“Yep. Every single glorious inch of you. I hear you, too. Even when I’ve got my eyes closed and I’m trying to sleep. You’re everywhere and I’ve no idea what to do with that.”
She was finding it hard to breathe. She wanted to, she really did. But every time she tried the air caught in her throat.
“It’s crazy, right?” he asked, that smile still on his lips. “You’re Maddie Clark. Ashleigh’s sister. I keep trying to remind myself of that. But the heart wants what the heart fucking wants, Maddie. I should know that. I’ve sung about it enough times. I never really believed it though.” He shook his head and laughed. “I’m sorry, you must think I’m fucking crazy.”
“I think you’re swearing a lot,” she said, smiling.
“Blame the whiskey.”
“So it’s the drink talking for you?” she asked him, a twinkle in her eye. “Okay then, good night.” She went to close the window.
Before she could, he pushed it open further and leaned in, staring right at her. “Don’t go.”
“I wasn’t the one going,” she told him. “This is my bedroom. I’m planning on staying right here.”
He smiled goofily.
“Maybe you need to go to bed, too,” she suggested. “You’re drunk. You should probably sleep it off.”
“You know what?” he said, completely ignoring her suggestion. “We should kiss. Just once. See if there’s something there.” He shook his head. “Who am I kidding. Of course there’s something there.”
“Is there?” she asked softly.
“Isn’t there?”
Yeah, there was. And the thought that he felt it too made her whole body feel on fire. Like one of those little lightning bugs they watched together, she could feel herself start to glow.
“You want to kiss me?” she asked, just to be sure she was hearing him right.
“Yeah. I really think we should. Get it over with.”
God, he was cute when he was drunk. “Here? Through the window?”
He looked at her with dark eyes. “Nah. This isn’t Romeo and Juliet.”
“He had to climb up to her balcony. I live in a bungalow.”
“It’s a damn good thing I don’t have to climb. I’d probably break my neck.”
She grinned at him. “So where do you want to kiss me?”
“On the lips.” He winked.
Talking to Gray was like foreplay. It made her body ache.
“I’m kidding,” he said, leaning in through the window. “Come out here and let me take you somewhere. First kisses shouldn’t be through windows. Not if you’re over the age of fifteen.”
“Where do you want to go?”
He was close enough to reach out and touch her. He threaded his fingers through her long thick hair. His touch made her shiver. Her body was pressed against the sill, a thin barrier of bricks between them. She wanted to pull them down one by one to get closer to him.
“If we were in L.A., I’d drive you down to a little beach just past Malibu. We’d park and take our shoes off and paddle in the waves. Then I’d turn you just right until the moon caught your face. And I’d look at you until I couldn’t take it any more. Maybe you’d laugh a little because I’d have this stupid damn expression on my face because I wouldn’t want to mess up this kiss.”
She tried not to swoon at his description. “Then what would you do?”
“I’d twist my fingers through your hair like this,” he murmured, sliding his hand to the back of her head. The window sill dug into her hips. “I’d need to tip your head up because you’re so damn short and I’m so damn tall.”
“That’s rude.”