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I’m embarrassing myself even in my own head. She’sawful, and yet my mind is wandering to all the different ways I could do just that.

Bad, Reya. Stop crushing on the psychopath.

She just smells so good, it’s making it hard to think clearly.

“Sorry, I—“ She grabs my arm, keeping me from backing away. “What are you doing?”

There’s something different about this stare. She’s not peering into my eyes, but her gaze is undoubtedly stuck in one place this time.

She clearly has an interest in my mouth. I take to studying hers, because it feels like I’m allowed to for a few seconds. She isn’t wearing her usual lipstick, and her lips are a delicate, glossy pink. I’d love to find out what flavor her lip balm is. I’d love to find out if they’re as soft as they look.

But my common sense roots me in place. Idohave common sense. I’ve never been attracted to someone that aggravates me the way she does, but I can learn to deal with it. Hell, I can be over it in a couple weeks if I try hard enough.

“I need to go inside,” I tell her.

“Do you?” she asks, and her cool breath hits me so temptingly.

I step back before I do something dumb.

“What is happening right now?”

She shrugs.

“Don’t know what you mean,” she responds. But there’s something in her tone that tells me she’s full of it, as if her actions didn’t already make that clear.

“I mean… we’re not friendly. We don’t talk,” I start. “You’re beingweird.If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you wanted to—“

“To what?” she interrupts.

I laugh, because it’s beginning to feel especially ridiculous that the thought even occurred to me.

“To kiss me.” I keep the amusement in my voice so she hears just how unserious to take the words.

The corners of her mouth curl up into a smile, but not the cheery kind. The kind that haunts my dreams, and makes me want to run and hide.

“What if that was the truth?”

I snort, more than over this. I thought I liked the sound of her voice, but not like this. Not when she’s mocking me.

I step around her, hoping for my escape, but she’s a surprisingly good guard for her size.

“What if?” she asks again.

“Then I’d know I was having some messed up dream. People don’t just go around randomly kissing people they don’t like.”

“I disagree,” she says.

I wait for her to go on and explain herself, but she doesn’t. She just keeps on staring.

What is happening right now?

My laughter turns into a nervous, uncertain sound, but it trails off the more I study her. Not that I have any clue how good of an actress she is, but I’d almost bet that she is being completely serious.

“Why would you?”

“You’ve never kissed a stranger at a bar before?”

Okay, not cool if she can read my mind.