Page 45 of The Kissing Booth
It didn’t really help, telling myself that.
I still wanted to kiss him again.
The car journey stretched on for what seemed like an eternity – and we weren’t even halfway yet. I sighed. I felt him glance over at me, but I was too busy with my internal battle to pay him any attention.
I wanted to kiss him again – to reassure myself there hadn’t been any fireworks, I told myself. I shouldn’t do it, though. I bet he still thought of me as his kid brother’s friend, the little girl he grew up with... But what about that time after his and Lee’s party, when we fell off the bed? I was sure there had been something between us; but maybe I was deluding myself.
And I was also probably deluding myself that he had been checking me out when he’d walked in on me in my bra.
But maybe there was something between us and we just didn’t know it yet. Maybe just one more kiss – to prove myself wrong. Or right. Would that really be so bad?
No. I couldn’t kiss him again. I couldn’t do it...
Could I?
I sighed again as we drove up his street.What was I going to do?
We finally pulled up at his house.
‘I’ll come in and get the game for Brad,’ I said. ‘I’ll walk from here.’
The truth was, I didn’t want to spend any longer with him in this car than I had to.
‘Sure, whatever.’
We got out and I followed him into the kitchen and hung around near the doorway while he rifled through a pile of papers on the counter, biting my lip nervously.
He turned around with a new Mario game, and handed it to me. He wasn’t even a whole foot away from me. A couple of inches of air separated us.
Before I knew what I was doing, I went up on tiptoe and pressed my lips against Noah’s.
Immediately I realized what a fool I was being and stepped back, my cheeks burning and my heart racing.
Noah looked at me, blinking in shock, it seemed. He stared at me, his expression unreadable.
‘Oh God,’ I babbled hastily, feeling beyond humiliated, ‘I’m sorry. It’s just – I mean, I just – Oh man, I—’
Noah took strode forward and shut me up very effectively by crushing his lips against mine. Any resistance and tension went gushing out of my body (whether from shock or something else, I wasn’t sure), and my arms curled around Noah’s neck.
I forgot what a fool I’d just made of myself and kissed him back. His hands were on my back and in my hair, squashing me against him so it seemed like every inch of our bodies was touching.
And for the record – there were definitely fireworks of some kind going on.
Hands on my hips, he lifted me up onto the kitchen counter so my legs were either side of him. He moved on to kissing my neck, and that was when my head began to clear a little, and I realized just exactly what we were doing here.
‘Noah, we – we can’t do this,’ I said breathlessly, shakily.
He sighed, stepping back and running his hand through his hair. I had no idea what he was thinking; his expression was indefinable.
He met my eyes again, and I got the feeling he wanted an explanation.
‘I – I’m not going to just be another girl you sleep with and don’t call back in the morning,’ I said, sticking my chin out. ‘I’m not risking my friendship with Lee just for that.’
Noah looked at me for a long moment. ‘That’s what you think I’d do, really?’
‘W-well...’ I trailed off. Wasn’t it?
He came closer, so there were only a couple of inches between us. If I could have moved back, I would’ve, but I was still sat on the counter.
