, he was leaning in. Oh shit, this was it. My first kiss—my first kiss withRaleigh.Time slowed, then seemed to stop altogether.

“Close your eyes, Angel.”

I snapped them shut, and I felt his breath on my lips a moment later. Soft, warm puffs of air against soft skin. I wasn’t breathing at all. I doubted I ever would again.

When our lips finally touched, my body lit up. Sparks flew, hitting places I never knew existed. Tingling spread through my mouth, across my veins and all the way down to my toes. Raleigh parted his lips, and I followed suit. Holy hell, wasthiswhat I’d been missing out on for so long? Had I known, I would’ve started kissing way sooner. Raleigh’s grip on my chin tightened, pulling me closer and pressing his lip ring into me. I moved happily. Something warm prodded my lips, and I instinctively opened them to give him access… it was sloppy and messy, and it wasperfect.

When he pulled away, I swallowed a sound of protest—and cringed when a string of spit left our mouths connected. Mortified, my hands flew to my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Raleigh laughed, cleaning his lips with his shirt. “That wasn’t half bad for a first kiss.”

I glanced down at my phone—it’d only been thirty seconds. Before I could second-guess it, I tugged Raleigh back in by the collar of his shirt. “Let’s keep trying.”

* * *

IdidkissDavid Ramsay that night, and like a pro, I didn’tdrool all over him. I suppose I had Raleigh to thank for that. I never saw the guy again, but the memory of my first date went down in history—for all the wrong reasons.

Raleigh handed the tequila back to me, and I took a long swig. I’d drunk so much of it that I felt the hint of a buzz forming at the edges of my mind. It would take more than one bottle to push me into wasted territory, but I knew that whatever I felt, Raleigh felt ten times more. I tipped the bottle and knocked back the rest of it. The glass clicked against the linoleum floor when I set it down. With his head on my shoulder and his right arm resting on my leg, I wondered for a moment whether he’d passed out.

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