He separates his lips from mine only long enough to whisper, “Is this okay?”
I nod, too dumbstruck to get any words out. His lips return to mine, his hands still around my waist. I clutch his shirt to pull him closer. He parts my lips with his, and his tongue slips inside, tasting me. A warm rush comes over my body. I feel it all the way down to my toes.
I lean back against the armrest so that I’m lying down. He stays with me, his body over mine. He’s propped up on his knees on the couch so that our midsections don’t touch. One of his hands trails from my waist to my hip and back up again. If I had known a practice kiss could be this good, I would have been all for it when he first suggested it.
I wrap one of my legs around his back, pulling him down so that his body is flush with mine and I can feel his weight on me. One of his hands is in my hair now, the other feeling the path between my ribcage and my hip. My hand is on the back of his neck, keeping him close to me. His tongue tastes mine again. I tighten my hold on his neck while his fingers dig into my side and he clutches my hair, like we’re two hungry souls desperate for the taste of each other.
Before we get any more caught up in this moment than we already are, I let go of his neck and pull my mouth away from his, breaking the kiss. Oliver pulls his head back to look at me. His chest is still against mine, both of us breathing heavily against each other.
“That’s probably enough practice,” I say, though my mind is conflicted. It feels like every fiber of my being is protesting my words. It doesn’t make any sense. This isOliver.
“Practice. Right.” He lifts himself off of me and stands up. He turns around, pacing the room once before facing me again.
I sit up straight. After having just made out with him on his couch, I find it hard to look him in the eye. I can’t stand this awkward silence though, so I force my gaze up to meet his. He stares at me, his brow wrinkled in a slight frown. This silence is deafening. The look on his face has me feeling like I did something wrong. Maybe this was some kind of test, and I shouldn’t have kissed him back. It certainly didn’t feel like it, but then again, he and I have never been nice to each other. It would be just like him to trick me into doing something he could use against me, though he’s never crossed a line like this before.
“I should go.” I slide off the couch and head for my shoes by the front door.
“You don’t want to stay for pizza?” he asks.
I look up at him as I slip my shoe on. “I didn’t think you were serious about that.”
“I was,” he says.
I put on my other shoe and place my hand on the doorknob. I look back at him one more time. He’s still standing where I left him next to the couch.
“So that’s a no, then?” he asks.
I wish I could stay without it being weird, but I just made out with this guy to practice for a fake date tomorrow night. Now I feel weird just being in the same room as him for this long. I don’t know what we would talk about, so all I can picture is us sitting here in agonizing silence while we wait for the pizza to get here. The thought of that is suffocating. I need to get out of here so I can breathe again.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I say.
ChapterThirteen
No One Is Looking
Ithought my biggest issue with this double date would be the fact that I’m lying to my best friend. That, and trying to keep my story straight with Oliver. Instead, what has me up all night are thoughts about what happened in his living room yesterday. My mind strays to the way he leaned into me, the way his mouth felt when he touched his lips to mine for the first time, and how at one point his fingers dipped below my shirt and grazed the skin of my stomach.
I think about the way he came in closer when I wrapped my leg around his back. The way he grabbed onto my hair, and how, for a moment, it didn’t feel like we were just practicing.
But of course it was just practice. I would never kiss Oliver for any other reason, and I can’t imagine he would either. Even so, I can’t help but wonder what he thinks about it. He’s probably so full of himself that he thinks I liked it. He probably remembers what I drunkenly told Tina when we first met and now he thinks I’m still hung up on him.
Even worse than spending all night thinking about this is having nothing to do all day. There’s no escape from all of this ruminating. By the time Oliver knocks on my door, I’ve overthought every possible scenario for tonight.
I open the door to find him standing there with a single rose in one hand. Okay, this is one scenario that didn’t occur to me.
He hands the rose to me.
“What’s this for?” I ask as I take it.
“You.”
“Obviously, but why?” I hold it up to my nose and breathe in its sweet smell. “It’s not like anyone is watching.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Practice, I guess.”
I turn back inside and head to the kitchen to stick the rose in a vase with water. When I turn around, Oliver is still waiting out in the hall. We head outside together.
“You didn’t have to come all the way to my door,” I tell him as we make it to his truck. “You could have just texted me to let me know you were here.”
