What the fuck is that, and why is my hand all wet?
Haylee snorts. She actually snorts with laughter. So consumed by Haylee, I hadn’t noticed the wrapper full of ketchup that we had been using between us, and I placed my hand right in th
e middle of it, getting ketchup everywhere. Real smooth, Zach! Real smooth!
She presses her lips together, trying to hold back more laughter, but I can see it in her eyes, how much trouble she is having concealing it. Am I ever going to be able to kiss this girl? Is this some weird way of the universe telling me not to?
After I clean the exploding ketchup off my hand, the conversation continues as we finish our meals. I rise to my feet first, gathering up the trash and running it over to the can before jogging back to help Haylee up. I reach out and take her hand. That instant spark is there again—the same one I felt in the cemetery.
“Well, Cinderella, I better get you back to the dorms before you turn into a pumpkin.”
She smiles and takes my hand as we head back to the Jeep.
The ride back to the dorm is quiet but not awkward. I reach over to Haylee’s hand and link our fingers. This feels right. I don’t know if she doesn’t want this date to end as much as I don’t. If Haylee were any other girl, I would be asking to come back to her room, make her come so hard, and then leave, never calling her again.
But Haylee isn’t any other girl; she’s my Haylee. Yep, I just called her mine. And right now, while walking her back to her dorm room, hand-in-hand, I keep stealing glances at her and see the smile written all over her face.
When we reach the door, Haylee stands there, unsure of what to do next. We’ve had many moments tonight already where I went to kiss her, and somehow the universe has prevented it. Makes me wonder if maybe it was Emmett’s way from wherever he is, trying to be funny. I’m not wasting another moment. She goes to speak, perhaps to say good night, but I cut her off. I step forward and grip both cheeks, pulling her toward me. My lips crash onto hers.
She hesitates for just a moment; I assume, like me, she can’t believe this is happening. She reaches up to the side of my neck before gripping the back of it. I kiss her with everything I have—everything I had been fighting the past few months. I wrap my hands around her waist, pulling her closer as I back her up against the door, ending in a slight thump as her back hits the door. When I lick her lips, seeking entrance, her lips part for me. The feel of her tongue against my own is incredible. Her mouth is warm and inviting, and by the tiny moans escaping her mouth, she is enjoying this just as much as I am. When I pull her lower lip between my teeth, her knees go weak, and she grips my shirt to stay balanced. Fuck, that is such a turn-on, knowing that I make her this way. I grind my hips against hers; there’s no way she can’t feel what she does to me.
I regrettably break the kiss first, but I don’t think she wants me to take her right here against her dorm room door. I don’t even know if her roommate is home. I run my thumb against her bottom lip and lean in for one last kiss.
“I’ll call you later?”
“Uh-huh.”
I’m not even sure if Haylee is on this planet at the moment. Her eyes are hooded, her cheeks flushed, and she’s panting.
“Thank you.”
She tilts her head, finally out of her daze, as if I’ve just said the wrong thing. “For what?”
I step toward her and place her arms above her head with another thump against the door. I start with a kiss to her collarbone and then move my way up north.
When I get to just below her ear, I whisper, “For showing me all that I’ve been missing.”
I line our mouths up one last time and kiss her with enough passion that, even if this is our one and only date, she will remember this kiss the rest of her life.
“Good night, baby girl.”
Turning around with keys in hand, she glances back at me over her shoulder, and I am tempted just to fuck her senseless right here, but this is different with Haylee. Of course I want to be inside her, desperately—then maybe I can stop jerking off to the thought of her—but with Hails, I actually want to be with her and spend time with her outside of the bedroom. This girl very well may be the death of me.
I turn and walk away with a quick wave as she enters her room.
I am still floating on cloud nine from that kiss. I finally close the door to my dorm. Leaning my back against the door, I close my eyes and bring my fingers to my lips that just moments ago were against Zach’s. Oh my God, what a kiss it was. My thoughts take me back to the way his lips gently brushed mine, parting them with his tongue as they sought entrance, and I gladly gave it to him. I had heard the rumors back in high school of how good a kisser he was, but wow. Nothing had prepared me for that—the most perfect kiss of all time.
I am entirely in my own world that I don’t even notice Cami standing right in front of me, eyebrows raised and arms crossed as if I were caught by my dad sneaking in past curfew.
“Well…?”
I try to hide my flushed cheeks and bruised lips, but I’m not sure how long she was standing by the door, and those doors are anything but thick.
I walk over to my bed and take a seat so I can take off my shoes.
“Come on, Hails, don’t be such a wankpuffin! Spill the details of you and Hottie McHotterson!”
“First of all, where the hell do you come up with these words?”