Page 53 of Just One Kiss

He took a step toward her. “Different can be good.”

At his nearness, and because of the look in his eyes, she felt something inside her turn. She pressed her lips together and swallowed. “But I don’t want to lose what we have.”

He reached out and put his hand on her cheek. “You won’t. You’re just trading it for something better.”

Another step toward her.

Her stomach wobbled and her breath caught in her throat. This was Josh—her Josh—so why was she nervous?

Maybe becauseher Joshhad turned into a hard-bodied brooder, disastrously good-looking and teetering on the edge of trouble.

Everything about him excited her.

But she was Carly Collins—the girl who made straight A’s and never stepped off the straight and narrow.

He took her face in his hands and searched her eyes with such intensity, her stomach turned over. “I have a feeling about us, Carly.”

“Oh really?” She tried to keep her tone light, flirtatious even, but her heart raced so fast she was sure everything she said sounded ridiculous.

“A good feeling.” As he smiled, his eyes dipped to her mouth. He leaned in closer, and his lips grazed over hers—the softest, sweetest kiss she could’ve imagined.

He pulled back and searched her eyes, as if waiting for her reaction.

In response, she stood up on her tiptoes and found his lips again, kissing him not softly nor tenderly, but with a kind of urgency she hadn’t planned on.

A few minutes later, she pulled away.

“What’s wrong?”

She leveled his gaze with hers. “Are you sure about this, Josh? I mean—I’m not exactly your type.”

He grinned. “I don’t have a type, Carly. I only ever wanted to be with you.”

How long had he felt this way and how was it possible she hadn’t known this before? Josh had only dated girls who were all the exact opposite of Carly—would he wake up tomorrow and realize he’d lost his mind for a little while?

He picked up her hand and placed a kiss at the center of her palm. “I would do anything for you, Carly Collins. And that’ll be true until the day I die.”

Sitting here now, quietly zoning out in the passenger seat of a much nicer vehicle than that old Mustang, Carly couldn’t shake the memories of Josh’s kiss, his piercing gaze, his innocent promise.

She knew better now. She knew things didn’t work out the way you wanted them to and people didn’t always hold up their end of a deal.

But a very small part of her wished she knew neither of those things, because once upon a time, she and Josh had, in fact, been really, really great together.

“You okay?”

She glanced up and found him looking at her. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You’re quiet.”

She tossed a look over her shoulder and found Jaden clicking around on his phone, oblivious. “I’m fine.”

He reached over and squeezed her hand and for the first time in a very long time, a tingle worked its way through her body.

Slowly, she pulled her hand away and focused again on the buildings passing by out the window. One thing she could not take was Josh’s comfort.

There was far too much history between them. Far too many promises that weren’t kept and wounds that hadn’t mended.

And that’s what she needed to focus on.

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