At that, he frowned. “I think we should keep that between us in public. Don’t you?”
I bit my lip. “Right. Sorry.”
We stood there for a moment, shifting awkwardly on our feet. I wasn’t sure what to say, and he was just watching me.
Where the heck was Andrea with the dresses?
“Is that how you would have kissed…him?” Nathan wondered.
I didn’t have to ask who he was referring to. Something like jealousy flickered through Nathan’s otherwise calm exterior at even the barest insinuation of Shawn. No, not jealousy. Something stronger but less toxic. Wariness. Protectiveness.
“I—no,” I admitted again. He really was getting all my secrets out of me. “Probably not.”
Nathan studied me a moment more. “I don’t want to make you feel the way he did either. I don’t think he was a good boyfriend.”
I shook my head. “Ah, no. He definitely was not.”
Nathan nodded like something had been confirmed. And then, looking much more determined, he placed his hands on my cheeks and set his lips back on mine.
Obviously, I’d been kissed before. Kisses in games when I was still in middle school. Kisses on the subway or buses or the back seat of a car. Kisses on street corners or as I tumbled into a stranger’s bed, or kisses through a music-riddled haze atthe back of a party. Kisses from Shawn, of course, and kisses from other dates, too. Kisses from too many people to count, to the point where they all bled together, and I couldn’t really remember any of them clearly.
Every detail of this kiss was as vivid as a brand-new Crayola box.
Nathan’s firm mouth, a quick touch of tongue to tongue, insistent but not forceful, a nip of his teeth as they drifted over my bottom lip.
It was enough that I bit back. Just a little. It was like turning on a light.
The kiss went from zero to sixty instantaneously. His hand slid around to cup the back of my head; he slanted his mouth over mine, and his tongue twisted with such intensity that I didn’t just forget where we were—I all but forgot my name.
It lasted only a few seconds, but that was enough to leave me breathless and Nathan sucking in air like he’d just run a marathon. When he stopped, his color had returned to normal, but those eyes were even darker than before. Deeper. Begging me to jump in and see just how sweet the rest of him really was.
That was when I knew that in a sea of fuzzy watercolor memories, my first kiss with Nathan Hunt would be crystal clear from this moment forward.
And I would never forget it.
“Holy shit,” I breathed when he finally let me go. “Where in the hell did you learn to kiss like that?”
He frowned. “You didn’t like it.”
He looked so concerned, I almost laughed. But instead, I grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him back to me.
“No, I liked it a lot,” I told him and kissed him again.
He startled but caught up soon after, wrapping a large hand around my neck, another at my waist, and started giving as good as he got. I hadn’t made out like this with anyone since highschool, and back then, it was a sloppy mess. Nathaniel, though, knew exactly what he was doing.
He wasn’t kissing me like I was a nobody, a fling, a one-night stand. Or, I thought, like someone he hired to pretend.
He was kissing me like I was forever.
Like he wanted to steal that forever for himself.
“Whoa,” I gasped when we broke apart at last.
Nathan was breathing hard too. “What?”
I swallowed. “Nathan, you kiss like a pirate.”
One brown brow rose quizzically. “A pirate? Is that a good thing?”
