Page 27 of The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad

“Y-yes?” I said back.

“You’re not going to go all weird on me after this, right?”

My eyes snapped to his. “What?”

He licked his lips, gaze shifting down to watch as I licked my own in reflex. His voice was a bit lower when he said, “Don’t get any crazy ideas. I’m not in love with you or anything, so there’s not going to be a happily ever after for us. Just know it’s all for the bet.”

“I do know that,” I said, eyes spitting fire. “And you’ve got to be the most arrogant, egotistical maniac if you think one kiss would be enough to erase all the crap you put me through over the years. Nobody’s that good a kisser, Colton.”

Colton shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“If you ever actually do it,” I retorted. “Or are you scared you’ve talked yourself up so much that you won’t be able to deliver?”

He chuckled lightly. “Oh, I always deliver.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

“Just waiting to see if you’re going to back out.”

As I blushed but stood firm, Colton’s eyes met mine one last time.

“This doesn’t change anything,” he said.

And then Colton Bishop was kissing me. His mouth was surprisingly soft as it met mine, my eyes closing on contact. More surprising? Colton, who I’d always thought of as selfish, was gentle and patient with me as I learned to move with him, to match his rhythm. And oh God, did the boy know how to kiss. His lips guided mine, caressing first my top then bottom lip. It felt so good that I repeated the action on him, earning a hum of approval from Colton. The coolness of his lip ring wouldn’t let me forget who I was kissing, and my obsession came back full force. When I finally worked up the courage, I followed my instinct and pulled the ring into my mouth, giving it a short tug.

That was when I realized just how much he’d been holding back.

With something like a growl, Colton slanted his mouth over mine, and the kiss went from a slow burn into a wildfire. Unlike my inexperienced self, there was no hesitation in him. Colton kissed me like he owned my mouth. His tongue met mine in a dance I’d never done before but seemed to pick up instantly, his hand tightening in my hair whenever I did something he liked. My hands were everywhere at once. I had no idea where to put them, so as we kissed, they made a trek up his arms to his shoulders, neck, back, wherever I could reach.

This wasn’t like any first kiss I’d ever read about or seen in the movies. It was real and messy and…wonderful. If the butterflies in my stomach had anything to say about it, I was sure I’d simply fly away.

Before that could happen, a large book fell to the ground, having been knocked off by one of my elbows, I’m sure, and we both jumped. My hand had somehow ended up on Colton’s chest, so I knew he was just as affected as I was. His eyes, though, looked guarded as he walked backward, putting some space between us.

“Well,” he said then had to clear his throat. Twice. “That was…yeah.”

I nodded. “Mmm-hmm.”

“I think we can cross that one off the list.”

“Yep,” was all I could manage.

Colton rolled his shoulders back, looking up at the ceiling. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that his cheeks looked a little flushed. “We should probably meet tonight to see if we can get anything else done. It’s only a month, so we should get on that. I’ll see you at your house around seven?”

“Okay,” I squeaked, thinking about the other “kissing” items I had written down. Was he talking about those or something else? More important: Did Iwanthim to be talking about those?

His next words shut down any musings on that subject.

“And you know, we should find you another guy,” Colton said. His eyes met mine. “For the kissing parts. I mean, this was convenient, but I don’t think we should keep kissing each other. Kyle wouldn’t like it.”

I blinked, not sure what to say. “Convenient” would not have been the word I would’ve used to describe that kiss. Amazing, incendiary, passionate. Those were more accurate.

“Or…we could do those, too, if you’d like.”

“No!” I said way too loud for the library. Lowering my voice, I repeated, “No, you’re right. We should find someone else. Yeah, of course, we should find another guy. I can’t even believe we did it the first time.”

Colton cocked his head, eyebrow raised. “I would’ve never guessed that was your first kiss, Sadie. You seemed really into it.”

My eyes narrowed at that. “I don’t think I was the only one who was into it.”

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