AllFreeNovel
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We listen to the sounds of the neighborhood all the way to my house, around the side yard, to the front door of the apartment.
I unlock the door.
He stands behind me. “Did he kiss you?”
“What?”
“The guy who tied you up. Or was it something else?”
“He held me down.” My cheeks flush at the memory. Then the vision shifts, and River is the guy on top of me and I’m on fire. “Yes. I think so. I don’t remember.”
“Have you ever felt a kiss everywhere? In your bones?”
“I don’t know. How does that feel?” I push the door open.
He places his hand on the knob. “Should we talk inside?”
I open it wider and walk in.
He follows and presses the door closed.
And then we’re alone in my apartment. In the apartment I share with my sister, in the big, beautiful living room.
“Do you trust me?” River moves closer, but he stays behind me.
I should say no. I should stop whatever this is. But I can’t. I won’t. “Yes.”
“Do you want to feel it? The magic you don’t believe exists?”
“Desire isn’t magic.”
“You don’t think a kiss is romantic?”
“It’s sexual, too.”
“It feels different. When you care about someone.”
Is he saying he cares about me? That I care about him? I’m not sure. I don’t have time to figure it out.
“Do you want to feel it or not?” His fingers brush my hair. My neck. The place where my cover-up meets my skin.
“As an experiment,” I say. “For the sake of science only.”
“If that’s what you want.”
It’s not, but it’s the only reasonable thing to do. It’s the last reasonable thing I can do. “Okay. One kiss. As an experiment.”
“A kiss like we mean it.”
“Let’s call it a make-out session.” I mean to say it with humor, but I stumble over the words. I’m awkward around him. When it comes to this. Maybe he’s right. Maybe there’s more than sex here. Because I know enough about sex. I don’t stumble with sex. Romance on the other hand…
“Do you want a safe word?”
“The word ‘no’ is fine.”
He nods, running his thumb over my cover-up. “How do I take this off?”
“Is that part of it?”
