He doesn’t glance across the circle like I did when I picked that card, and I don’t know if it’s because Kayla and Zoey are so much hotter than I am, or if it’s because of that stupid rule I made about us just being friends. Right now, I wish I had never said such a stupid thing. Last time he kissed me, I made him stop and insisted it could never happen again. Now, he’s going to pick one of the girls who practically tackled him to sit beside him, and I’m going to be crushed.
My heart sinks when Adam walks behind Kayla and puts his hand on her head. He hasn’t been with any girls in front of me since I moved in, but a part of me always knew it was bound to happen eventually. He’s going to kiss her, and it’s going to take every last shred of willpower I have to not break into tears. He’s not mine. He’s never going to be mine. But even if he leaves with her tonight, at least I know he won’t be hers either. Not really.
Kayla grins and starts to stand up, but Adam presses his hand more firmly against her head, making her fall back on her ass. “Apple,” he says, and Shawn snickers. Adam walks behind Shawn and puts his hand on his head, but Shawn is too busy smiling at me to even look up. “Apple,” Adam repeats, grinning down at Shawn. He walks behind Dee and puts his hand on her head, and I hold my breath. Dee is hot, probably even hotter than Kayla and Zoey. If Adam picks her, it will absolutely crush me. Dee would refuse to kiss him for my sake, but that wouldn’t make his choice hurt me any less.
“Apple.”
Adam walks behind me, and I wait to feel his hand on my head, but I never do. Everyone is staring at me, and I finally turn around to find him crouched behind me, his stunning eyes catching mine.
“Peach.”
I swallow hard, and then—because I’m me—I say something really, really stupid. In a tiny voice, I ask, “What?”
Adam grins and leans in, pressing his lips against my ear. “You just got picked.”
“If you don’t want to do it,” Kayla interrupts from across the circle, “you can just take a drink.”
If I was having any doubts about doing it before, my mind is now completely made up. I turn and sit on my knees, and then I reach forward and curl my hands around the sides of Adam’s neck. I don’t have the courage to actually pull him to me though, so we’re just sitting there, a satisfied smile curving his lips.
A second later, he slowly closes the distance between us, and his soft lips press gently against mine, parting them and frying every neuron in my brain. His kiss is silky smooth, and so is his tongue when it sneaks into my mouth. Without thinking, I suck on it lightly, and in the next instant, his arms are circled around my waist, tugging my body against his. Everyone else disappears. There is only the way he feels, the way he smells, the way he’s touching me.
“That’s ten,” a distant female voice cuts in, but who the hell cares? Unless the building is on fire, she should probably shut the hell up, and even then . . . she should probably shut the hell up. “That’s ten!” it repeats.
“Shut the hell up!” Dee scolds, and I finally stop kissing Adam long enough to open my eyes. He opens his eyes too, but then, eyes open, he pulls me in for another soft kiss. His lips caress mine once. Twice. He leans in next to my ear and whispers, low so that only I can hear, “We need to talk. In private.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
I DON’T KNOW who stands up first, but then Adam and I are walking down the hallway, and . . . God, I have no idea why I’m following him to his room, but I ignore the jeers coming from the other direction and just let him lead me there. As soon as we’re inside, he turns around to close the door behind me, trapping me with his body.
“You wanted that.” His tone is accusing, but his eyes are questioning, and I’m too nervous to answer everything he’s leaving unspoken.
What I want from Adam is so, so much more than kissing. I want a million things he won’t ever give me. A million things he won’t ever give anyone.
His smoldering eyes fix on the curve of my lips, heating them through his steady gaze alone. “Tell me you wanted that.”
My nervous fingers slide up the downy-soft material of his T-shirt and curl around the back of his neck. I stare up at him and gently pull him down until I’m breathing the same air coming from his gorgeous, parted lips.
I can’t say the words. I can’t tell him what I want. So I continue what we started.
I kiss him.
Adam hesitates for only a second before kissing me back with even more urgency than he did in the living room. His hands grip beneath my thighs and lift me off the ground, and my legs wrap tight around his hips as he carries me to the bed.