Had Enough

by Anie Michaels

  “Riley,” he said gently, making it impossible to not look back at him. “They’re not going to stop until we give them what they want. I’m going to kiss you, okay?” His hand was slowly moving up my neck to cup my face, but his eyes were searching mine, looking for an answer to his question.

  I nodded slightly, then watched as he closed the distance between us. My eyes closed out of habit, but also because I didn’t want to watch the train wreck that would be our kiss on the Jumbotron.

  I’m not sure what I expected, but I’d never, ever, been kissed like that before.

  His lips pressed softly against mine, but captured my bottom one. He held my lip ransom between his own for a moment, and I thought he’d pull away, that the kiss would be over, but he didn’t. It wasn’t. Instead, he pulled back just a fraction, only to dive back in again, this time with more enthusiasm than I was prepared for. And for the record, he wasn’t just kissing me with his lips; his hand was cupping my face, his other arm slipping around my back, and dammit if his head wasn’t tilting at just the right angle to kiss the hell out of me.

  When I felt the wetness of his tongue teasing, I had two options—pull away and end the kiss, or get lost in it, in him. I opened for him, whimpering as I did, and I immediately wondered how they were going to scrape me off the floor of that arena because it. Was. Over.

  His tongue swept in, tangled with mine, and then he went back to paying special attention to my bottom lip, and then continued on and on in an endless cycle of the sexiest kiss I’d ever had.

  The entire arena was hollering at us, whistling loudly, yelling obscene things in our direction, and of course the camera operators couldn’t pull away—we were practically fucking with our mouths for everyone to see.

  But I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered in that moment was his mouth against mine and the way his hands were gripping me like he owned me, as if he wanted to take a piece of me and keep it forever. If we’d been alone, in private, my hands would have automatically tried to remove his shirt, I would have been in his lap, and it didn’t matter one bit that I’d just met him or that he’d literally just broken up with his girlfriend not fifteen minutes before. All that mattered was his mouth and the way he was using it on me.

  But it did end eventually, to the dismay of everyone in the arena. He pulled away, but just his mouth; his hands remained on me and mine on him. We were just panting, staring at one another, and the entire crowd started with a round of thunderous applause. But I might as well have been deaf, because all I could see and feel was him.

  “You have an extraordinary mouth,” he whispered, his eyes darting down to my lips.

  “Ditto,” I breathed, unable to utter any other words. He’d kissed me stupid. He smirked at me, but then pulled away fully, leaving me wobbly and unsteady. He moved back into his seat and I into mine, both of us resuming our normal basketball-watching positions, but there could have been any number of things going on down on the court and I wouldn’t have been able to process any of it.

  “Hey,” Hadley whispered, nudging me with her elbow. I turned to look at her. “Did that kiss feel as sexy as it looked?”

  I blinked at her. She cracked up laughing. I turned back to the court and in my periphery I saw Camden’s hand slyly come up to swipe across his lips, and every man within arm’s reach gave him a pat on the back. Meanwhile, multiple women surrounding us squirmed in their seats. It was, quite honestly, ridiculous.

  Finally, after a few dazed moments, my faculties returned, along with a normal heart rhythm. I leaned just to my right a little, keeping my face forward, and whispered to him, “Where did you learn to kiss like that?”

  I felt his shoulders shake with a chuckle, and then he leaned into me, whispering his response. “I don’t think I’ve ever kissed anyone that way. I must have been inspired.”

  “Basketball really does it for you, huh?”

  He let out a real laugh that time. “I told you, it’s like foreplay.”

  “Right.” My eyes rolled but my lips smiled. The lights in the arena started flashing and the Renegades returned to the court. The most epic halftime of my life had come to an end and, truthfully, I was a little glad. I didn’t know what to do with the man I’d had mouth sex with, who was still sitting next to me. How do you just go on after something so damn arousing? So, when the game started back up, and I had something to pretend to be interested in, I was happy for the distraction. That did not, however, mean I wasn’t acutely aware of him. Conscious all the time of how far away he was, or how close, where his hands were, whether he was looking at me. I caught him a few times, eyes not on the game but on me instead. I only caught him because I was stealing glances at him too. But as the game continued, the tension eased. I was able to enjoy the last quarter of the game, finding that he and I had very similar complaints and suggestions for the team, agreeing when fouls were ridiculous, when players were being dumbasses, and that was something else my brain grabbed hold of and tucked away, surely to be brought out again late at night when I couldn’t sleep.

  After much yelling, the players finally saw it our way and decided to win their game, making my night even more exciting. It would have sucked to spend all that money on celebratory tickets only to watch the Renegades lose—kiss or no.

  But the kiss was a perk, right? And that’s all it was. A silly halftime game that got way out of control and way too hot for anyone’s good.

  The buzzer sounded, the crowd erupted in yells and applause, and the great migration out of the arena began. Hadley and I stood up and turned to shuffle down the narrow aisle that led to the stairs. I tried not to notice if Camden was behind me or not, but somehow my body knew he was following. We moved onto the stairs but then were stalled as all the people above us slowly filed out.

  “So,” I heard Camden’s voice say, but also felt against my ear, his breath feathering over the shell of it. “If I asked for your phone number, would you give it to me?”

  “What would you need my phone number for?”

  “First you didn’t understand kissing, and now you’re confused as to why I’d want your number?”

  My cheeks pinked at his words. “I know why you’d want it, I guess I’m just confused by this whole situation.”

  “It’s not rocket science, Riley. That was an amazing kiss. I’d like to do it again sometime. Possibly after a meal. Or a drink.”

  “You want to go out on a date?”

  “Even I can tell he wants to take you out,” groaned Hadley from in front of me, giving me an epic eye roll.

  “Thanks, Had,” Camden said, as if he knew her well enough to use her nickname.

  “No problem, Cam,” she replied sweetly.

  “What the hell is going on?” I was terribly confused. “Do you guys know each other? Is this some sort of poor man’s punk’d?” They both started laughing, but I was still looking between the two of them.

  “Is she always this hard to date?”

  Hadley shrugged before climbing the few empty steps ahead of her. “She doesn’t date much.”

  “Okay, don’t talk about me like I’m not standing right between you.” I turned to Camden, a fierce look in my eyes to tell him I meant business. I was thwarted, however, by the way his eyes were moving up and down my body—appreciatively. I swallowed hard and wished I still had some beer left; my throat was like the Sahara.

  “Then give me your number,” he said, his voice lower and deeper somehow. “You already kissed me,” he argued.

  I followed Hadley up the stairs, trying to get as far away from Camden Rogers as possible. He made me nervous, and he made me feel like it was okay to just date guys I kissed at basketball games. He wasn’t having any of it, though. He was hot on my heels when we exited into the giant hallway that was the perimeter of the arena, and then he fell into step right next to me.

  Hadley, who was on the other side of me, leaned closer and whispered, “He’s persistent.”

  “Yeah, no shit.”

>   “You ladies are forgetting that I’m a lawyer. I can argue my point until we all die or you give up.” He said the words with a smile, and something gnawed at my insides, telling me he was being truthful—he was going to pester me to death. That was as good a reason as any to keep denying him.

  “Listen, it’s nothing personal, I’m just not looking to date anyone.”

  I felt a warm hand on my elbow and then I was being turned to face him. People kept walking right past us, a few grumbling about us blocking the walkway.

  “Riley, you can’t tell me you aren’t even a little interested, given how much you participated in that kiss.” He raised an eyebrow, and fuck me if it wasn’t sexy.

  “So, because I kissed you, now I have to date you?”

  “I like your mouth, Riley. I like the way you use it and the words that come out of it. I’ve only spent one half of a basketball game talking to you, and I know with near perfect certainty that I would never tire of hearing you speak.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at his response. “Not like Sophia the princess?” I batted my eyelashes at him.

  “Come on,” he urged quietly. “Give me your number.”

  Something about Camden Rogers felt dangerous. Not serial-killer dangerous, but the kind of dangerous that made me want to keep my heart safe right inside my chest and not offer it to fantastic kissers who could argue their way out of anything.

  “I’m really just not looking to date anyone. Sorry.” I gave a sincere smile and shrugged. Then I turned back to Hadley. I could tell by her expression she was annoyed with me.

  He followed us out of the arena, down the steps at the street entrance, and all the way across the street to the MAX station. We were surrounded by hundreds of people who’d also taken the light rail train to the arena, and I wasn’t looking forward to cramming myself inside the small train car with all of them, but I couldn’t help but pray the train came quickly.

  “Just one date,” he said from behind me.

  “He’s literally begging,” Hadley said to me, clearly taking his side.

  I heard the train coming from the west and watched it cross the bridge and come to a slow stop at our station.

  “Come on,” he pleaded. “At least give me your last name.”

  I managed a laugh and tried to ignore the part of me that wanted to see where a date with him would lead, but the circumstances were just too strange.

  “Have a good rest of your night,” I called through the doors as I grabbed the pole above my head to keep myself steady. He was smiling at me, but it was more of a challenging smile, as if he couldn’t believe I would leave him hanging. The doors started to close and I held my breath.

  “SMITH!” Hadley yelled just before the doors closed. I turned to her, mouth gaping open, shocked she’d give some stranger my name. “Her last name is Smith!”

  The doors closed and the train started slowly making its way up the hill to the Park and Ride lot.

  “You sneaky bitch,” I said, shooting Hadley with the imaginary laser beams that came from my eyes.

  She smiled and then blew me a kiss. I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to post embarrassing pictures of her on Instagram.