Page 53 of Great Pretender
This time we don’t make such a mess, though.
He reaches for me, and we slip over and fall to the floor covered in cake, laughing.
I laugh so much my sides ache. I try to get up, but he pins me down, slides on top of me, and lands one more fistful of cake in my face, which he takes the pleasure of smoothing over my cheeks.
“Chad, you are so crazy.”
“Me, crazy?” As he talks, drops of cake mingled with frosting fall from his cheeks. All I can see is his mouth and two eyes looking at me. “All you had to do was give me a cake. Now, look at us. I’m just going to have to eat it off you.”
He swoops down and nuzzles his face into the crook of my neck and shoulder. When his tongue licks over my skin, I feel it everywhere, and the pull of desire heightens all my senses.
I’m laughing, but as I turn my face and our noses brush against each other, the laughter fades as an air of sexual tension charges the space between us.
I know he feels it too. It’s in his eyes.
He stops and hovers over me, just watching. I stare back, wondering what he’s going to do next, hoping he’ll kiss me even though no one is watching.
When he brushes his lips along the edge of my cheek, my body awakens with anticipation, and I want to taste him.
Nothing on earth can stop me when he moves closer to my lips. Not my fears, nor my worries. Not the friendship we’re supposed to have and the thing I fear we’re becoming.
All I want is this kiss.
As his lips brush over mine, I move into him and press my mouth to his.
Then the doorbell rings, forcing us apart.
The kiss was barely there. It barely happened, yet it did.
I shuffle to sit, and we stare at each other for a few seconds, lost in contemplation. It’s him who breaks the stare when the bell rings again.
“I should go get that.”
“Okay.”
I watch him go, and moments later, I hear him talking to Murray, which means I won’t see him for a while.
God, we just kissed. It was an actual kiss.
Him and me with no one watching, just us feeling.
So, maybe it’s not all an act?
And maybe Elodie was right.
19
Chad
The restaurant is filled with an array of aromas, but all I can smell is her.
All I can taste is her.
She clings to me even when she’s not with me, and I don’t know how much longer I can resist the urge to rip her clothes off and take her over and over again.
As we stare back at each other while enjoying tonight’s meal, I know she’d probably be shocked at the things that have run through my mind over the last hour. Or maybe she wouldn’t be all that shocked.
We’ve been sitting here acting like the people we’ve created over the last two months. But what’s happening is, those people are taking over who we were when we called ourselves best friends.
