Page 46 of Last First Kiss
“It’s nothing. What were you going to say?” she asks, holding on to me a little tighter.
I bite my lip, wishing I could turn back time. I brought this up at the worst moment. Why couldn’t my mouth keep the words in like it is now?
I stare at Clara for an eternity.
“You’re scaring m?—”
“I want to kiss you,” I say quickly, cutting Clara off, and I swear my heart forgets how to beat for a second. Clara stares at me, frozen. She’s even stopped moving, and we’re just standing still in the middle of the dance floor.
“Keep moving, ladies!” Patty shouts, and I force Clara to follow my lead.
“Say something, please,” I beg her.
Clara’s gaze falls from my eyes to my lips, and she swallows—hard—before she licks her own lips. That sends a shiver aching down my spine, landing between my thighs.
Clara’s hand cups my jaw, holding me in place as her lips move to connect with mine.
“Fake, huh?” Isabella says as she dances around us with Lily in her arms.
God damn it. When did they even get here?
Both of them look at us with teasing smirks and raised eyebrows.
I clear my throat and laugh, because what else can I do with all this heat rushing to my face, all this adrenaline buzzing at my fingertips as arousal and annoyance mix inside me?
“What can I say? We were theater kids.” I laugh, and Isabella rolls her eyes.
“Whatever,” she says as she winks at us and dances away with Lily.
Our friends really have the worst timing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CLARA
Icould kill Isabella.
It took everything in me to throw caution aside and lean in, and now all I want is to get back to that moment. Especially with the way Alejandra is looking at me, like she wants it as much as I do. But Isabella’s interruption feels like the universe screaming at me to back off.
I’m not even the kind of person who reads into signs, but when it happenstwicein twenty-four hours? It’s hard not to. Maybe I’m not supposed to have this; it’s as if the world’s trying to rip it out of my hands before I even get to hold it.
“Hello?” Alejandra says, her voice low and concerned, like she’s been trying to get my attention.
I blink a few times, pulling myself back to the moment.
“Clara, are you okay?” she asks, but all I can focus on is the breathiness with which she says my name.
I nod, unable to do anything else.
“Are you sure?” Alejandra laces her fingers carefully through my hair.
“I—” I say before my throat completely closes. My heart is pounding against my rib cage.
Alejandra’s hazel eyes are staring so intensely into mine that I forget every word I’ve ever spoken, and I finally understand what it feels like to be lost entirely in someone’s eyes.
She lowers her hands to the nape of my neck, lightly dragging her fingers through my hair, sending every inch of my body into overdrive.
I do my best to control my breathing, trying to get back into the carelessness I felt before, and lean in. But I can’t. My heart pounds faster every time I think about it, and no matter how much I want to, my brain won’t let me.
