Page 66 of All for Love

Surprised by his honesty, I inhaled deeply and decided to give him the same thing in return. “It worked until I talked to her and realized you were just friends. You are just friends, right?”

“Right,” he said, sounding so forlorn about it that I frowned.

“Wait. Are you just friends, or do you have feelings for her that aren’t reciprocated?”

He stuck his chin into the top of the blanket before shaking his head. “No. It’s not like that with us. Never has been.”

“Well, I like her,” I said. “She’s cool. Why do you seem so down about it all if you don’t have unreciprocated feelings for her?”

“Everyone likes her. That’s the problem. We’re not together but everyone seems to want us to be. They want me to be with someone like her so my edges aren’t so rough. Whatever that even means.”

I took a moment to absorb what he said before I shrugged. Maybe it was the cold or the quiet, or maybe it was the snow or the fact that everyone else seemed to be so festive when I wasn’t feeling it at all, but my guards were all the way down.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I like you just the way you are,” I confessed quietly. “Sharp edges and all. Even if they have cut me a few times.”

He stopped short and moved in front of me, not touching me with his hands but standing so close that our chests brushed on every breath we took. “I’m sorry, Mercedes. I never meant to hurt you. You have to believe that.”

“I do,” I said, looking up into those blue eyes that were almost silver in this light. “I’m sorry, too.”

Time suspended in that moment as we stared at each other, not touching, not moving, but also not looking away. Lifetimes of possibility in every alternate universe passed between us. If our parents hadn’t got married, this would’ve been the moment I’d look back on as the one when we fell.

The single moment when I knew he was going to catch me.

Kody bent over. His head descended to mine and he took my lips in the most romantic kiss as the snow fell around us. When we parted, I was breathless, wanting. “Kody…”

“Yeah?” His own voice was as hushed and breathy as mine, but this wasn’t an alternate universe. This wasn’t the moment when I fell and he caught me.

Because if our parents hadn’t gotten married, we wouldn’t have been here. “What are we doing? Why can’t I stay away from you?”

Instead of answering the question, he stepped into me, his body firm and warm against my own, and he kissed me again. It was a deep, meaningful kiss that made me feel like sparks were coming out of each of us, floating up above our heads and winding themselves together in a heart in the air that lit up the sky.

“I don’t know,” he murmured between kisses, his mouth still touching mine and his brow furrowing against my skin. “All I know is that I’m tired of fighting how I’m feeling.”

I breathed him in, happy to just stay this close to him, our foreheads touching as we tried to catch our breath. “Is that why you invited Marissa to the party? You needed someone neutral you don’t have feelings for?”

“Fuck Marissa,” he mumbled against my lips before he sealed them over mine once more. His tongue delved into my mouth, tasting like whiskey and Kody as he stroked it against my own.

The kiss deepened, and my body reacted in a way it only ever reacted to his. Despite the freezing cold out here, my insides had turned molten, and everything in me begged for every part of him. I couldn’t see it happen, but I was sure the snow was melting as soon as it came within a foot of us. It had to be. This moment was just too hot for it not to.

I leaned into him, my arms still held tightly around my own body to ward off the chill, but I desperately wanted to hold him. To keep kissing him. To take him home with me and keep him there forever.

Of course, just like it always did, the time we had together ended much too soon. Kody broke the kiss reluctantly, then stole a few more before he sighed and took a step back. “We should get back to the party before I decide to take you around back to my car and then race us both back to my place.”

“Or before I decide to let you,” I teased, but I wasn’t feeling it. I wanted that more than anything, but it still wasn’t me he was taking home tonight and there was nothing I could do to change that.