Page 104 of Falling Overboard

Now I wanted to kiss him. “Let’s start the movie.”

“Need the distraction, do you?”

He understood me far too well.

We began to watch and I did my best to pay attention to the plot. I had always loved this movie, even if I was always outraged on Calamity’s behalf that her supposed best friend stole her crush.

I paused the movie. “Do you know what’s annoying?”

“Not being able to kiss you?”

“No,” I said, although that was very annoying. “If Katie had just told Calamity that she wasn’t Adelaid Adams, Calamity still would have brought her back to Deadwood. She didn’t need to hide who she was.”

He nodded and looked pensive. Like there was something he needed to say. I waited.

“Lucky, there’s something I need to get off my chest.”

Good heavens, please let it be his shirt,I fervently prayed. Which led to thoughts of his torso in general and how magnificent it was, what it had been like to touch him and kiss him, and the next thing I knew, I was leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his throat.

“What was that?” he asked, both confused and delighted.

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have done that. I was just picturing you without your shirt—” I covered my mouth with my hands. I seriously needed to shut up.

“And then you were overcome by lust for me?”

“Something like that.”Exactly that.“I didn’t mean to do that. It was completely involuntary.”

There were only so many times I could use that as an excuse. Even though it was true. One minute I was thinking about him and the next my mouth was fused to the man’s neck. Like a deranged, starving vampire.

What was wrong with me? I had told him we couldn’t kiss and here I was, less than twenty-four hours later, doing exactly that.

“Do you have any other body parts that like to do involuntary things?” he asked playfully.

“No!” I quickly exclaimed. I had to head this off immediately before the rest of me started getting ideas.

“Does this mean we can kiss again?”

“Kissing was a onetime thing. Well, I guess technically now it’s a one-and-a-half-time thing. But definitely not a two-time thing!”

“One and a half? What was the half?”

I gestured in the direction of his neck. “I kissed you but not on the mouth.”

“How is that half a kiss?”

“If I had kissed you on the lips, then it would be a full one.”

“So ...,” he said, his fingers drifting up my arm, leaving tiny trails of fire everywhere he touched. “If I kiss you someplace that’s not your lips, it would count under that half that you’ve already done.”

That made perfect sense to me. I nodded.

“If I kiss you on your cheek”—his fingers caressed me there—“or on your neck, on your jaw, your eyelids, your earlobes ... that still only counts as half?”

“I mean, that’s only logical.” I sighed as he kissed me softly on the cheek, the stubble from his jaw rubbing against my skin. “You make my brain turn off.”

He pulled back. “I’m ... sorry?” As if he weren’t sure how to respond.

“It’s a good thing,” I told him. “When I’m with you like this, I can just be present and enjoy myself without worrying about the five hundred different ways things could go wrong. You help to quiet that anxiety I feel.”

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