Page 49 of Before We’re More Than Friends (When We Faced the Music #1)
Raina
A s soon as Dallas closed the doggy gate to let our dogs play—or growl at each other—he pressed his lips against mine again, his hands around my waist.
I let out a deep gasp, surprised at how good he was at this, like he’d been waiting forever for this moment. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as I deepened the kiss, his lips warm and welcoming. Had he put on ChapStick earlier, or were his lips naturally this soft?
His firm chest pressed against mine, his heart pounding so hard that I thought it would escape his chest any second. I slipped my hand over it, allowing it to pulsate against my palm. I grinned against his soft mouth and whispered, “You’re enjoying this.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, his kiss spreading from my lips to my cheek. “I’m here with the girl of my dreams. My moonlight.”
“My sunshine.” My other hand combed through his curls. Man, they were softer than I’d imagined. Not that I’d been imagining his hair that often. Only a little. “What do you use for your hair? I think I might need it, too. ”
“Just some shampoo from the store,” he said, his cheeks flushing in the way I loved. Everything about him made my heart, which had been broken for so long, melt into a puddle. “If you like it that much, then I’ll keep buying it.”
I grinned against his mouth. “Please do.”
We kissed for another minute, our hands tracing the lines of each other’s bodies, before breaking apart. The moonlight shone in his dark eyes, and another grin broke out on my face. It’d been so long since someone made me smile like this. If I ever had before.
For the first time in a long time, I felt so over the freaking moon.
“I hope that was fun,” Dallas said, touching his lips as the redness faded from his face. “I-I’d never kissed anyone for longer than two seconds.”
“Darla from Dallas?” When we’d first met in fifth grade, Dallas had a crush on a girl in his class.
She’d asked him out but only because she was doing a challenge with her friends.
It’d crushed him, but I’d comforted him and assured him there would be another girl out there who’d like him for who he was.
Never had I thought that girl would be me.
And I for sure wasn’t mad at it.
“Don’t remind me.” Dallas groaned as we sat on the nearest bench. “That girl crushed me and stole my first kiss. Though I’m more upset about the latter.” He wrapped his arm around me and kissed my cheek. “Way more upset,” he whispered, his lip brushing against my ear.
“She was a loser,” I said, though my skin prickled from his touch. “But you’re definitely not.”
“I guess Oliver gave you some good practice.”
My cheeks grew hot. “Who told you?” I purposely never told him about my little stint with Oliver, my fourteen-year-old self too embarrassed about the crush .
“Caleb brought it up one day at lunch.”
Now I groaned. “Gosh, that crush was so embarrassing. Oliver and I only kissed two times before . . .” I swallowed.
“Well, Caleb had his arm amputated, and Oliver was too distraught to keep things going with me. But then he got distracted by Natalie Mao—who apparently was a much better kisser because that’s all they did for the two weeks they dated.
” Oliver had also stopped things because he found out that someone else had been into me, but I didn’t want Dallas to worry about that part.
“I’m sorry,” Dallas said. “He really missed out.”
I smirked. “Why be sorry when you get to be with me instead?”
He laughed. “That’s true. In that case . . .” He pressed his lips against mine again. “I’m not sorry at all.”
I giggled before kissing him back. “Good. I don’t want you to be.” I traced my finger around his wrist, embracing the cool feeling of the bracelet’s black star. “You never fail to impress me.”
“I’m glad. Because that’s all I want to do.” He looked into my eyes, his still shining in the moonlight. “All I want to do is adore you.”
Dallas drove me back to my house in his steel-gray Honda Pilot, wanting to take me home like it was a proper date.
Penrose and Houston did not enjoy being in the car together, barking so loudly that we couldn’t hear our “songs that make us believe in love for once” playlist, but we managed to survive the three-minute car ride.
Dallas’s jaw dropped as he pulled into the driveway. “This is your house? ”
I giggled. “I always told you it was big.”
“Yeah, but this big?” He gasped at the monster of a house as he killed the engine. “How do you even navigate—it’s the size of my whole street!”
“You’re not wrong.” I got out of the car and grabbed Penrose from the back seat. She whimpered as I let her out, probably plotting revenge by crushing my chest tomorrow morning.
Dallas put Houston on his leash and walked me to the front door, his jaw still on the ground as he took in our property with huge eyes.
“You’re going to swallow a bug, you know,” I told him, brushing my shoulder against his.
“Sorry, it’s just . . .” His black lashes fluttered. “This is freaking crazy.”
“I know it is.” I let go of his hand once we reached the door and took my keys out of my purse, Penrose pulling the leash in the opposite direction as she sniffed the plants. “If you’re shocked now, you’re going to die once you see the inside.”
Little did I know that I’d die too, because as soon as I opened the door, Arielle sprang into our faces. “I knew it!” she shouted.
Dallas and I jumped, my keys dropping onto the marble floor. Penrose barked before sniffing my keys.
“What the hell?” I snapped, my free hand flying to my chest. “Arielle!”
“That rhymes,” Dallas said, trying to slow his own breathing from the cardiac-arrest-inducing scare.
I rolled my eyes.
“Sorry!” Arielle giggled. “I just saw you guys pull into the driveway from my room and rushed all the way down here!” She rubbed Penrose’s head. “I’m guessing it went well from the glitter on Dallas’s lips.”
Dallas touched his lips as he gazed at the tall ceilings .
“I think lip glitter is the last thing he’s thinking about,” I said.
Arielle laughed again. “Well, you should think about it because your lip gloss has never looked worse.”
I tossed Penrose’s leash at her arm, hoping it would somehow hurt.
“Your house is so freaking cool,” Dallas said, his wide eyes searching the foyer and living area. Gosh, if he was shocked by this, he’d faint at all the other rooms in the house. Especially my bedroom.
Oh, gosh, why did I just think that? Gross!
“Can I get you a drink or something?” Arielle asked, freeing Penrose from her leash. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“Oh.” Pink bloomed across Dallas’s cheeks. “I’m good.”
“You don’t want to see our kitchen?” I asked, nudging him.
“I don’t think he can handle the kitchen,” Arielle said.
“Hey!” Dallas crossed his arms over his chest. “I totally can. I can handle the entire house.”
“Then let’s start.” Once Dallas let Houston relax, I led him into the kitchen, since he’d already gotten a good view of the foyer and the main living space. Dallas’s jaw dropped at how spacious it was and how the family room was even bigger.
I looped back to the dining room, where he was once again shocked at the grand furniture and how clean everything was. Shoot, he was even impressed with the plain study we had. We let him into the backyard and turned on the lights to give him a tour of the huge patio and pool area.
“Okay, I think I want to move in here,” Dallas said as we let him back inside. “That backyard and pool blow the one my family has to shame. And I need that hot tub.”
I giggled. “It’s why our friends wished we held events here.” And once upon a time, we did have events at this house, until Mom went downhill and preferred to maintain her facade at the country club.
“You should show him the upstairs, Raina,” Arielle said with a wink and a smirk that made me want to slug her in the arm. “Show him where Penrose likes to hang out.”
I shot a glare at her. “Um, that’s fine?—”
“I don’t mind seeing the upstairs,” Dallas said, rubbing Houston as he begged for attention. He probably wasn’t enjoying this house as much as Dallas was.
I sucked in a breath. Well then. “Let’s go.”
The two of us went upstairs, Penrose following behind us before she went into my room. I showed Dallas the upstairs living room, game room, and home theater—I didn’t have it in me to go into Dad’s gym—all which shocked him to his core. Finally, it was time for my bedroom.
“Are you ready?” I asked, my pulse speeding against my will.
Dallas nodded with a nervous smile.
I creaked open the door and revealed my room, where Penrose was on the plush carpet, playing around with the clothes in my hamper. Dallas gasped louder than he had at the other rooms, his jaw on the floor once again.
“So this is where you’ve been writing to me and making your jewelry?” Dallas asked, taking in the purple luxury. If only he knew what the bathroom and walk-in-closet looked like, though no way was I taking him in there . “This is a grand paradise.”
I beamed. “It’s my favorite place on earth. And Penrose’s too.”
Penrose turned around, revealing a black object in her mouth. When I stepped closer, my mouth fell open in terror. It was none other than my black rhinestone bra, the one I’d bought while shopping with Sienna .
And if that wasn’t bad enough, she walked over to Dallas and placed it right on his shoes.
“Oh.” Dallas’s cheeks turned bright red as he laughed. “Thank you, Penrose, but that’s a little too big for me.”
I was dead. Completely and utterly dead.
Dallas’s mouth dropped. “Oh, I didn’t mean big in a bad way—I mean, not in a good way either—I mean?—”
“It’s fine.” I grabbed the bra off his sneakers, frowning at the bite mark on the left cup. I needed to burn this thing now. And not because it had my dog’s teeth ingrained in it.
“I’m sorry,” Dallas said, rubbing the back of his flushed neck. “But you do have a great taste in fashion, even in, um, underwear.”
I laughed so I wouldn’t cry. “Thanks. Most of the stuff I own is pretty nice.”