Page 68 of The Last Key
DEVON
Saturday
The ballroomof the inn is a ghost of dances past. There are streamers everywhere in our school colors—red and gold—with the same colored balloons as the centerpiece for each table. It throws me right back to high school dances, many of which were spent with the gorgeous girl next to me.
“Oh my gosh,” Kennedy says with something between a gasp and a laugh. “Quite the transformation from yesterday morning.”
“It definitely is.”
“Oh, look,” she says, pointing toward the projector screen where photos of us from high school next to current ones flash over the screen. She watches for a moment until hers appear. “Thanks for picking a good picture of me. You could have told me I needed to give them one.”
“You could have checked the email. I just assumed you didn’t, since you didn’t mention it. And I don’t have any bad pictures of you.”
She spins to face me, eyebrows raised. “We both know that’s a lie. Do you not remember all those selfies we used to take?”
I bite my lip and pull out my phone, unlocking it and showing her the background. “You mean like this one?”
Her eyes flare. “Really? Of all the pictures of us,thatis your home screen?”
The picture is from when we lived in New York. We’re at her apartment, and for some reason she’s licking my face. Based on the look in our eyes, we’re both pretty drunk, and I’d bet money we cuddled in bed that night while both dreaming we’d take things further.
“It was the closest I got to kissing you.”
“Well, we need to change that. Come here.”
She leads me over to the wall, standing in front of a Brighton High Bison’s poster. Grabbing my phone, she holds it up and snaps a selfie of her kissing my cheek. When she’s done, I snatch the phone from her hand and hold it out, then pull her close and capture her lips in a soft kiss as I snap a picture.
“Perfect,” I say, looking at them and setting the one I took as my home screen and the one she took as my lock screen.
“Wow,” she says, looking around the room again. “This takes me back. Prom. Homecoming. All those high school dances.” She tilts her head as she looks up at me. “Dances we always seemed to go to together. Was that a coincidence?”
I smile wide. “Nope. If we went to dances together, I had an excuse to hold you, dance with you, spend the evening with you. In my mind, it became a tradition after I asked you to homecoming freshman year. I tried to always be single for homecoming, and when it came time, I was determined to take you to prom.”
“Which you did,” she says softly.
“You wore that silver and dark gray dress. Smokey eyes?—”
“Courtesy of Claire.”
“And your hair was long and relaxed. Your bangs framed yourface, and you looked so gorgeous. My dick hated me all night long, but my heart was happy.”
She smiles wickedly. “Well, at least you know your dick will be happy tonight.”
I groan as I lean in and kiss her. “You have no idea what you do to me.”
She rolls her body against mine. “Of course I do. Same thing you do to me. Light me on fire, fill my heart, and”—she drags her finger down my chest—“turn me on.” She grazes her lips over mine, then turns away. “Come on, let’s get some food.”
I watch her hips sway in the belted mauve dress she’s wearing and decide food can wait.
Catching up to her, I wrap my arm around her waist. “I have a better idea. Come on.”
“Devon—what—where are we going?”
“Somewhere special,” I tease, dragging her out of the ballroom and down the hallway toward the kitchen. Once in the kitchen, I lead her over to the pantry and pull her inside, shutting the door behind us.
I flick the light on and find Kennedy looking up at me, eyes dancing. “We need to find something to play spin the bottle with.” Her voice is soft but sultry. She turns around and pretends to look over the shelves, before sighing, turning back around, and finally asking the question that set everything else off. “Do you really want to play spin the bottle?”
I move closer, looking deep into her eyes. “There’s only one girl I really want to kiss.”
