Page 69 of Bullied By The Bad Boy

“Oh.”

“Ah.”

“Um, thanks?” I whisper. He’s making this even more uncomfortable.

“Um, you’re welcome?”

We are the weirdest partners I know. We don’t talk to each other. Fortunately, the summary is our first group assignment. Except for sitting beside your partner during class, we don’t do any teamwork. Ben runs his fingers over his sweatpants as the silence grows more uncomfortable.

“You went to Nate’s party?” he asks. Grateful for a switch in topic, I nod. “What happened?”

“Your girlfriend. She doesn’t want me around you.”

A moment passes. I wait for that mocking laughter, but he doesn’t laugh. A strange emotion fills his eyes. I don’t want to stare into them, but they are begging me. I tear my gaze away from his face. “She’s not my girlfriend.” I scoff, and his face grows serious. “Liv is not my girlfriend.”

“Yeah?” He lowers himself to the concrete surface, and I settle down with enough space between us. He called her Liv, but she’s not his girlfriend. I don’t believe him. “So…you two broke up?”

Ben shrugs. I kick him, and he responds with a laugh. He might be correct since she came to the party with Noah. But having a boyfriend has never stopped Olivia from flirting with other guys.

I sneak a glance at Ben. He’s staring into space. “Maybe because you are a terrible kisser?”

He turns to me. I should back off, but I hold the bad boy’s gaze. “Am I?” he whispers.

The playful note in his voice encourages me to add, “I wouldn’t know. I’m not the one you—”

Ben cuts me off with his lips. My mind blanks, and then my thoughts rush back with violence.

Benjamin Carter is kissing me.

What do I do?

Do I use my tongue? What about my hands? How should I act?Think.

Ben nibbles on my lip when I remain unresponsive. A low growl escapes him, and I melt against his chest. My eyes close. I follow his lead, kissing him back clumsily and sucking on his lips to the best of my ability. He pulls away too fast, and my heart clenches. We miss him and his soft lips.

“So?” he says, eyes gleaming with glee. I must look a mess. Just one kiss, and I am speechless. Ben appears okay. Why wouldn’t he? He kisses girls like Olivia regularly. I put some distance between us, but he pouts and covers it. He traces my lips with his thumb, sparks dance on the spot, and my heart pounds in my ears. Olivia will kill me, but I want us to kiss again. “How did I do?”

The memory of the kiss still muddles my mind. Ben is so close. “What?” I breathe.

“You said I might be a terrible kisser, so how did I do? On a scale of one to ten, rate our kiss.”

Our kiss.

I must have fallen in love with his choice of words because I lean forward and kiss him again, a brief kiss that happens before we can process it. My eyes lock on his blues. “Eleven,” I reply.

Forty

Throughout the ride home,we don’t talk. His kiss was unexpected, but my reaction shocked us more. I can’t stop thinking about it, replaying it like a broken record. I kissed Benjamin Carter.

How would he rate my kiss? A pathetic two?

The wind slaps my hair into my face, but the fear of falling doesn’t allow me to push the strands out of my eyes. The heat from Ben’s body chases the cold seeping into my skin. I tighten my arms around his waist as we skip to a new lane, trying and failing to enjoy my second bike ride.

He is moving too fast. And I don’t have a helmet. Without notice, Ben increases his speed. I yelp, and my eyes clench shut. His body shakes with laughter. The idiot is messing with me. Again.

“Relax, Juliet.” I loosen my vice-like grip on his waist. If I didn’t know better, I would think he loved having my tiny body pressed against his. “You only live once. And you are in safe hands.”

His words do nothing to reassure me. I only relax when we turn into familiar streets. The bike’s engine shatters the silence, and I look around to see if anyone is disturbed by the noise. No one is.

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