Page 176 of For the Fans
“And what happens… when you leave that place?” He peeks up at me for a split second before returning to my hand, a nervous, almost innocent air about him while he chews on his bottom lip. “Is that the end of the line? Friend Land?”
My heart is lurching slowly up my throat as I shake my head. “I think there might be another place. But… no one’s ever been there.” He blinks wide eyes at me. “It’s pretty vacant.”
“Like an abandoned amusement park?” he murmurs quietly, and I nod.
“Yea. I’ve never met anyone who just… went there willingly.”
“If I wanted to go…” he says, barely audibly with his lips shivering mere inches from mine. “Would you take me?”
I can barely even fathom what we’re talking about… What we’re dancing around like two relationship virgins, too terrified to say the actual words.
But my pulse is racing, and my fingers are twitching with what I think he’s asking me.
“If you were sure…” I whisper, the air around us growing hazy with something other than lust. Something deeper and scarier… More potent. “If you were…comfortablegoing there…” I gulp. “It would be your call, Ky. Because there’s absolutely no way I could keep you out.”
He makes a soft noise, inching up to my lips to press the sweetest, most unsure confession of a kiss on my mouth. In an instant, we’re both panting, hands clasped together while our lips move in mutual apprehension.
Is this really what he wants…?
Could Kyran Harbor actually want to bemorethan just my stepbrother who hates me, my business partner, or even my friend?
It’s always seemed impossible to consider, but here we are… Kissing and touching, and it has absolutely nothing to do with sex, or money. This is about emotion, which we seem to have spilling over at the moment.
It’s been happening slowly for a while… this change that suddenly seems so drastic.
We don’t hate each other. Far from it.
In fact, I think we might…
My phone starts ringing, startling us both out of the reverie we were working up to together. Kyran crawls back, breathing heavily while I answer the phone.
“H-hello?” I stutter, trying to shake myself out of it.
“Yea, hey, it’s DoorDash,” a guy says over the phone. “I’m downstairs.”
“Shit… fuck.” I jump up, darting into the bedroom to put on actual clothes. “Sorry. I’ll be right down.”
The guy chuckles at my cursing, but I hang up before he can say anything else, slipping my hat on my head and stepping into my sneakers.
“The food’s here,” I tell Kyran on my way to the door. “I’ll be right back.”
He nods, staring at nothing with his bottom lip pinched between his thumb and forefinger, as if he’s deeply reeling from what just happened.
I’m sure he is. It was very intense.
But I don’t have time to think about it right now, because I need to go grab his food.
Downstairs, I find a guy with a plastic bag standing in the lobby. He’s pretty young… Actually, he looks like he might be in college himself, though I don’t recognize him.
He smirks as I stalk over, taking the bag from him.
“Sorry about that.” I flash him a smile that’s only slightly flustered.
“Don’t worry about it.” His own grin widens a bit, and I’m frozen in place for a second, because call me crazy, but is he giving me the flirty eyes?
The dude glances up at my hat, narrowing his gaze as he slowly looks me over.
Okay, this is weird. Is he checking me out?? I need to leave.
