Page 74 of Playing for Keeps
My breath left me.
Oh holy hell.
His eyes bored into mine, those vivid green eyes that seemed to see straight into my soul.
I couldn’t help myself. I leaned toward him. Ethan mirrored my movement, and suddenly the space between us disappeared and my lips were on his. Those lips, those full pouty lips I’d been obsessed with for so long, were finally under mine.
My head swam with the enormity of it. I was kissing Ethan.
Ethan.
This was the first kiss we should have had all those years ago. It was a kiss full of sweetness and hope. Ethan’s mouth against mine, his lips soft and smooth.
I put my hand up to touch his face. His skin was warm, his stubble rough under my fingertips.
We deepened the kiss slowly, mouths opening gently. Ethan’s tongue swept against mine and I groaned into the kiss.
It was a slow, languid, lingering kiss. A kiss with so much emotion packed into it that I could feel tears prickling my eyelids.
Ethan tasted exactly how I always imagined. Like sweetness and light and everything I’d ever craved.
It took every ounce of self-control I had to not deepen the kiss even more, to not get fully lost in Ethan’s warmth and taste. Six years ago, if we had done this, I could have continued to kiss Ethan. We could have kissed and kissed and it would’ve been the start of something incredible. The beginning of a perfect, untarnished relationship where we moved from being best friends to more.
But now…
I pulled away gently, my breath coming in short pants.
When I mustered the courage to look at him, he gave me a smile.
It was a sunshiny Ethan smile, but there was a trace of cloud in there too. It was as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
Because we couldn’t go back in time.
Chapter19
Ethan
Luke and I were silent on the way down, the only noise the loose stones crunching under our feet.
My head spun.
I’d kissed Luke.
I’d kissed my best friend.
And it had been amazing.
It was as if everything that had been out of place had suddenly aligned. I didn’t spend much time thinking about forces bigger than myself, but it honestly felt as if the universe itself had given a sigh of relief the moment Luke’s lips were on mine.
I wanted to keep kissing him.
Both desire and fear gripped my throat at the prospect. Because if we kissed again, there was no way we were stopping. We’d end up fucking, and the implications of that made my head swim.
My phone beeped. I got it out of my pocket and checked it.
Shit.
It was a message from Char with a photo of Theo feeding the ducks. It was also exhibit number one in the argument against me kissing Luke again.
