Be the Girl

“Does she get a lot of requests from creepers?”

“No, thank God. She’ll get invites from kids she’s chatted up at school every once in a while. I make sure they’re not the kind who would drop mean comments on there, or be coming around to find things to mock her for behind her back.” He snorts. “Didn’t do the greatest job there, did I?”

He’s referring to Holly.

Does he know that she deleted him from her feed?

Does he care?

“So, how come your profile’s not protected?”

“I’m not worried about attracting predators.” He scrolls through the bullying website, searching for more nuggets of information.

“No. Just adoring female fans,” I mutter under my breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

His dimples divot his cheeks with his grin. He heard me, all right. “So, tell me something about Aria Jones from Calgary, since you’re basically a ghost online.”

I study my socks. “Am I?” I know as much, but is he confessing to sitting here in his room, perhaps lying in his bed, looking me up?

Out of mere curiosity?

Or interest? The more-than-friend kind?

My thrilled heart is at odds with the wariness creeping into my spine, of what he could probably find out about me if he knew where to dig.

I take a calming breath. “There’s not much to tell. I like running, and reading. And apparently, zucchini bread.”

He laughs and I laugh along with him, my chest warming. “What else do you want to know?”

“Have you ever had a boyfriend?” He asks it so casually. “Are you allowed?”

“Of course I’m allowed!” I sound indignant. Truthfully, my mom never knew about my two short-lived relationships. She was never present enough to notice the days where I was floating on a cloud, or the nights where I drowned my sorrows in tubs of mint chocolate ice cream.

Emmett sets his laptop aside and settles back against the rail of his bed. He swallows hard, the sound carrying through his bedroom. “Can we talk about it then?”

The elephant.

The air in his bedroom has turned thick with anticipation. “About what?” I hesitate, gathering my courage before I turn to meet his beautiful brown eyes, so open and earnest as they skate over my features, stilling on my mouth.

“About this.” He leans in, until the tips of our noses touch, his lips an inch away. He holds there a moment.

Long enough to give me the chance to stop this from happening, I’m guessing.

Long enough to make my blood rush to my head and my heart thump wildly and my breathing just … stop.

And then he presses his lips against mine.

Kissing Emmett is an out-of-body experience; it doesn’t feel real. His lips are somehow both warm and cool, both soft and firm. When the tip of his tongue touches mine for the first time, I realize I’m still holding my breath. I exhale and with it escapes the softest sigh.

Emmett leans further in, pushing me back to rest against the frame of his bed, the slight stubble on his face scratching deliciously across my chin and my cheeks as he kisses me deeply, with an expertise I can’t possibly match.

I’m dizzy when he finally pulls away.

“Is that going to be okay, with your mom? You know, because you’re fifteen.”

“Almost sixteen,” I manage in a harsh whisper. And Emmett will be turning eighteen in less than three months. We’re not even two years apart. “That was unexpected.”

He grins, still leaning into me, his fingertips grazing my cheek. “Really? I thought you had figured it out.”

“What? No!” I giggle with disbelief, my head swimming in shock. “You said you wanted to stay single. You know, because you’re leaving next year?”

“Yeah. Next year. Plus, you never let me finish what I was going to say.”

I pull my bottom lip into my teeth to hide the stupid grin that threatens to surface. “What were you going to say?”

His brown eyes settle on mine. “Just that the first night I came to your room with the boxes, I thought you were adorable.”

“Yeah. Right.” I roll my eyes. “Aria with a green face.”

He laughs. “You were. And I liked running with you, and hanging out with you. And I didn’t expect to be breaking up with Holly, so I couldn’t see myself with anyone else at first. But, I don’t know … Zach kept asking me if I’d mentioned him to you at all, and then he said he wanted to ask you out to a movie. I got jealous.”

“Really?” I thought I was the only one.

“I told him to stay the hell away from you. That’s when I realized that it was because I wanted to be with you.”

“Really?” I sound like a doe-eyed dimwit.

He weaves his fingers through my hand, stroking my palm with the tip of his thumb, and I can’t describe the way my heart surges with happiness. I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about anything in my life. “Yeah. I mean, you’re funny and sweet and cute—”

I groan.

“In a hot way, trust me.” His mouth is on mine again, this time more urgently, the palm that was cupping my face earlier now settled gently against my neck. It’d be an easy slide down. What it would feel like to have Emmett’s hands on me like that?

The very thought sends heat through my core.

Gingerly at first, I let my fingers wander as our mouths and tongues tangle, smoothing over his strong arms, marveling at his hard muscle. Not long ago I was fantasizing about touching this body and here I am, free to do so. The question now becomes, how fast is too fast?

I’m not sure which order it happens in—if his mouth shifts to my neck first or his hand slides up my shirt, but soon my body is being inundated by Emmett, who may be a decent guy but is not a shy one. I let my head fall back against his bed, close my eyes, and sigh my pleasure as his tongue leaves a trail across my throat and his palm smooths over my abdomen, slowly moving upward, until cool air skates across my skin. His palm settles over one of my bra cups, and I silently thank my choice of pink lace today.

I vaguely hear a door creaking open somewhere in the house, but I’m too far gone, my hand now having found its way through Emmett’s thick mane of chestnut-brown hair, my body a live wire.

“Hello, Emmett and AJ! We’re home!” Cassie’s voice carries from the bottom of the stairs.

Emmett pulls away with a heavy exhale, his hair tousled, his eyes wild, his breath ragged. A soft curse slips from his lips as he settles back into his prior position—hauling the laptop back to rest on his lap.

The stairs creak with Cassie’s slow and steady approach. She appears in the doorway a few moments later, her hair damp from the pool. The subtle smell of chlorine drifts in along with her. “What are you guys doing?”

“Homework,” Emmett says in a croaky voice. He clears his throat. “How was swimming?”

“Good. No one pushed me into the pool today.”

My eyes widen in surprise. “Someone pushed you into the pool at swimming lessons?”

“Yeah.” She nods. “Ranjeet. He thought he was helping.”

“That happened four years ago,” Emmett reminds her.

She shrugs.

“Cassie, start the bath!” Heather calls from downstairs, earning her daughter’s huff of irritation. Still, Cassie listens, disappearing into the bathroom.

My phone chirps with a text from my mom.

How’s the project going? Murphy needs his walk soon.





“Man, she’s holding me to this dog-walking thing.” I gather my books. “I should probably get going.” I don’t see us getting any more work done on our presentation tonight.

“Yeah, I’ve got a calculus test to study for.” Emmett laughs at my cringe and walks me to the door, pushing it almost shut to block my way. “Talk to you later?” His voice is low, each word somehow touching my body in an intimate way.

“Yeah.” I clear the shakiness from my voice under the weight of his gaze. “Just so you know, my mom monitors my phone. Like messages and all that.”