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Those two questions swirled around in my mind until it felt like I was going to go insane. They were still playing tug of war with my sanity when there was a knock on the office door seconds before it opened. I lowered my gaze to find the reason for my insanity walking through the door.
I jumped to my feet, moving around my desk to meet her halfway. “Lu—”
“I lied to Marcus and told him that you had my phone, so I couldn’t leave without it. He must have known I was lying, but he let me come anyway. I…” She broke off, sucking that bottom lip between her teeth again. “I just couldn’t leave without seeing you one more time tonight.”
I caught hold of her waist and pulled her roughly against me. “I’m glad,” I told her honestly. “I wish I could be the one to take you home. If I didn’t have so many responsibilities here, I would have already been driving you to Malibu.”
A small smile teased at her lips. “It might be dangerous if you take me home. I’d be too tempted to make out with you in the car while it was parked in the driveway. My dad would go ballistic if he caught us.”
She was right. Neither one of us would have been able to keep our hands off each other if I’d taken her home. While Jesse had told me he was cool with whatever Lucy and I decided we wanted, I doubted he would be happy to find me with my hands up his daughter’s shirt and my tongue down her throat.
Lifting my hand, I cupped her cheek, rubbing my thumb over her bottom lip. “So you had to see me one more time?” I lowered my head until my lips brushed softly over hers. When she shivered against me for what felt like the hundredth time that night, it took a willpower I didn’t realize I possessed to not start tearing her clothes off.
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured against my mouth, making the kiss linger a moment longer before pulling back enough to look up at me. “I needed one more kiss.”
My body hardened even as my chest clenched painfully. A kiss? Not to tell me she loved me? What the fuck was up with her? Why hadn’t she said the words again?
Even as the question was slamming around inside my head, I realized the answer and felt like a total douchebag. Last night when she’d confessed that she loved me, I hadn’t told her how I felt. I was such a pussy, letting her speak those words—wanting to hear them over and over again—but not giving them back to her.
My arm tightened around her waist, pulling her even closer. Her hands caught hold of my shoulders, as if she needed to steady herself. Lowering my head again, I bypassed her luscious lips and brushed a kiss over the shell of her ear. “I love you, Lucy.”
Her body jerked as if I’d electrocuted her and her head fell against my chest. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was crying, that her tears were soaking my undershirt. I caught hold of her chin, forcing her to lift her head. “Sweetness? What’s wrong?”
“You can be so dense sometimes, Harris Cutter.” She let out a soft laugh. “Nothing’s wrong. I love you, too.”
My relief was so strong I felt almost weightless with it. “So those are good tears?” I needed to know. If she was crying because she was upset, then those damn tears were going to bring me to my fucking knees.
Another soft laugh left those beautiful lips. “Yes, babe. Completely good.”
“Just checking,” I murmured before cupping the back of her head and catching her lips in a kiss that made me forget my own name.
Chapter 7
Lucy
“You know there is some kind of epic bug going around at the moment, right?”
“Mm?” I was barely paying attention to Kin as we walked through the halls at school Friday afternoon. Most of the day I’d been spaced out, unable to keep my mind from going back to the night before. The way I’d felt when Harris had told me he loved me. The way my body had become one throbbing ache when he’d kissed me…
“Lucy, there is a seriously bad bug going aro
und this school. At least a third of the student body is out with it.” She tapped her fingers against the back of my hand. “And yet you have done nothing but touch your mouth all day.”
I frowned at her and then nearly crossed my eyes as I glanced down at where my index and middle fingers were tracing over my bottom lip. It still felt full, still tingled from Harris’s kiss. I hadn’t even realized I’d been touching it. Muttering a curse, I quickly dropped my hand.
Kin was right. A good part of the school was out sick. I wasn’t sure if it was an actual bug or if it was just our fellow students had wanted a few extra days off before our month-long Christmas break. But I had seen at least two girls with sniffles the day before and couldn’t remember if I’d seen them earlier that day or not.
My friend suddenly stopped walking, her hand coming out to grasp my arm and forcing me to stop beside her. I glanced back over my shoulder to see if Marcus was his usual five steps behind, shadowing me from one class to another. Like always, he was where I expected him to be.
The school day was basically over, and we were headed toward the parking lot where my Range Rover was parked. Kin normally road home with me, but since her stepmother had nearly shit a brick the night before over Georgia being carted to their front door with her hands still zip tied—something I had to thank Harris’s security team for doing when I saw them later. Which meant that unless something major happened, Kin wouldn’t be leaving her house for the next few days because she was officially grounded. So today she had to ride home with her stepsisters.
In my opinion that was punishment enough, having to risk possible death on the ride with Georgia at the wheel. I couldn’t say much for my own skills as a driver since I rarely got to do any driving, but I’d seen Georgia in action. She’d nearly taken out our mailbox at least twice since she’d gotten her license, and we didn’t even live on the same street.
“What’s up with you today?” Kin asked.
Without thinking about what I was doing, my fingers went back to my bottom lip, tracing over the tingle that still lingered. Harris had been so worked up he’d actually bit me. I’d liked it. A lot. Blue eyes narrowed on my hand and I hastily dropped it. “Sorry. I’m just a little…” My voice trailed off because I didn’t know what I was.
Kin gave a laugh that wasn’t all that humorous. “In love?”
