Her Kiss (Griffin)

by Marks, Melanie

  Duh.

  But still, she didn’t run away.

  I retracted my dejected hands from her general area, curling my fingers in my hair ‘cause I didn’t trust me to keep my hands to myself—they wanted on her, bad. I stared at her with hungry eyes, filled with curiosity. Also though, well, it was funny—that she didn’t seem able to actually speak.

  I grinned. “Just spit it out.”

  “Aiden Hanks,” she blurted out, but it was more like a coughing fit or something. “He’s my …”

  When she choked again I finished for her, still curious, “—your boyfriend.”

  She nodded, looking surprised. Like she thought I didn’t know who she was—but come on, she gave me my first girl-made treat—the hugest cookie I’d ever seen.

  Slowly light dawned in my confused brain. Another grin grew on my face. “Oh, you’re here to beg me not to bash his face in.”

  My lips twitched again—sorry. Strange things strike me as hilarious—especially when little punks sic their trembling, sweet girlfriends on me.

  I tossed my history book from one hand to the other, trying to not look so amused. But come on. “The twerp sent you?”

  “No!”

  She rushed out her next words, like to stop me from getting the wrong idea. “Aiden doesn’t know I’m talking to you.”

  I grinned. “Then why are you talking to me?”

  “Because—like you said, I don’t want you to bash his face in.” She stared into my eyes—oh man.

  Heat torched through my insides. Suddenly, it was like I’d never been around a girl before. My skin pricked with some weird longing and my heart was pounding like it had plans to leap out of my chest and join the circus.

  Man, what was she doing to me?

  Still holding my gaze—in a death-grip—like she knew what it was doing to my confused, ignited heart, she whispered, “Please don’t.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut.

  I leaned against my locker and gazed up at the ceiling. Finally I groaned, then let out a long, frustrated breath before I looked back into her hypnotic beautiful eyes. (Mmm. Man, I wanted to look into them all day, get lost in them.) I cleared my throat.

  “Look,” I said, being totally sincere, which I’m usually not, but I wanted her to understand, at least a little, “—I have to. The punk talked trash about me in front of the whole team. It’s not like I can ignore it.”

  “Yes you can!” She followed me as I started to walk away.

  She said it again—to my back—all squeaky and desperate, “Yes you can!”

  I kept walking, but she kept following. “Please, can’t you? Please?”

  Hearing the desperation in her voice, my heart got all twisted up. I’m not exactly made of stone. I really wanted to help her out. I did. But the thing was—at the same time that I wanted to help her … I also wanted to hurt Poser … even more than before. I’m a complicated guy—I guess. Never thought so before, but man. I was being pulled two ways.

  But at times like this, I always go for the violence. I just do. Way easier to deal with. So, I guess I’m not that complicated.

  I kept walking.

  However, Cookie Girl wasn’t going to let it go. Apparently. She did a brave, daring thing. She grabbed my arm. Mine. The guy that made her quiver.

  Feeling her hand on me, I stopped. Frozen.

  Everything inside me wound tight.

  Slowly, I turned back to her and stared into her ocean-like eyes, getting lost in them—though she obviously got my stare wrong. (Since she thought I was a bully and everything.)

  She snatched her hand away lightening fast, like she was terrified I was going to hit her or knock her down … though what I wanted to do was grab her and kiss her. With all of my heart, that’s what I wanted. I wanted to feel those cherry lips on mine.

  She gulped, then squeaked out, “I have some money—not much, but …”

  I couldn’t help smirking. I shook my head slowly. “I don’t want your money.”

  For some reason she looked like she was going to pass out—well, okay, I knew why she looked that way, pretty much. My voice had come out all husky. Not on purpose. But it did. There was a low, guttural-edged honesty that I didn’t want to hide, or cover up. So, she probably had a clue what was going on in my brain—even if she couldn’t admit it. Even to herself.

  Still, there was no denying it—not even she could—Church Girl, with her girly boyfriend, and trembling heart—we were having a sizzling, hot moment. One she didn’t want. But I did. And we were having it.

  My eyes were locked on hers and no way was I going to let them travel.

  She swallowed. “Then what?” Her voice hitched as I got closer, her eyes staying glued to mine involuntarily. She wanted to look away, I could tell. To not be in this position, so close to me. But this time was different than all the others. This time she was needing a favor—she couldn’t run away from me. Face it, she couldn’t even look away from me. She didn’t want to.

  At least that’s what I was telling myself, remembering her cute songs about me, and her secret longing to feel my lips on hers.

  Screw Hailey and what she said, all of her warnings about nice girls not going for me—this trembling, tiny girl wanted me. I was pretty sure. I could read it in her wide yearning eyes. She was scared, yeah … but turned on.

  Church Girl swallowed again, still set on saving her loser boyfriend (total mood killer). “What can I do?”

  I grinned slightly. Magic question.

  I set my jaw, still grinning, not sure I could actually do this to her since she looked like she was going to keel over. But hey, she asked.

  I jutted my chin challengingly. “Kiss me.”

  Her startled eyes flew open wide—wider than they even had been, which was pretty dang wide. “Wh—what?”

  Oh man. I choked back a laugh. Her reaction was gold. She looked as though she was having a heart attack. She grabbed on to the locker beside her to keep from falling over. All this over a kiss—one innocent kiss. One that she wanted. Pretty much. According to her notebook.

  I ran a hand over my face, trying to hide my smile.

  But I got to tell you, my heart was hers. I knew I was going to give her whatever she wanted—anything she wanted—whether she kissed me or not. The girl enchanted me. Blew me away with just her eyes on me. Probably if she smiled at me I’d die. Explode.

  Still, I tried my hardest to sound like I wasn’t a goner. I mean … man, it was just a kiss. One. And she was gorgeous. It seemed like she would have done it a lot—to princes and rock stars and kings. Yet suddenly I was willing to bet the only guys she had ever kissed, ever, were her wound-too-tight boyfriends—Baker and Poser. So, yeah, I could see why she was trembling. She had never really been kissed. Not by a guy. A real guy. One that didn’t paint their toenails by the light of the moon—or have to mouth off to try to look like one of the guys.

  I’m not sure how my voice sounded—I wasn’t plotting things. But the whole thing was pretty funny—her so scared. Of me. The guy that had sniffed her cookie for an entire day. So I’m sure I didn’t sound that challenging. I’m pretty sure I sounded amused. “You heard me.”

  She stared at me, her tempting lips parting slightly, like she was hoping I was kidding. Which I kind of was. I was just messing around and teasing her. But hey, if I could get her to kiss me—score.

  “You,” she swallowed, looking dizzy. “You—you want me to kiss you?”

  She sounded as though it was unfathomable. As though we scary guys don’t like to kiss pretty girls.

  I wet my bottom lip, then bit it. I was trying so hard to keep from smiling, though I was pretty sure I was screwing that up. I smile a lot, though. She was probably aware of that. People say I smirk, but whatever. Smile, smirk—I don’t frown much. “Yeah. Kiss me and I won’t kill your boyfriend.”

  “Um…”

  That was all that came out of her mouth. For a long time. Then she added, “I don’t understand.” />
  Man, she was adorable.

  I grinned. “Yes you do.”

  She was quiet a long time, thinking it over. It was sweet that she was doing that, actually willing to consider kissing me—the scary, terrifying guy that I was. All because she was so worried about her whiney boyfriend and his pretty face.

  For the first time ever, I realized I was jealous of Poser. It made me blink. And shudder.

  “That’s all I have to do?” she asked skeptically. “Kiss you—nothing more?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You can do more if you want.”

  She turned all sorts of red. Without saying a word, she started to slink away.

  I grabbed her arm, gently pulling her back to me. My grin was tender. “Geez, I was just messing with you, Grange.”

  I leaned in close to her, breathing in her cinnamon cookie scent, wanting to put her hand over my heart and let her feel what she did to me just by letting me be near her.

  Instead, I brought my forehead down to hers, almost touching it with mine. “So, we have a deal?”

  She nodded, then gulped—big.

  I couldn’t help noticing that. And of course I couldn’t help the slow grin that grew on my face.

  She did all kinds of kooky things to my insides. She was like sunshine to my heart, wrapped in a tiny girl. She filled me with warmth. And amusement. And total confusion. I loved it.

  One side of my lip twitched up at the corner. “Don’t look so scared, Grange. I’m a good kisser.”

  That in no way calmed her down, and I didn’t mean for it to.

  Her dewy lips formed an “O” while her pretty cheeks blushed the brightest shade of pink I’d ever seen. Whoa.

  I was seriously in love with this girl’s reactions.

  For a moment we just stared at each other, my heart pounding.

  Then I tilted my head, watching curiously as she wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans, then pumped her fists a couple times, like she was trying to psyche herself up—for what, I wasn’t sure. My gaze was fascinated though as she puckered up her pretty tantalizing lips. And my mouth parted slightly as she closed her eyes.

  To me it was all happening in slow motion like a movie—with music playing in the background and a fan blowing her sexy long blond hair. It was driving me wild. What I mean is, these were pretty much the brilliant thoughts in my head—!!!!???!!!!????

  My heart sped up as she leaned in towards me with a dreamy, worried look on her face. Ohhh. Finally, I realized what she was doing.

  She thought I was going to kiss her—here. In the school hallway. Next to my skuzzy locker.

  I watched her with quirked eyebrows, highly entertained—as much by my hyper-reaction to her, as her misunderstanding. Finally, I gave a soft laugh. “Not here.”

  Her big eyes popped open wide and she looked confused. And alarmed. Like, Not here? Then WHERE???

  Panic seemed to rush through her. I could basically see the terrified thoughts swimming around in her terror-filled brain. She was wondering, What exactly did I agree to?

  It really couldn’t happen here though—the kiss—where any moment Hailey might come by and smack us.

  Church Girl looked at me with her round blue eyes full of innocent distrust.

  I gave another soft laugh. “In room 204. At three.” I leaned in close to her again, playing with a tendril of her satin soft hair. “You’ll survive, Church Girl. I promise.”

  CHAPTER 12

  The rest of the day, the thought made me smile—I was actually going to get to kiss shy little Ally Grange, the girl who always ran from me. The thought helped drown out some of the bad stuff going on in my life. Surprisingly, it did a better job of that than bashing in Poser’s nose. Maybe because I was still getting to take a swipe at the twerp, just now in a different way. In a fun way. Mmm, the thought of kissing Ally, it made me fantasize things I knew I shouldn’t.

  But still, thinking about kissing her put me in a good mood. Made me want to hug puppies and plant trees and sniff flowers and stuff. Ally stuff.

  However—(deep, sad sigh)—even with me all excited and fantasizing; still, all day I pretty much planned on telling her she didn’t have to do it. That I was just messing around, and I really wasn’t the bully she thought I was. I didn’t force girls to kiss me.

  That was my plan—to tell her the truth.

  … Only, in the back of my brain swam around a sinking thought: This seemed like my only chance to get to kiss her. Ever. I mean, according to Hailey, Ally would never do it of her own freewill—not ever. Kiss a guy like me, I mean. But the kooky, frustrating thing was though, she would dream about it.

  Only that was lame, right? Cute, yeah, but unsatisfying—for both of us. Her, as much as me.

  So, I never actually called off the kiss. I just thought about doing it. A lot. But then she showed up at room 204 and she looked all flushed and excited—I swear. She did. I mean, nervous too, yeah. Like she might pass out. Still, there was no denying it—she looked excited. Maybe she liked the thought of saving her boyfriend … or maybe she actually wanted to kiss me. Anyway, I wasn’t going to burst her bubble. If she needed to be forced into a kiss … okay. Besides, I wanted to kiss her.

  I tilted my head, regarding her quizzically as she stood flushed and unmoving in the open doorway. Key word, “unmoving.” As in not actually coming into the room. Instead, she just stood in the frame of the door, looking pink and unsteady. And frozen.

  But as I amusedly stared at her, I quickly forgot the amusement part (… or anything else). My thoughts dissolved to nothing but a puddle of: Man, she’s beautiful.

  The way the sun was shining on her from the open window next to her had me seeing stars and fantasizing about my hands tangling in her hair.

  Shaking my head, I looked away from her with a grin. I knew I shouldn’t do this. She was all sweet and innocent and I didn’t want to start pining for her any worse than I already was.

  Then again, those cherry lips—I couldn’t resist them. I just wanted to … try them out. I mean … it was just one kiss.

  I looked back at her.

  “Come here,” I murmured.

  She bit her lip. It seemed like she was trying to psych herself up to get her feet to like, walk.

  Patiently I watched her, my eyebrows quirked and my head tilting. Waiting. Then waiting some more. And okay, some more. She wouldn’t actually move out of the doorway, though. She was glued to the spot like a statue. Frozen. It was cute. Face it, everything the girl did I thought was adorable. I was so gone it was hilarious.

  Waiting, I stared into her gorgeous eyes. I could have done it all day, paid to do it. Only … she was never going to move. Ever.

  With a grin, I sighed and walked over to her. I gently curled my hands around her tiny waist. (Man, she was so tiny!)

  By her little waist, I pulled her out of the threshold, then silently closed the door.

  I wet my lips. Alone, at last, with Ally Grange.

  For a moment, my eyes and hands stayed on her. (Man, she was so tiny!) S-l-o-w-l-y, I gently backed her up against the door I’d just closed, pinning her there. I was so close I could feel her tantalizing warmth. It made me want to nuzzle my face against the curve of her neck, breathe her in, stay like that for a couple of hours, licking, and sucking and nibbling. But she was trembling and her eyes were so wide that I didn’t want to risk doing anything I wasn’t supposed to—anything with her scrumptious-looking neck. (But, man, it was tempting.) Only we agreed to a kiss. That was all. One unspecified (so, tongue-involving [I hoped]) kiss. And right now I still wasn’t sure I’d get one. She was like a wild colt that spooked easily. I was worried she was going to bolt away any second.

  “Take it easy,” I murmured softly, running my fingers through her silky long hair. I grinned, “I’m not going to hurt you, Grange. I promise.”

  I could feel her intake of breath just from me touching her hair. She made this slight moaning sound. Music to my ears. Oh man, I might die from this—to
o much happiness; me finally getting to get up close and personal with my cookie-girl.

  I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning—finally getting the present I’d yearned for, for years.

  Ally gripped the door behind her for support. It seemed like she was going to pass out.

  Sort of worried, I watched her squeeze her eyes shut. But instead of fainting, she leaned in toward me with her tempting lips puckered again.

  So cute.

  My heart pounding, I watched her—enjoying it way too much: shy little Ally Grange, waiting for my kiss. Wild.

  Finally, cautiously, she peeked her beautiful eyes open, looking up at me with a puzzled squint. Like, ‘Why aren’t we mackin’, buddy? I’m here to save my boyfriend. Why are you staring at me instead of doing your job?’

  I gave a soft laugh, all thoughts of telling her she didn’t have to kiss me vanishing. I couldn’t resist her tempting puckered lips another second—not when they were puckered for me. Waiting for me.

  I trailed my hands down her waist. Immediately, I felt her react to my innocent touch—I swear, it was innocent. (I swear!!) I needed to put my hands somewhere, and against the door wasn’t going to do it. She quivered, like sparks jolted through her. Okay, actually, I knew they did, because I felt them too. It was interesting. (And awesome.).… And probably not something a girl with a boyfriend should feel for another guy’s touch, I’ll admit that. But I didn’t let her squirm away from me, because the feeling was good, and I knew she liked it as much as me—and it was just her waist!

  Instead of letting her shy away from my touch, I pulled her closer to me, breathing in her cinnamon scent, practically losing my mind. Mmm. Man, I wanted this girl.

  Gently, gently my lips brushed against hers, so lightly. Teasing us both. Just the feel of her warm soft lips and the fact this was Cookie Girl made me heat up like an oven. But curiously, she stopped breathing. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. (It was definitely good for me. I just worried she was going to … die.)

  I grinned against her lips. “Breathe,” I murmured softly.

  My mouth slowly formed against hers, my kisses slow as I explored the sweet seducing taste of her soft lips. Just getting to finally do this (finally!) was bringing me to my knees. I deepened the kiss, just slightly. Experimenting. The feel of her heart pounding for me was starting to drive me wild. So was the tiny purring noises she kept making. My hungry mouth pressed more and more eager against hers. I could feel her trembling, yet burning up in my arms. That did not cool me down.