Page 19 of Delirium

“Truth or dare,” he murmured, as I watched his lips.

“Truth,” I whispered.

“Why are you on this boat?”

I screwed up my lips, not letting my carefully bottled emotions spill to the surface.

His eyes softened. “You can change your mind, you know. I’m not going to force you to tell me all your secrets.”

I laughed, trying to shake off the nerves creeping up my legs. “But you will force me to do a dare instead?”

“No, not that either.” His thumb swiped along my chin, an oddly reassuring gesture. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to, Scarlett. Anything that happens here is your choice.”

Anything that happens here.

Your choice.

WhatdidI want to happen here?

“You’re full of contradictions, you know that?” This time, his smile reached his eyes at my words. “Dare.”

I knew what offering dare meant, because I knew the words destined to escape his mouth before he even spoke. Hadn’t we been leading here the entire day? Every second, every minute, leading up to this moment? It felt inevitable, one of those moments in history there was no getting around.

“Kiss me.”

Camp’s words were confident, but his eyes betrayed his anxieties lingering beneath the surface. He didn’t move closer to me, either, not that he needed to.

We were practically kissing already without me having to move the millimeters toward his mouth, soft and full and waiting for me to either chicken out or follow through.

“Camp,” I whispered, even as I closed the distance.

“It won’t mean anything. Two people looking for connection in a strange situation.”

I wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure himself or me.

My lips pressed against his, and without thinking I grabbed for his shoulders, surprised at how muscular they were beneath his thin shirt.

Camp wrapped both hands on either side of my face, deepening the kiss immediately, his tongue darting out to lick the seam of my lips. With a soft moan, I opened my mouth instinctively for him. He responded by tangling his hand into my hair.

Was this what I had been missing out on for so long by isolating myself? Locking myself away in a tower, waiting for the nonexistent prince to save me from myself?

The prince had never been real, but the loneliness was. And this, thisrealhuman connection I had with Camp was the best thing I’d experienced in recent memory. From the way he was tugging my hair, pushing against me until I wasn’t sure where he ended and I began, I would hazard a guess that Camp felt the same.

Until a knock at my door had us jumping apart, wide eyed staring at each other, chests heaving for air.

“Scarlett? Just letting you know dinner will be ready in five.” Nash’s voice carried easily through the door.

I tried to hold back my laughter at the absurdity of the situation. Camp twisted his lips into a rueful smirk. “Uh, yeah, I’ll be right out!” I called back, trying to contain myself.

“Do you want me to show you where it is?”

“No!” If he waited for me, he’d see Camp in my cabin, and I wasn’t sure how I would explainthatto someone I also seemed to have a connection with. “I mean, um, I know where it is, so I’ll be fine!”

“Okay, well, come to the galley when you’re ready.” Nash’s heavy footsteps disappeared, and I wondered how the hell I’d missed them in the first place.

Probably something to do with the smug, shaggy-haired man on my bed. “Good save,” he said with a laugh. “Not suspicious atall.”

“Seriously?” I pushed him away and straightened out my now-rumpled clothes. “I didn’t see you jumping to my defense.”

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