"And how do you figure I do that, White Hall? Rip my shirt off and show you my boobs?" I grumble. I mean, how more humiliating can this conversation get? The man that I've been all but grieving over for half my life says I need to make him see me as a woman. I wave the waitress down and order a sangria. I'm going to need something to survive this. Luckily, White doesn't make any snide remarks about my drinking this time. No, he's busy staring at my boobs like he's about to agree to my offer. "No. Absolutely not. I'm not about to take my shirt off in the middle of a crowded bar, White Hall Lucas!"
He swallows and looks up at me with a strange look on his face. "If you're going to say no to everything, Kayla, this is going to be almost impossible," he says.
I sigh. The waitress brings my drink and I sip it before I respond. His idea isn't a bad one, and of all the names on the list, White would be my choice—in more ways than one.
"Fine. What do you suggest? That doesn't involve me stripping naked in a crowded bar," I warn him before he can respond.
"That limits my choices," he says.
"Welcome to my world."
"Fine. Then you should kiss me," White says, like that's the most normal thing in the world.
"Kiss you?"
"Yep. Kiss me and kiss me like you mean it. Kiss me like you do a man you're inviting into your bed."
"Fine. Let's go."
"Go?"
"Home, so we can try this crazy idea of yours."
"No. Here."
"Here?"
"Yeah. Kiss me here, Buttercup. Kiss me right now in this bar and make me forget about all the other women here but you."
My eyes go huge. I can't help it. Talk about pressure. Does he have any idea what he's asking? Kiss the man I love for only the second time in my life? The first time we shared a kiss, I was sixteen and I thought it was the best kiss in my life. White obviously didn't feel the same and that begun our long history of me secretly wishing my best friend was my boyfriend. As I grew older, I knew he loved me, just like I always knew my love for him was different than anything he would ever feel for me. Now I need to forget all of that and just kiss him. Kiss him so he forgets all the other women in the room. Why do I do this kind of stuff to myself? Wouldn't I rather pull my fingernails out with tweezers? Slather myself up in honey and lay on an anthill? Anything?
"Kayla?" White prompts, dragging my attention back to him.
"What if you… we… hate it?"
"Then we'll know you should talk to Green."
"Not Cyan?"
"Definitely not Cyan."
"Blue has always been really sweet to me."
"He thinks of you like a sister."
"So do you."
"I will if you don't ever kiss me, now quit stalling."
"You know, Blue might be the better choice. He even asked me out once. The pressure wouldn't be there to make him see me as a woman."
"Blue asked you out? When the fuck did Blue ask you out?"
"Last year. I told him no, of course. It would have made family gatherings too strange if things hadn't worked out."
"Son of a bitch."
"What?"
"How much more shit have you been keeping from me?"
"What are you talking about now?"
"I mean, I didn't know you were dating Tommy. I didn't know my own brother asked you out. I sure as hell didn't know you were planning on having a child. What else don't I know about you, Kayla Graham?"
"Just because you're my best friend, White, it doesn't mean we have to know everything about each other. Especially about our private lives."
"You do about me."
"Not entirely. I sure didn't know you had slept with my sister Rachel."
"I didn't. But that's a story for another time. Now quit stalling and kiss me."
"You didn't? That's not the story she told me."
"Your sister is unstable. Are you going to kiss me or do we forget this whole plan?"
"Is there a third option?"
"I could paddle your ass."
"You really do have an obsession with asses. How did I miss that over the years?"
"Kayla," he warns, his voice grumpy and dark despite the half-smile on his face.
"Fine," I huff, and then before I second guess myself, I lean in and press my lips to his.
CHAPTER 16
WHITE
How have I always taken for granted the way that Kayla makes me feel when we're talking? Spending time with her makes me happy. Hell it soothes something inside of me. Even pissed off and making a solemn, if not silent, promise to punch Blue in the face, I'm smiling. I'm being an ass, making Kayla kiss me, but I'm not about to confess just yet that I've been jacking off until my dick is raw thinking about fucking her. I don't think she'd understand. No. This is much better. And as crazy as all this sounds, I plan on slowly getting her addicted to me. It's crazy and I would have never thought that I was capable of these emotions, but I plan on claiming Kayla—every fucking way I can.
She brings her lips to mine and the spicy sweet taste of her somehow warms me. Her lips are plump and solid around mine. And when I say they're solid, I mean she's not moving them. This will never work. I want to take control, but at the same time, this is just too good. I pull away with a fake, heavy sigh.
"This isn't working, honey."
"It's not?" she asks, and the disappointment on her face is so apparent that I waiver in my handling of her.
"That's how you kiss a brother or a friend. Not a potential lover."
"But, I thought you'd take over."
"No, this is all you. I told you, you have to show me what you want from me. Make me believe it too."
"God, you're high maintenance."
I want to laugh. Instead I shrug, like I haven't got a care in the world.
"Fine. Give me your lips."