Page 31 of Friend Me

“Huh? No, she’s sitting in a chair. I’ll get to that.”

“Okay.”

I clutched his arm to steady myself as I looked up into the sky. “Cassiopeia was very beautiful and also very vain. She bragged about it and made Poseidon angry.”

“Poseidon was the god of the sea, right?”

“Right. So Poseidon sent a sea monster to terrorize her people. Cassiopeia found an oracle who told her the only way to defeat the monster was to sacrifice her only daughter, Andromeda. They chained her to a rock on the beach, and Andromeda waited for the sea monster to come devour her.”

“That doesn’t sound like a happy ending.”

“Shush. Just in time, Perseus came. That’s him to the left of Andromeda—he looks like a stick figure missing its arms—and killed the monster. He freed Andromeda, fell in love with her, and they sailed away to live…happily ever after.”

“Far away from the evil mother-in-law. Perfect.” His arm came around me, over his jacket. “So why is Cassiopeia sitting in a chair?”

“Poseidon was still angry at her, so he chained her to a chair in the sky.”

“Kinky.” His breath tickled my ear.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He pulled away, leaving my body chilled despite his jacket, but he grasped my hand in his larger, warm one. He started walking down the dark path again, and with one last look up at the stories in the sky, I followed him. We stopped just outside the pool of light surrounding the inn.

“I had fun tonight,” he said.

“Me, too.” While I loved weddings, receptions usually made me miserable. The couple spent the night in a bubble of happiness, and I was stuck outside. Tonight, Tyler and I had made our own bubble.

“Maybe we could…do it again sometime?” I couldn’t see his face in the darkness, but his tone lifted with hope.

“Do what?”

“Pretend to be dating. Or go out. For real.”

Damn.“Tyler—”

“Don’t say it.” His voice was a low rumble.

“But—” I didn’t want him to be angry, or disappointed, or whatever that growl indicated. As I stepped closer to him—I didn’t know if it was to catch his hand or to hug him because my body justwent—my foot sank unexpectedly into the soft lawn, and I stumbled. Catlike, he clutched me and wrapped me in his arms. Being this close to him was even more intoxicating than wearing his jacket. I flashed back to the kiss on the dance floor. It had been a sweet, mouth-closed, for-public-consumption kiss. But it had been anything but chaste. Heat had simmered just under the surface. I wondered if that heat would burst into flame if we tried it again, here in the dark.

I rocked back on my heels. I couldn’t. I wanted Cooper, not my friend, no matter how cute, no matter how magical he’d made tonight. I had to keep my eyes on my goal. And my lips to myself.

But Tyler had turned out to be so much more than I’d thought.Special,Jamila had said. An unexpected mix of Gene Kelly and Tantric masseuse, the most attentive date I’d ever had, even though it was all pretend.

That kiss. Had it been only for show, or were his lips really as bewitching as they seemed?

It was wrong, but I had to know.

I pushed up on my toes.

And I kissed him.

I was so right. There had to be an enchantment on his lips. It made my entire body tremble and my knees stop working. Tyler might have been holding me up. Or else I was floating because Poseidon had stuck me up in the sky.

His tongue tentatively touched my lower lip, and I let him in. He tasted like he smelled: citrus and champagne and desire. I slid one hand behind his back along the smooth fabric of his dress shirt, caressing the firm muscles underneath. With the other, I traced the arc of his neck before I tangled my fingers in his hair. He pulled me closer, and I was lost.

I don’t know how long we kissed while the stars turned in the sky around us. Tyler pulled away first, leaving my lips buzzing. We were both panting, his breath warm on my face.

“Was that okay?” he asked. If it hadn’t been so dark, I was sure the answer would have been clear in my glassy eyes and flushed cheeks.

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