On The Rocks

But I get a completely different reaction.

Hunter jumps back from me as if he’s been burned and curses, “Fuck, Gabs!”

I immediately feel cold when his hands fall away. I watch the way he stares at me with a wild look in his eyes, his chest heaving. His hands are clenched at his side, and he looks like he wants to murder me.

“What the hell was that?”

“I… I… I thought it was a kiss,” I mutter lamely, my heart now sinking down into my stomach. I’m confused. How could he be kissing me with such passion, such fire, just mere moments ago and now, he’s looking at me in horror?

“That’s wrong,” he says sternly, and he actually wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. It makes me feel dirty and cheap, and sorrow lances through me.

“Wrong?” I ask in confusion.

“Yes,” he says, like I just asked the stupidest question. “You’re like a sister to me. We can’t do that. You shouldn’t have done that.”

Okay… now I’m starting to get mad. He’s making it sound like this is totally my fault, and while yes… I may have instigated the kiss, he certainly participated in it one-hundred percent.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I say, “I shouldn’t have done that? You kissed me back.”

His mouth falls open and he starts to argue, then he snaps it shut because he knows I’m right. I can’t help the smug look of triumph that overcomes my face, but I realize immediately that it’s a mistake to gloat because he stiffens his spine.

Taking a deep breath, he says in a much calmer voice. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that either. This was a mistake.”

What? Mistake? No way.

“It’s not a mistake,” I assure him and take a step closer. He takes a step back, which makes me even madder.

I start to open my mouth to lay into him, when Wyatt calls out from the dark. “I found her, Hunter.”

Turning around, I see Wyatt walking into the glow of a streetlight, pulling Casey along behind him. She doesn’t look too happy, and neither does Wyatt.

I feel Hunter take a step up behind me and lean down to whisper, “This was a mistake, Gabs. I’m forgetting it. So should you.”

Then Hunter is walking by me toward Casey. “Where the hell was she?” he asks Wyatt.

Releasing Casey’s hand, Wyatt reaches out and claps Hunter on the shoulder, turning him back toward the car. “It’s all good, dude. She was just in the bathroom.”

The devious smile I see curling Casey’s lips upward tells me she was most definitely not in the bathroom and that Wyatt was covering for her. She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the car, opening the back door and pushing me in. She climbs in behind me, enclosing us in darkness. I can vaguely hear Wyatt and Hunter outside talking, and although I can’t hear the specifics, the calming tone of Wyatt’s voice tells me that he’s assuring Hunter that Casey is fine and all is right with the world.

Casey grabs my hand and squeezes. “Holy shit, Gabby. Fucking Tim Miller had his hand down my pants when Wyatt caught us. I thought I’d die.”

Normally, I would raise my eyebrows over Casey’s sexcapades and give her a chastising glare. But I can’t even find it within myself to care enough right at this very moment. I’m still reeling from the hot kiss and cold smackdown I just underwent in the last five minutes.

Of course, my failure to act like my normal self puts Casey’s bestie radar on full alert. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I say hastily, and a little too loudly, although my mind is racing over the implications of what just happened between Hunter and me. It’s pressing down heavily that the feelings I have for him are most definitely not returned, and now… he probably thinks I’m a big whore of a person, too.

“Bullshit, Gabriella Ward. Spill it,” she demands.