I force a smile at him over my shoulder. “Maybe I’m just not as fun as some of the other girls here.” Sad, but probably true.
Adam suddenly lifts me off the ground, making me squeal. He carries me out to the kitchen and sets me down on the counter. Shawn is leaning against the fridge ordering pizza, and Dee is sitting at the breakfast bar munching on some tortilla chips, watching us with amusement.
“What are you doing?” I ask Adam as he braces his hands on either side of me.
“Do you remember that little game we played at IHOP?”
How could I forget? I recall exactly which game he’s talking about—the one where we pretended to be a couple to make that table of girls jealous. That was before Adam found out who I was, when he kissed the corner of my mouth and nearly made me swoon to death. My heart flutters at the memory. “Yeah . . .”
“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” His smile is full of trouble. I know where he’s going with this.
“Yeah . . .”
Adam brushes my hair away from my ear, leaning in slowly and pressing his lips against it. His voice is quiet and smooth when he says, “So let’s have some fun.”
I can’t help glancing back at Kayla and Zoey, who are both still sitting with Joel and Leti on the floor. They’re pretending not to be watching Adam and me—and sucking at it, just like Joel is pretending not to be watching Dee—and sucking at it.
When Adam pulls away to gauge my reaction, I surprise myself—and him—by spreading my legs and pulling him between them. I tug on his neck until his ear is at my mouth. I know he’s down with playing this little game, but I’m betting Kayla and Zoey have a hell of a lot more to offer. Worried, I ask, “Are you sure you don’t want a threesome?”
Adam chuckles and leans back. “Are you offering?”
I playfully swat his chest, but he catches my hand, his eyes never leaving mine as he raises my wrist to his lips and presses a soft kiss against my pulse point. I wonder if he can feel my heart racing—because it’s definitely threatening to pound out of my chest.
Dee’s voice reminds me that she’s literally sitting right by me. She’s holding a chip near her gaping mouth, frozen in place. “This is better than porn.”
An embarrassed giggle escapes me, and then Adam takes my hand and walks me to the couch, tugging me onto his lap while Kayla and Zoey openly stare at us.
For the next twenty minutes, he flirts with me, tracing his fingers down my arms, squeezing my knees, nuzzling my neck and whispering in my ear. When the pizza arrives, I’m all too grateful to launch myself off of his lap and practically teleport to the kitchen. The last thing he did was kiss my neck, and I seriously don’t think I could take any more. I was experiencing the sweetest parts of hell.
After everyone stuffs themselves with pizza, we reclaim our spots on the floor and start the game back up. Joel picks the next rule maker card on his first turn and—because he’s clearly still traumatized over my non-kiss with Dee—fervently demands that all future kisses include full tongue and last at least ten seconds. I’m surprised he didn’t throw over-the-clothes groping in there, but I don’t want to mention it—the last thing I want to do is give him ideas and then have him draw another rule maker card.
With each turn that Kayla or Zoey take, I’m paranoid they’re going to pick a kiss card and make out with Adam right in front of my face. It would be the ultimate revenge for the faux PDA we put on before the pizza arrived. Even when Dee is actually the person who picks it, I have to hold my breath, worried that she’ll pick Adam just to teach me a lesson.
She picks Leti, much to Shawn and Joel’s disappointment, and they put on a show that leaves my jaw on the floor. The next person to pick a kiss card is Joel, and he picks Dee, who leaves him with his jaw on the floor.
With her finger under his chin, she gives him a kiss that plunges the rest of us into stunned silence. And then, in a daze, he crawls back to his seat, never taking his eyes off my best friend. Kayla and Zoey bristle, and when Dee catches it, her devilish smile widens and she releases a little chuckle. If I wasn’t sure that Leti and Macy are going to walk her to her car tonight, I’m pretty sure I’d have to bribe Mike into being her bodyguard.
We continue going around the circle, the night getting darker and the stack of cards getting smaller and smaller until, finally, there’s only one card left.
A smile spreads across Adam’s lips when he flips the final kiss card over, and then he stretches his arms behind his back and rises to his feet.