Page 169 of Something Rad
Her brows pull together. “Why?”
“Because,” I shake my head, “Ialwaysget what I want. But, this time, it’s different.”
Her eyes search my face. “And what do you want?” she asks, her voice hoarse.
“What Iwant…Cooper…” I drawl, leaning impossibly closer to her, “is the willpower to walk away from you. Because…I’m scared of what will happen to me if I succeed in resisting every painstaking urge, desire, and impulse I have to touch you right now. To shove you up against this car and show you just how extraordinary I think you are. Then, just so you really get the picture, lay you down across my backseat and do it all over again.” I pause, licking my lips. “But what I think I’m even more scared of, Cooper…what I’m goddamnterrifiedof…is giving in…and you never letting me do it again.”
The heat between us is blazing. Within the mere inches of space between our faces, I can feel the sharp crackle of tension drawing us together. I feel frozen in place. A million thoughts running through my mind at what Cooper could possibly be thinking, about what I could possibly expect her to respond to what I just said. But, as per usual, she completely surprises me.
“You kissed me,” she whispers.
“Yeah,” I nod, my eyes flicking down to her lips.To the scene of the crime. “I did.”
“But it was only because you had to.” She doesn’t say it as a question, but more as a statement.
I reach up, pushing a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. “Was it?”
“Yes,” she confirms, breathless.
“How are you so sure?”
“Because it would be crazy if not,” she says.
“Crazy,” I repeat, nodding. “Yeah. I guess that would be crazy.”
“Right,” she agrees, giving her own nod.
I tilt my head in the opposite direction, a playful smirk pulling at my lips. “You know what would be crazier?”
She raises her brows, questioning me.
“If I did it again.”
Cooper’s spine straightens, her throat bobbing. “You shouldn’t.”
I lean closer, grazing her nose with mine. “What if I want to anyway?”
“You can’t,” she insists, her voice trembling.
I lean back just slightly to look at her. “Why not?”
“Because we don’t do that.”
“Hate to break it to you, Cooper, but wediddo that,” I retort. “You kissed me too.”
Cooper shakes her head, slowly at first, and then almost frantically. When her words come out, they’re barely a whisper, her voice cracking as she tries desperately to convince herself more than anyone else. “I hate you.”
“Yeah, I don’t really think you do,” I tell her.
She slowly raises her gaze to meet mine, and I can feel her exterior cracking as she does, the wall we’ve built between us slowly crumbling down.
“Do you feel it? Right now?” I ask, brushing the back of my hand across the warm skin of her cheek, causing her to suck in a sharp breath.
“Feel what?” she asks.
My eyes follow the stroking path of my knuckles against the side of Cooper’s face. “The fire?” I breathe.
Her eyelids become heavy all of the sudden.
