Page 74 of Palm South University: Season 2

“Just because I’m drunk doesn’t mean I’m stupid, and I’d be stupid not to kiss you right now.”

My hands frame her face and I pull her into me, our lips barely touching before her hand finds the center of my chest. “I have a boyfriend.”

I rest my forehead against hers, breaths sharp as they escape my open lips just centimeters from hers. “So tell me to stop.”

I wait, expecting to hear the word and praying I won’t. My hands slide back into her hair, tilting her mouth up to mine, and her eyes plead with me for something I’m not sure I can give before she lets them flutter closed. Permission granted, I close the distance, pressing my lips to hers as the energy band snaps around us.

Our first kiss flashes through my mind and I let my hands fall to her hips, pulling her closer, knowing it will never be close enough. It’s then that I realize Cassie took a piece of me with her that night and she never gave it back. I never asked for it back. And something tells me she’ll always have it, no matter what happens after this.

Her fingers weave into my hair, tugging, her back arching toward me as my tongue glides between her lips to meet her own. She whimpers, soft and sweet, and I’m thankful we’re sitting because that sound alone would have brought me to my knees. I tug at the belt loop on her shorts and she takes the cue, straddling me, every inch of her shaking as everything we’ve held back for so long breaks through the fog we’ve tried to cover it with.

I take my time, massaging her tongue with my own, peppering her neck with kisses, her jaw, sucking the skin behind her ear before finding her mouth again. My hands are everywhere, holding her while she trembles beneath each new touch. She flexes her hips against mine and I wince, my fingertips gripping her hard to stop her from doing it again. It’s too much. I know we can’t take it there, not tonight, not when she’s technically someone else’s. Tonight, I’ll kiss her, for as long as she’ll let me, and hope that, eventually, she’ll be able to give me all of her. I’ll be able to give her all of me.

Tomorrow will come, and neither of us can stop that. But for now, on a blanket in the sand, beneath a sky of stars, we have tonight.

We have tonight.