Her Kiss (Griffin) (5 page)

I set my jaw, still grinning, not
sure I could actually do this to her since she looked like she was going to
keel over. But hey, she asked.

I jutted my chin challengingly.
“Kiss me.”

Her startled eyes flew open
wide—wider than they even had been, which was pretty dang wide.
“Wh—what?”

Oh man. I choked back a laugh. Her
reaction was gold. She looked as though she was having a heart attack. She
grabbed on to the locker beside her to keep from falling over.
All this over a kiss—
one
innocent kiss.
One that she
wanted
.
Pretty much. According to her notebook.

I ran a hand over my face, trying
to hide my smile.

But
I got to tell
you
,
my heart was hers
. I knew I was going to
give her whatever she wanted—
anything
she wanted—whether she kissed me or not. The girl enchanted me. Blew me
away with just her eyes on me. Probably if she smiled at me I’d die. Explode.

Still, I tried my hardest to sound
like I wasn’t a goner.
I mean … man
,
it was just a kiss
. One. And she was gorgeous. It seemed
like she would have done it a lot—to princes and rock stars and kings.
Yet suddenly I was willing to bet the only guys she had ever kissed, ever, were
her wound-too-tight boyfriends—Baker and Poser. So, yeah, I could see why
she was trembling. She had never
really
been kissed. Not by a guy.
A real guy.
One that didn’t
paint their toenails by the light of the moon—or have to mouth off to try
to look
like
one of the guys.

I’m not sure how my voice
sounded—I wasn’t plotting things. But the whole thing was pretty
funny—her so scared.
Of me.
The
guy that had sniffed her cookie for an entire day.
So I’m sure I didn’t
sound that challenging. I’m pretty sure I sounded amused. “You heard me.”

She stared at me, her tempting lips
parting slightly, like she was hoping I was kidding.
Which I
kind of was.
I was just messing around and teasing her. But hey, if I
could get her to kiss me—score.

“You,” she swallowed, looking
dizzy. “You—you want me to kiss you?”

She sounded as though it was
unfathomable. As though we scary guys don’t like to kiss pretty girls.

I wet my bottom lip,
then
bit it. I was trying so hard to keep from smiling,
though I was pretty sure I was screwing that up. I smile a lot, though. She was
probably aware of that. People say I smirk, but whatever. Smile, smirk—I
don’t frown much. “Yeah. Kiss me and I won’t kill your boyfriend.”

“Um…”

That was all that came out of her
mouth.
For a long time.
Then she added, “I don’t
understand.”

Man, she was adorable.

I grinned. “Yes you do.”

She was quiet a long time, thinking
it over. It was sweet that she was doing that, actually willing to consider
kissing me—the scary, terrifying guy that I was. All because she was so
worried about her whiney boyfriend and his pretty face.

For the first time ever, I realized
I was jealous of Poser. It made me blink. And shudder.

“That’s all I have to do?” she
asked skeptically. “Kiss you—nothing more?”

I raised my eyebrows. “You can do
more if you want.”

She turned all sorts of red.
Without saying a word, she started to slink away.

I grabbed her arm, gently pulling
her back to me. My grin was tender. “Geez, I was just messing with you,
Grange.”

I leaned in close to her, breathing
in her cinnamon cookie scent, wanting to put her hand over my heart and let her
feel what she did to me just by letting me be near her.

Instead, I brought my forehead down
to hers, almost touching it with mine. “So, we have a deal?”

She nodded,
then
gulped—big.

I couldn’t help noticing
that
. And of course I couldn’t
help the slow grin that grew on my face.

She did all kinds of kooky things
to my insides. She was like sunshine to my heart, wrapped in a tiny girl. She
filled me with warmth. And amusement. And total confusion. I loved it.

One side of my lip twitched up at
the corner. “Don’t look so scared, Grange. I’m a good kisser.”

That in no way calmed her down, and
I didn’t mean for it to.

Her dewy lips formed an “O” while
her pretty cheeks blushed the brightest shade of pink I’d ever seen. Whoa.

I was seriously in love with this
girl’s reactions.

For a moment we just stared at each
other, my heart pounding.

Then I tilted my head, watching
curiously as she wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans, then pumped her fists a
couple times, like she was trying to psyche herself up—for what, I wasn’t
sure. My gaze was fascinated though as she puckered up her pretty tantalizing
lips. And my mouth parted slightly as she closed her eyes.

To me it was all happening in slow
motion like a movie—with music playing in the background and a fan
blowing her sexy long blond hair. It was driving me wild. What I mean is, these
were pretty much the brilliant thoughts in my head—
!!!!???!!!!????

My heart sped up as she leaned in
towards me with a dreamy, worried look on her face.
Ohhh
. Finally, I realized what she was doing.

She thought I was going to kiss
her—here.
In the school hallway.
Next to my skuzzy
locker.

I watched her with quirked
eyebrows, highly entertained—as much by my hyper-reaction to her, as her
misunderstanding. Finally, I gave a soft laugh. “Not here.”

Her big eyes popped open wide and
she looked confused.
And alarmed.
Like,
Not here? Then WHERE???

Panic seemed to rush through her. I
could basically see the terrified thoughts swimming around in her terror-filled
brain. She was wondering,
What
exactly did I agree to?

It really couldn’t happen here
though—the kiss—where any moment Hailey might come by and smack us.

Church Girl looked at me with her
round blue eyes full of innocent distrust.

I gave another soft laugh. “In room
204. At three.” I leaned in close to her again, playing with a tendril of her
satin soft hair. “You’ll survive, Church Girl. I promise.”

CHAPTER 12

The rest of the day, the thought
made me smile—I was actually going to get to kiss shy little Ally Grange,
the girl who always ran from me. The thought helped drown out some of the bad
stuff going on in my life. Surprisingly, it did a better job of that than
bashing in Poser’s nose. Maybe because I was still getting to take a swipe at
the twerp, just now in a different way.
In a fun way.
Mmm
, the thought of kissing Ally, it
made me fantasize things I knew I shouldn’t.

But still, thinking about kissing
her put me in a good mood. Made me want to hug puppies and plant trees and
sniff flowers and stuff. Ally stuff.

However—(deep, sad
sigh)—even with me all excited and fantasizing; still, all day I pretty
much planned on telling her she didn’t have to do it. That I was just messing
around, and I really wasn’t the bully she thought I was. I didn’t force girls
to kiss me.

That was my plan—to tell her
the truth.

… Only, in the back of my brain
swam around a sinking thought: This seemed like my only chance to get to kiss
her. Ever. I mean, according to Hailey, Ally would never do it of her own
freewill—not ever. Kiss a guy like me, I mean. But the kooky, frustrating
thing was though, she would
dream
about it.

Only that was lame, right?
Cute, yeah, but unsatisfying—for both of us.
Her, as much as me.

So, I never actually called off the
kiss. I just thought about doing it. A lot. But then she showed up at room 204
and she looked all flushed and
excited
—I
swear. She did. I mean, nervous too, yeah. Like she might pass out. Still,
there was no denying it—she looked excited. Maybe she liked the thought
of saving her boyfriend … or maybe she actually
wanted
to kiss me. Anyway, I wasn’t going to burst her bubble.
If she needed to be forced into a kiss … okay.
Besides, I
wanted
to kiss her.

I tilted my head, regarding her
quizzically as she stood flushed and unmoving in the open doorway. Key word,
“unmoving.”
As in not actually coming into the room.
Instead, she just stood in the frame of the door, looking pink and unsteady.
And frozen.

But as I amusedly stared at her, I
quickly forgot the amusement part (… or anything else). My thoughts dissolved
to nothing but a puddle of: Man, she’s beautiful.

The way the sun was shining on her
from the open window next to her had me seeing stars and fantasizing about my
hands tangling in her hair.

Shaking my head, I looked away from
her with a grin. I knew I shouldn’t do this. She was all sweet and innocent and
I didn’t want to start pining for her any worse than I already was.

Then again, those cherry
lips—I couldn’t resist them. I just wanted to … try them out. I mean … it
was just
one
kiss.

I looked back at her.

“Come here,” I murmured.

She bit her lip. It seemed like she
was trying to psych herself up to get her feet to like, walk.

Patiently I watched her, my
eyebrows quirked and my head tilting. Waiting. Then waiting some more. And
okay, some more. She wouldn’t actually move out of the doorway, though. She was
glued to the spot like a statue. Frozen. It was cute. Face it, everything the girl
did I thought was adorable. I was so gone it was hilarious.

Waiting, I stared into her gorgeous
eyes. I could have done it all day, paid to do it. Only … she was
never
going to move. Ever.

With a grin, I sighed and walked
over to her. I gently curled my hands around her tiny waist. (Man, she was
so
tiny!)

By her little waist, I pulled her
out of the threshold,
then
silently closed the door.

I wet my lips.
Alone,
at last, with Ally Grange.

For a moment, my eyes and hands
stayed on her. (Man, she was so tiny!) S-l-o-w-l-y, I gently backed her up
against the door I’d just closed, pinning her there. I was so close I could
feel her tantalizing warmth. It made me want to nuzzle my face against the
curve of her neck, breathe her in, stay like that for a couple of hours,
licking, and sucking and nibbling. But she was trembling and her eyes were so
wide that I didn’t want to risk doing anything I wasn’t supposed
to—anything with her scrumptious-looking neck. (But, man, it was
tempting.) Only we agreed to a kiss. That was all. One unspecified (so,
tongue-involving [I hoped]) kiss. And right now I still wasn’t sure I’d get
one. She was like a wild colt that spooked easily. I was worried she was going
to bolt away any second.

“Take it easy,” I murmured softly,
running my fingers through her silky long hair. I grinned, “I’m not going to
hurt you, Grange. I promise.”

I could feel her intake of breath
just from me touching her hair. She made this slight moaning sound.
Music to my ears.
Oh man, I might die from this—too
much happiness
;
me finally getting to get up close and
personal with my cookie-girl.

I felt like a little kid on
Christmas morning—finally getting the present I’d yearned for, for years.

Ally gripped the door behind her
for support. It seemed like she was going to pass out.

Sort of worried, I watched her
squeeze her eyes shut. But instead of fainting, she leaned in toward me with
her tempting lips puckered again.

So cute.

My heart pounding, I watched
her—enjoying it way too much: shy little Ally Grange, waiting for my
kiss. Wild.

Finally, cautiously, she peeked her
beautiful eyes open, looking up at me with a puzzled squint. Like,
‘Why aren’t we mackin’, buddy? I’m here to
save my boyfriend. Why are you staring at me instead of doing your job?’

I gave a soft laugh, all thoughts
of telling her she didn’t have to kiss me vanishing. I couldn’t resist her
tempting puckered lips another second—not when they were puckered
for me
. Waiting
for me
.

I trailed my hands down her waist.
Immediately, I felt her react to my innocent touch—I swear, it was
innocent. (I
swear!!
) I needed to put
my hands
somewhere
, and against the
door wasn’t going to do it. She quivered, like sparks jolted through her. Okay,
actually, I knew they did, because I felt them too. It was interesting. (And
awesome.).… And probably not something a girl with a boyfriend should feel for
another guy’s touch, I’ll admit that. But I didn’t let her squirm away from me,
because the feeling was good, and I knew she liked it as much as me—and
it was just her waist!

Instead of letting her shy away
from my touch, I pulled her closer to me, breathing in her cinnamon scent,
practically losing my mind.
Mmm
. Man,
I wanted this girl.

Gently, gently my lips brushed
against hers, so lightly. Teasing us both. Just the feel of her warm soft lips
and the fact this was Cookie Girl made me heat up like an oven. But curiously,
she stopped breathing. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. (It was
definitely good for
me
. I just
worried she was going to … die.)

I grinned against her lips.
“Breathe,” I murmured softly.

My mouth slowly formed against
hers, my kisses slow as I explored the sweet seducing taste of her soft lips.
Just getting to finally do this (finally!) was bringing me to my knees. I
deepened the kiss, just slightly. Experimenting. The feel of her heart pounding
for me was starting to drive me wild. So
was
the tiny
purring noises she kept making. My hungry mouth pressed more and more eager
against hers. I could feel her trembling, yet burning up in my arms. That did
not
cool me down.

Her
breathing fast and getting faster,
I tilted her head
back, deepening the kiss, her taste so sweet I had to fight back moans.

Slightly feverish, I kept deepening
the kiss even further (further and further) until I felt her do a tiny
jump—not exactly a bad thing, especially because it came with a cute
little happy purr. Still, she jumped.

“Relax,” I whispered with a soft
laugh, my calloused palms sliding down her shivering arms, no way was I going
to let her go now.
My mouth was seduced by hers
. It
couldn’t get enough.

I lowered my mouth back down on
hers, full-on kissing, though for a tiny while I tried my hardest to keep them
softer and less passionate. The feel of her pounding heart was too much for me
now though. So
was
the tiny purring noises she kept
making. With a low growl I pulled her even closer to me. My hands tangled in
her soft hair, tantalized by her hot, moist mouth.

The funny thing was, I knew her
kisses would be like this to me. And taste like this—the sweetest, most
delicious taste in the world. I couldn’t get enough.

I was devouring her mouth.

I kissed her deeper and deeper, my
tongue exploring her tongue and delicious hot mouth like there was no tomorrow.
And—to my shock—she let me. Heat flowed over my skin, and through
my grateful heart as I took all she was willing to give. Okay, it was just kisses.
Innocent. But her hot mouth against mine had me on fire
.

I knew it would be like this.
The
moment I held her hand in the school hallway that day and she looked at me all
starry eyed. I knew her kisses would thrill me like they were and her heart would
beat for me just like it was doing. And I dug it. So much. So much that when
Mrs. Finkle stomped into her classroom from the side-door, I didn’t stop
kissing my cookie girl.

Not until the lady’s loud,
obnoxious
voice made Ally jump
a mile in the air.

Mrs. Finkle huffed impatiently.
“I’m going to give you two exactly one second to clear out of my classroom.
Then I’m handing out detention slips.”

I, of course, wouldn’t have stopped
kissing for that. But Ally looked red-faced and horrified. Of course that could
have had something to do with the fact she had a boyfriend—yet she’d been
purring in my mouth.