by Dean, Ali
“That wasn’t my fault! She kissed me. I didn’t see it coming. That’s been happening all day. People just keep kissing me. If you want to blame someone, blame Jared. He’s the one who gave everybody the idea.”
Ben threw his head back and groaned. “Whatever. Just sit down and stop making out with people.”
I wanted to punch him for bossing me around, as if he had a right to tell me what to do, but it wasn’t worth the headache. “With pleasure. I am all kissed out.”
Truth. After Kolby’s attack, I’d been kissed enough today.
Scott took my hand before I could sit down. “That’s because you haven’t been kissed by me yet. I saw your last kiss and—” He turned to Kolby with a smug smirk that pissed me off on Kolby’s behalf. “No offense, but you need to up your game. Let a real man show you how it’s supposed to be done.”
Wow. He was so full of himself. Kolby didn’t say anything—because random sophomores don’t question Scott Williamson—but I could see that Kolby was hurt. He didn’t deserve the insult. Yeah, he’d been a little too overzealous, but the kissing hadn’t really been that bad. Not nearly as horrible as I’d expected it to be, at least. I rolled my eyes at Kolby, letting him know that I wasn’t buying what Scott was shoveling, and was glad to see the corner of his mouth twitch up into a smile.
I was still having a silent conversation with Kolby when Scott’s arms slipped around my waist. He pulled me close and grinned down at me. “Are you ready for your first real kiss?” Yes, I thought, but I seriously doubt you’re going to give it to me. In fact, I doubted he even knew what a real kiss was.
“Prepare to be amazed,” he said as he lowered his mouth to mine.
If this kiss turns out even half as good as Asher Pepin’s, I’ll be shocked.
As Scott kissed me, with the entire B Lunch crowd watching on, I heard the sighs from all the girls who would have killed to be in my shoes. And then, there was my brother’s disgusted grunt and muttered curse words as he stomped away. I also heard the grumbles from the guys around me who weren’t all that impressed with the show. I had to side with the guys on this one. Not impressive.
In truth, Scott was super hot, but his kissing skills were lacking. Not that I had a ton of experience, but I’d seen enough action today to get a wide range of kisses. I’d say Scott’s kiss was about a three on a scale of one to ten. Not gross, but less than stellar. It was a little wet, and a little too forceful. Not that he was forcing anything on me; he just wasn’t paying attention to me. He was in his own world, completely oblivious to my physical cues that I wasn’t feeling it, and definitely didn’t want to make this a French kiss. It was like he was just doing his thing and assumed that was all he needed to do.
Yeah, no thanks.
He missed my first attempt to end the kiss, so I had to use a little force to pull back. When I did, he was all breathless and his eyes had to refocus. Wherever he’d gone when kissing me that got him so worked up, he hadn’t taken me with him. I got the feeling kissing was kissing for him and the girl was interchangeable.
Too sure of himself, Scott didn’t notice my lack of enthusiasm. “So how was that?” he asked.
“It was…” How to answer that question? There was no need to be brutal, humiliate him, or make an enemy. “Enlightening,” I finally said. “Definitely a learning experience. Thank you.”
Maybe he wasn’t very bright, either, because he didn’t pick up on my sarcasm. “Glad I could help,” he said, with a smile, and then walked back to his lunch table, accepting fist bumps and high-fives from his buddies and winking at girls.
My friends, however, weren’t so clueless. “Enlightening?” Eli asked, laughter in his voice.
I shrugged, but cracked a grin. “As in, I just learned the difference between confidence and arrogance. Confidence—sexy as hell. Arrogance—not so much.”
Selena gasped in a hushed tone as if I’d spoken sacrilege. “Are you saying he’s a bad kisser?”
“I’m not starting that rumor. I’m just saying I can see why he’s between girlfriends. I’m all for the Scott Williamson wall calendar, but I don’t need to sign up to be his girlfriend.”
“Ooh, a wall calendar,” Selena said with a dreamy sigh while Rylin scoffed. “If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”
I grinned at her. “He’s all yours.”
The rest of lunch, and all of biology, managed to pass blissfully uneventfully. But, as the bell rang at the end of class, my lab partner, Jace, stood up before me, tugged on my hair, pulling my head back, and surprised me with my next kiss. He tasted minty fresh, as if he’d popped a handful of Altoids before he decided to dive-bomb my lips, and I was seriously grateful for the mints my brother had given me this morning. I’d munched like half the container after lunch just to be safe.
After he ended the kiss, I looked up at him with my driest expression. “Really?”
Still holding my hair captive, he grinned down at me. “Sorry. I had to. I’ve got a test next hour. I needed the kiss for luck.”
He let go of my hair and walked me out of the room. “You realize that was my thirteenth kiss, right? Wouldn’t that be bad luck?”
I laughed at his startled expression, but he quickly buried his superstition and shook his head. “A kiss from Cassie Caldwell has to be good luck no matter what number it is.”
I snorted. “If you say so. Good luck on the test.”
“Thanks.”
As he disappeared down the hall, I called out to him, “It’s not my fault if you fail!”
Chapter 7
When I made it to my last class of the day, relieved that there hadn’t been any more kissing incidents, I learned something. Kissing was nice. It was fun and could feel fantastic. But it could also get overplayed like a catchy pop song, until you dreaded the very thought of it.
It didn’t help that everyone knew I had three more to go, and that the day was nearing an end. Everyone was asking me about it—either asking me who I was going to kiss, who I wanted to kiss, or if they could be one of the lucky three. I told anyone who fell into the last category to get lost. I was done. Over it. Thirteen kisses in one school day were plenty for me. Luke Barlow didn’t get the memo.
My PE teacher, Mr. McFadden, is an Irishman to his core. By the time the last class of the day got to him, he was mentally already at the pub with his buddies celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and therefore let us do whatever we wanted as long as it was outside and we stayed where he could see us.
A group of us got a game of Frisbee football going that got a little aggressive since we weren’t being very carefully monitored. We weren’t being crazy, but there’d been a tackle or two that had people on the ground. Personally, I could be a bit competitive, so I wasn’t that surprised when I snagged an interception on Luke and he playfully slid his arms around my waist, taking me to the ground. “Come on,” I laughed. “That play was totally legit!”
“I let you have it,” he argued.
“You wish, Barlow.”
“No, I did. I needed a good reason to tackle you.”
“What?”
It wasn’t until that moment that I realized we were sitting on the ground together, and his arm was around my waist. Maybe he had let me make that interception. And I’d played right into his hands. Literally. He took my free hand in his, and laced our fingers together. “You can’t stop at thirteen, Cassie.”
I shook my head, refusing to return his smile. “No way. I’m done.”
“But you’re almost there. Only three more.”
“And you think you’re worthy of being one of them?”
He grinned deviously and tightened his grip on my side as if he were threatening to tickle me. “I think I’ve got you trapped, so you have to let me be one of them.”
I knew the taunt was all in jest. He wouldn’t really kiss me unless I gave him permission. Luke was cool. Not the most attractive guy, but he was the comedian of the sophomore class. Everybody liked him. I liked him. Bu
t I was tired of kissing.
“No torture could make me surrender to your demands,” I teased.
Maybe being playful back was my mistake, because it only encouraged him. “Okay, you asked for it.” He clamped his hands to my ribs. “Say yes!” he said as he began the mother of all tickle assaults.
I’m not ticklish. I am mega freaking ticklish. He squeezed my sides and I squealed, thrashing around uncontrollably. “Stop! Oh my gosh, stop!”
“Will you kiss me?”
“Yes, oh, my gosh, fine, whatever, just stop tickling!”
He stopped. Thank heavens.
“Oh, I hate you!” I gasped.
“It was for your own good, Cassie. I promise. You’d regret not getting all sixteen kisses today. So, here’s number fourteen.”
He leaned down and gave me a soft, sweet kiss. I appreciated the smallness of it. Then, he jumped up with a goofy grin, and wished me happy birthday as he helped me to my feet.
I laughed as I brushed the grass from my clothes, but I still felt compelled to give the rest of the guys in class a warning. “Okay, it’s been fun and all, but seriously, the games are over. The next guy to put his lips on mine is getting a knee to the groin!”
Everyone laughed. I was only partially joking. Five minutes later, Bryce Everett found that out the hard way. Bryce is a tool. I’ve never liked him. He’s the type of guy that knows he’s a douche and is proud of it. That’s why I was glad it was him who tested my boundaries. As Mr. McFadden blew the whistle, signaling it was time to hit the locker room, Bryce came up behind me and pulled my back against his chest. He ducked his head next to my ear and said, “I’m a little insulted that you haven’t asked me to kiss you yet, Cassie.”
“Good. I was hoping you’d be offended. Now let me go before you regret it.”
“You said the next guy to put his lips on your lips was going to be in trouble. Technically…” He began pressing a trail of light kisses to my neck. “I’m not kissing your lips.”
If it wasn’t Bryce, and if he wasn’t seriously pissing me off at the moment, I might be inclined to stand here all day. I definitely needed to give this neck-kissing thing a try for real sometime. Just not with Bryce. I shoved my elbow into his gut as hard as I could, knocking the wind out of him. “Technically,” I told him as he hunched over, gasping for air, “that wasn’t a knee to your groin, either.”
…
Bryce had put me in a foul mood, which only got worse when I remembered I had detention. Luckily, the only other person serving time with me that day was Dom, and he’d already kissed me. When I realized we’d have the hour to ourselves, I got a little less cranky. Then, when my hour was up and Jared was waiting in the parking lot to surprise me with a ride home, any hint of negative feelings was gone. Bryce’s kiss was a speck of dirt on the windshield of my memory, wiped away the moment I saw Jared leaning against the grill of his truck.
I stumbled to a stop when I saw him and, when he smiled, Dom elbowed me. “Looks like you’ll get that last kiss after all.”
“Shut up.”
My heart leapt in my chest, and I smacked Dom a little harder than I’d meant to. Dom’s eyebrows lifted to his hairline. “So, cowboys are your thing, huh? Wish I’d known that this morning. I’d have worn my boots.”
I was mortified, but I still laughed at the idea of Dominic in cowboy boots. As we headed toward Jared, I shook my head. “There’s no way you own a pair of cowboy boots.”
“Definitely not. But neither do you.”
Dom cut me a challenging glance. This morning, I’d have just shrugged him off, but now, I felt confident enough to be honest with my friend. “It’s not the boots I like. It’s the guy wearing them.”
Dom was surprised, but, after a moment, he smiled proudly and gave me a hug. “You go get your man then, girl.”
I threw his own words from earlier when he’d kissed me back at him. “Don’t mind if I do.”
Dominic laughed. “Happy birthday, Cassie. See you tomorrow.”
“Thanks. See you then.”
He let me go, and gave Jared a quick hand slap, before heading to his car. “She’s up to fifteen, cowboy. Don’t drop the ball.”
I wanted to kill Dom. And I loved him at the same time. He winked at me then walked off without another word, leaving me standing alone, with pink cheeks, in front of Jared Clayton.
“Fifteen?” Jared asked, as he rounded the truck to open my door for me. “Really?”
Unsure what he thought about that number, I just shrugged. After he pulled out of the school parking lot, I broke the silence. “Thanks for coming to get me.”
Jared grinned. Unlike with Scott earlier, when I got a close up look at Jared’s smile, it only made him better looking. “It’s my pleasure. Besides, I owed you. It’s kind of my fault you got detention today.”
He drove down the road, passing up the entrance to my neighborhood. “That was—”
“I know.”
He obviously had a destination in mind other than my house, but the mischief in his eyes told me I’d get no explanation until we were there. This was new. But, then, so many things about this crazy day had been unexpected that I’d learned to just go with it hours ago. Plus, I was thrilled by the idea of Jared surprising me for my birthday somehow. I let the mystery go.
We ended up at Jared’s house. Jared’s family’s home is a gorgeous red brick country-style house. He drove past the house and parked out back near the barn. The barn was just as pristine as the house, and fenced off with beautiful white fences all around the property. The family took pride in the ranch that had belonged to them for over a century, and, more than anything, Jared loved the handful of horses they owned.
“You up for a ride?” he asked, nodding toward the corral.
The question was only a formality. He knew I’d want to go. I loved riding and didn’t get to do it nearly often enough. When I grinned, he hoped out of the truck and hurried to open my door for me.
I got more flutters as he took my hand to help me down, and then nearly swooned when he laced our fingers together as he walked us over to the gate of the horse corral. There was no mistaking this action. He was holding my hand, plain and simple. I bit my bottom lip as I studied our grip. I tried to sneak a glance up at him next and found him watching me closely, trying to gauge my reaction to his bold move. My face flushed, and I looked away, feeling shy for almost the first time in my life.
When we reached the fence, I climbed up to sit on the post and a few of the horses trotted over hoping to find treats. I reached out to pet the pretty appaloosa I usually rode. “Hey, Lucy,” I cooed.
She snuffed when she realized I had no carrots or apples for her.
“Sorry, girl. Next time. I promise.”
Jared leaned against the fence next to me, and let out a short whistle to one of the horses. “So…fifteen kisses in one day,” he said as his horse, a big, beautiful palomino, trotted over to him, answering his call. “That’s got to be some kind of school record.”
“Your fault.”
“True.” Jared laughed as he hopped over the fence and gave his horse an affectionate pat. “But, in my defense, I was really only responsible for Aki. He’s the only one I actually dared to kiss you. I didn’t mean for the rest of them. In fact, I really didn’t like watching all those other guys fight over you all day.”
My stomach exploded with butterflies. That sounded almost possessive. Protective at the very least. I never thought I’d be the kind of girl that would like “belonging” to a guy, but, if Jared wanted to claim me for his, well, I didn’t mind that thought at all.
“Then why did you start the whole birthday kisses thing?” I asked.
“I had to.”
He stopped paying attention to his horse and came to stand directly in front of me. He was so tall that, even with me sitting on the fence, he was standing an inch or two taller than my eye level. Of course, he took care of those inches when he leaned forward, resting his hands on
the fence post on either side of me, trapping me between his arms. He was close enough that, when I sucked in a breath, I smelled a hint of the aftershave he’d used that morning. I lost my senses, and closed my eyes, as I breathed him in.
“I had to do it, Cassie, because after what you told me yesterday about wanting a real kiss, I realized I needed a bunch of guys to give you meaningless kisses so that you’d be able to recognize a real kiss when I finally gave you one.”
“What?”
My eyes snapped open, and I nearly fell backward off the fence. Jared caught me before I fell, and he was suddenly standing between my legs with his hands gripping my hips. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and my mouth went dry. “You’ve never seen me as anything other than Ben’s best friend,” he said, softly. “I offered to kiss you yesterday, and you thought I did it out of pity. But Cass…Cassie…” His voice turned deep, husky.
There was something in his eyes that I hadn’t seen from any of the guys who’d kissed me today. Longing. I’d seen heat and desire, but I hadn’t seen true want. I hadn’t seen need. Not like I saw in Jared’s eyes now.
Somehow, I managed to form words, but they were a breathless whisper. “I thought I was just Ben’s little sister to you. You know… just Little Cass.”
He shook his head without moving his gaze from mine. “Not for a few years now.”
I started to tremble. “I—I don’t see you that way anymore, either.”
His lips twitched into a small smile, and his gaze fell to my mouth. The action left me breathless. I tried to gulp in some air, but it did no good. Nothing would stay in my lungs. I couldn’t breathe.
Jared ducked his head and covered my mouth with a soft, almost timid kiss. He was as confident as Asher and Dom had been with the kissing part, but, beneath the kiss, there was a hint of vulnerability. He knew what he was doing, but he wasn’t entirely sure how he would be received. A part of him—hopefully a small part—was waiting for me to reject him. That part was going to be sorely disappointed.