Page 79 of The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad

“Yeah,” Colton said, still studying my room. Holy smokes. He was now examining my kissing wall (the one I’d added with pictures of kisses from my favorite movies and tv series), and I thought… yeah no, I knew…I wanted to die. Gah, why did he have to see that? “This shouldn’t come as some big shock. I told you we’ve been checking things off left and right, Kyle. There’s no way you’re winning this bet.”

“Oh yeah? Then let me see the list,” Kyle said.

“No can do,” Colton said. “That would be sharing key intel with the enemy.”

“Ouch. The enemy, really?”

Colton threw a look over his shoulder, cocked an eyebrow. “If the Gucci belt fits, brother.”

“At least tell me it was just the one kiss,” Kyle laughed as if the thought of more was ludicrous. “I know there were like 5 on Sadie’s list. But there’s no way, right? You don’t even like each other. Imagining you two like that…it’s just wrong.”

Colton was silent, had finally moved on from the kissing pics—and was now staring at my memo board filled with rejection letters. Perfect. Not only was I crazypants about kissing, but I was also a pathetic reject. Ah, who was I kidding? My girl cave was being invaded by a guy who’d basically said the only reason he would ever kiss me would be to win a bet. Pathetic didn’t even begin to cover it.

“Guys?” Kyle said again. “Please tell me that was the only time?”

Colton glanced at me. “You want to take this one, Sadie?”

“Well…” I trailed off, unable to hold his stare while I said this next part, wringing my hands. “There may have been a few others.”

“Ugh,” Kyle said, “a few? Not even like one or two more, but a few? Sadie, are you insane? Why are you suddenly kissing my brother all the time?”

“It hasn’t been all the time,” I mumbled.

“Oh God, are you guys together now or something?”

Colton laughed lowly, finally turning to face us, propping his back up against the wall.

“Like you said Kyle, we don’t even like each other,” he said, but his eyes were on me. “It’s not like Sadie wanted to kiss me. She just didn’t want to do it with a stranger.”

Kyle looked to me for confirmation. “Is that true?”

“Yeah,” I said, though something about it felt wrong. The last part about not wanting to kiss a stranger was true, but…ever since that mind-blowing first kiss in the library, I hadn’t even considered doing it with anyone else besides Colton.

“And it’s not like she’s got a crush on me or anything,” Colton went on, a gleam in his eye. “She’s in love with someone else. Isn’t that right, Sadie?”

“Really?” Kyle smiled. “How come I’ve never heard anything about this? Do I know him?”

“Oh yeah, we both do,” Colton said. His words a clear taunt, but I lifted my chin. “He’s a great guy, kind of dense, though.”

Through gritted teeth, I said, “He’s not dense. I’m just really good at hiding my feelings.”

“So, you see,” Colton said, ignoring my words, “she doesn’t actually want to kiss me per se. It was a matter of convenience.” I could barely contain my wince. “Speaking of which, the only kiss left is number 18, the one in her bedroom. I guess we could get that crossed off now—though I know she’d love it if I was someone else. What do you say, Sadie?”

“I’ll do it,” Kyle said suddenly.

I wasn’t sure who was more surprised, me, Colton or Kyle.

“What was that?” Colton asked.

“I said I’ll do it.” Kyle stood and pulled me to my feet. “It’s obvious how much you guys despise each other. And I would hate to have to watch two of the people I love most in the world do something they don’t want to do. Plus, you said Sadie didn’t want to kiss a stranger. I’d be happy to help.”

I shook my head, stunned. “But…what would Zayne say?”

“Knowing him, he’d probably say, ‘That’s hot’ then ask to watch,” Kyle laughed. “So, what do you think?”

I didn’t know what to think. I was currently incapable of that particular brain function.

Not knowing why, I looked to Colton to get his opinion on the matter.

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