Page 24 of Promises & Pumpkins (Haunted in Hazy Cove #1)

Harper

“Are you watching? Harper,” Maddie said, raising her voice to get my attention and pull my stare away from her dad’s. “I’m going to do it again. Watch this.”

I watched while she stretched onto her toes, practicing the arabesque we had just started going over.

She had been practicing it non-stop from what I’d heard.

This makes me look like a real ballerina.

I giggled when she twisted her face in concentration to hold her balance and then smiled when she decided she had nailed it.

Miles and I clapped lightly when she put her foot back down.

“How was it that time?” she asked, folding her fingers together and waiting anxiously for feedback.

“It was wonderful.” My chest fluttered when her face lit up at the compliment.

“It was?” Maddie stood up straight, ready to do it again. “Do you want to see me do it again?” She was so excited her leg started to come off the ground before I had a chance to respond.

Miles chuckled and then cleared his voice lightly. “Maddie, sweetheart. I think Harper needs a small break from all of the dancing. Why don’t you go up to your room, and you can keep practicing?” He winked at her and tightened his arm around me. “Then we can have a few minutes alone.”

Maddie scrunched her nose. “Do you want to be alone because you want to kiss her again?” She looked expectantly for an answer to her nosy question. I started to shake my head, but Miles interrupted.

“Yeah, I want to be alone because I want to kiss her again,” he said, and the butterflies in my stomach sashayed to my throat. I looked at him and my mouth dried out while Maddie giggled.

“Okay, fine.” She dragged out the word while she turned to skip out of the room.

When she was just out of earshot, I looked at Miles, taking in every focused crease in his face. “Oh, you want to kiss me, huh?” My voice was husky. I craved his lips on mine—I had since the first time I felt them. There was no denying it now. Not anymore. Not ever again.

“I do,” he said, leaning in until his lips hovered over mine.

“Then why are you still talking?” I wrapped my hands around the back of his head, pulling him to me and smashing my mouth against his.

He groaned against my lips when I rolled into his lap and straddled him.

If Maddie wasn’t in the other room, I would be more desperate for the bulge pressing against his zipper.

His strained breath told me he felt the same way.

My breaths already heaved with the excitement and need that had been growing over the weekend since the recital. In that time, I had barely spent any time at home besides to change. “So this is really a thing, then?” I asked, resting my forehead against his.

“What is?”

“You and me.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath when he ran his fingers through my hair. “The three of us.”

When I opened my eyes, his were staring deep into mine. “Yeah, troublemaker. Is that okay with you?”

“I don’t know. I’m not really the dating type.” I giggled when my words sounded breathless, and Miles chortled.

“Well that’s too bad because we definitely can’t be just friends.” He kissed me again before breaking into a grin. “Not anymore. You’re mine now. Ours.”