“Yeah. While we’re alone. It feels so much worse with an audience, and maybe that’s the problem.”
He shook his head at the same time his heart screamed the affirmative. “I don’t think—”
“You’re always thinking,” she said, shifting to her knees. “We both are. Let’s just stop for a minute.”
She took his face in her small hands, angled his head toward her, and pressed her lips to his. Like before, her eyes were open, brown and wide and beautiful. His hands shook with the effort to keep them to himself.
“Noah,” she murmured against his mouth. “Don’t think.”
Don’t think.
He gave in to his body, allowing his arm to rise up and his fingers to slide across her cool cheek. Her eyes slid closed and a small murmur escaped her throat, and at that tiny sound his control snapped. He grabbed her by the waist and hauled her onto his lap. She let out a little yelp but kept her lips against his, settling her thighs down to frame his waist, her hands still on either side of his face.
One of his arms clamped around her back, pressing her against him, while the other slid up the back of her head, gripping her hair in a frenzy. She arched her back—fuck, he couldn’t get her close enough—and opened her mouth to him.
Deep and intense, it is.
Her tongue was in his mouth and he was completely lost. Dying and drowning in her breath, her scent, her touch. He never wanted to come up for air. Ever. Her hands were under his shirt, scorching his skin as they slid up his stomach to his chest.
He lifted his hips a little, unable to stop himself, and she pressed down against him, causing the most beautiful and painful friction. When she said his name on a breathless moan, he was seconds away from flipping her onto her back.
That’s when he came back to himself.
It took the strength of every single cell in his body to take his lips from hers. He dropped his head against the tree, anchoring himself there. Her eyes slowly opened, taking him in.
“Wow. Noah, I—”
He shook his head, his eyes dropping to her swollen lips.Dammit.
“I’m sorry.” His voice sounded raw, like he’d been screaming for hours. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
She slowly climbed off his lap. “Actually, I think I did that.”
“I took it too far.”
She looked at him curiously. “I was okay with it.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Okay,” she said. Her eyes dropped to his lips, then lower. Her eyes went wide. “But, um, why not?”
He shifted a little. “Because. You’re my best friend. We got caught up in the acting. And even though we’re doing this thing, it’s not forever, right?”
Right?
Mia had been anti-relationship and anti-marriage for the last nine years. Vehemently so. He wasn’t naive enough to think one kiss would change her mind, but he wanted to hear it from her.
“Right.” Her tone was all the confirmation he needed.
“Then it’s not worth it to risk our friendship,” he said. “It could mess everything up.”
“Maybe,” she said thoughtfully. “But...what if it makes everything better?”
How could it, if it wasn’t real? “It could ruin us.”
“Maybe it already has.”
He shook his head. “Don’t say that. That was just practice for our public performances. Nothing more. And you were right, it will definitely be easier to kiss you in front of other people now.” When had he become such a good liar? He didn’t know if he was proud or ashamed of himself. Either way, if he allowed things to go further, this wouldn’t end well. “I won’t be weird about it if you won’t.”