Page 12 of The Boy Next Door
When he takes me home after our date, I try not to think about anything. Because with every mile the car cruises over, each song that changes, it all brings us closer to the part where we say goodnight.
I barely survived his last kiss. Another might kill me. Forget artery clogging burritos, his lips are a surefire ticket to an early grave.
"Look at that," he says as we turn onto our street. "I got you home in one piece."
Our houses, obviously, are right next to each other, yet he pulls into my driveway. That's the first hint of any chivalrous behavior. On the gigantic list of names I've ever called Hunter Cruse, mostly in my head, ‘gentleman’ isn't one of them.
Still, maybe it fits. Walking the short distance isn't a hardship for me, and it means more work for him, but he parks in my driveway anyway.
My nerves at this point? Totally wracked.
See, Hunter Cruse being annoyingly sexy? It's an inconvenient fact of the universe. Him being unexpectedly sweet? Too much.
"Don't read into this, but I'm not gonna kiss you goodnight."
So much for being sweet.
"Oh, okay. Good." My voice sounds robotic. Not until he says it isn't happening do I realize exactly how badly I crave his lips on mine.
"Good?" he wonders, leaning away from me. Did I offend him? “What do you mean by that?”
“What do you mean that you aren’t going to kiss me?”
“I asked you first.”
“What are you, five?”
“Me not kissing you must not be a hardship since you’re the one who said it was good.”
I nearly throw my hands in the air. "Are you upset? You're the one who doesn’t want to kiss me, so if it's not good, why are you doing it anyway?"
"Um, I do want to kiss you. I want…" he stops himself. I feel torn between fearing what else he might say and desperately wanting to hear more. "Except our evening kinda turned out more intense than I expected."
"Yeah, me too."
"Maybe we should just..."
"What? Shake hands?" I offer mine unsurely.
He grabs my hand and pulls me closer. "How about this?"
Hunter presses his mouth to my cheek, lips lingering there against my skin. The only sound I hear is my heart hammering in my chest. Just him getting close, his lips on my skin, it sends me reeling. All my thoughts fade away and all I can concentrate on is him.
Then he pulls away, we say goodnight, and I head inside.
Truthfully, I basically float inside and to my bedroom.
I don't read too much into him not kissing me on the lips. But that kiss on the cheek? Hard not to read into that. Impossible actually. I read into it.
How can I not? It felt more intimate than when our mouths were connected.