Page 43 of The Boy I Once Loved

He slowly places his cider down and comes and stands between my legs. I am surrounded by his scent and it makes my heart beat faster.

“This should be good,” I hear Connor say behind us.

"Shush," Aria hisses at him. "I do need to see this."

“You ready?” He grins, looking all smug and self-assured.

“Oh, I’m ready. Bring it,” I reply, my voice sounding much more relaxed and confident than I feel inside.

He leans right into my personal space so that our lips are only a breath apart, and then he softly skirts his top lip over my bottom lip. It’s barely a touch, but I feel it everywhere. Then he brushes his bottom lip over mine again. I close my eyes, shutting out everything and everyone around us and just allow myself to feel. Slowly, he places his lips on mine and kisses me ever so gently. His lips explore mine, touching and teasing, and I lap up every touch and stroke. He deepens the kiss then and his tongue parts my lips and smoothly enters my mouth, brushing against my tongue. I feel his hands at the back of my head, pulling me in closer. I am kissing my best friend and it is more than I have ever dreamed it would be. It is like fire and ice all rolled into one dangerous and addictive combination. Someone groans, I have no clue whether it is him or me. But I kiss him back, letting my tongue taste him. He takes my bottom lips in his teeth and gently tugs, making me pulse down there. Then his tongue is back inside my mouth, exploring and setting me on fire.

“Holy hell.”

The sound of Aria’s voice pulls me from the trance I am in, reminding me we are standing in Katy’s kitchen with a very busy party going on around us. Dylan pulls back from me, his breathing laboured and heavy like mine, and we simply stare at each other, chests heaving.

“And that,” he tells me, clearing his throat, “is how you kiss a girl.”

I don’t have the ability to speak. My mind is still reeling from all the sensations and emotions that are hitting me.

“So, what’s the verdict?” He’s standing there completely calm and collected, and I have to remind myself that this is just a dare to him and nothing more.

I bob my head side-to-side. “I admit you are pretty good.” He rolls his eyes at my half-compliment. “You have excellent technique and that thing you do with your tongue is pretty good.”

“Best you’ve had?” He asks, arms folded, pressing me for a definitive answer.

“I wouldn’t say best I have ever had. I mean, I haven’t kissed Joe Jonas yet and I’m pretty sure he would blow you out of the water.”

“You can’t compare me to some singer who you will never get to kiss,” he protests.

“Then I can’t make a judgement on whether it was my best kiss until I have sampled many more contenders,” I tell him with a smug smile. There is no way I will ever admit that his kiss blew every other one out of the water.

Laughing from behind us has me looking over Dylan’s shoulder to where Aria is leaning against Connor’s back with her phone in her hand.

“Oh god. You didn’t just film that?” I ask her open-mouthed.

She gives me an apologetic shrug of her shoulders. "Sorry, but I had to. I promise it won't make its way onto social media. I'll send it to you both now and delete it, I swear."

I should be mad at her, but truth be told, I am dying to watch that video back on my own and see if it looks as hot and amazing as it felt. “I hope that girl you like didn’t see that, because if she did, I’d say you have lost any chance you had.”

He shrugs his shoulders, still standing between my legs, his hips brushing against my thighs. “This should feel weird right?” I ask him. “I mean we have been best friends all our lives.”

“It doesn’t feel weird. I mean, why would it? We’ve known each other for forever.”

I nod my head. The urge to grab hold of him and pull him back against my lips is all-consuming. If kissing Dylan James was an Olympic sport, I would be a gold medal winner because I would never come up for air. Part of me wishes I’d have hated that kiss and then this all-consuming ache of loving and wanting my best friend and knowing I couldn’t have him, will not forever haunt me.

A very drunk Lucas and Jack find their way to us, and their drunken wrestling soon takes the spotlight off that kiss. By midnight Katy has kicked everyone out and there’s just our small group left. I laugh at myself when I catch myself saying our group. I came back here determined to have nothing to do with Dylan, and now here I am, a part of his exclusive inner circle. We all head to the den as there is a huge-ass sofa in there that is like a giant bed that we can all slob out on. Plus, there is a huge cinema screen for us to game on or watch movies. Dylan and Connor sit on the edge of the enormous sofa glued to their game, so I sit back with Aria and Katy. Caleb and Freya have been M.I.A for some time and are likely holed up in one of the five bedrooms in this vast house. Aria makes me sit in front of her so she can plait my hair. I have changed with Aria and Katy and we were all now in comfy pyjama shorts and t-shirts. The boys had got changed into joggers and Dylan was in a pair that hung low on his hips and teased at that v that leads to his groin. He has thrown on a black vest that showed off his muscular arms.

“So, that kiss earlier,” Aria says casually.

I look over at the boys, but they are all chatting and concentrating on the game, so I know there’s no chance they are listening.

“What kiss?” Katy asks, suddenly seeming awake.

“Dylan dared Ella to kiss him before and well, they did for a full two minutes.”

I chuckle. "You were timing it? I'm surprised you didn't get out scorecards at the end."

“Oh, trust me, it would have been a ten. That kiss was hot!” Aria says, fanning herself and grinning.

---