Kiss and Break Up (Magnolia Cove, #1)(25)

Maybe I’d done something. Maybe he was sick of trying to vie for my attention. Or maybe, I’d been making myself too available to him. I resolved to talk to Daphne about it at lunch.





Daphne had told me if we weren’t going steady, then I needed to pull back. Let him work for it. Whatever that meant.

So even though I was dying to message Byron and check if everything was okay and ask him what was happening between us, I didn’t. I liked him, sure, but I wasn’t next-level obsessed. I could wait him out.

I snatched the popcorn bowl to put back on my side of the bed. My eyes were on the TV as White Walkers descended on the Wall, but my mind roamed anywhere and everywhere else.

Maybe it’d be like last time, and I’d just show up at the party, and we’d eventually run into each other?

I hoped not. We might not be able to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend, but I thought we were at the stage of getting to know each other where he’d at least make plans with me.

Dash’s face interrupted as he loomed above me. “For fuck’s sake, are you high?”

I blinked up at him. “What? No.” I laughed then. “Wait, were you just singing Manfred Mann?”

“You wouldn’t even need to ask that if you’d quit daydreaming for one damn minute.”

His eyes were hard, jaw set, and I poked him in the cheek. “Don’t be mad.”

His dimple appeared, his eyes dropping to my mouth. “Wanna practice again?”

I pushed him off me. “I’m good, thanks.”

Dash laid on his side, his head in his hand, and his shirt riding over his waist. “You don’t think you need to?”

“I’ve kissed him already.”

His jaw clenched. “When?”

“After our date, in the parking lot.” I shoved another handful of popcorn into my mouth.

Dash watched me, silent for some minutes, then said, “Just once?”

“Yeah.” I leaned up on my elbows to grab my water bottle, popping the top and taking a long sip.

His voice was scratchy as he asked, “Have you kissed him again since?”

I shook my head. “No, but I think he might try again this Friday.”

More silence.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, I slammed my drink down on the nightstand. “Ugh, just speak.”

Dash smirked. “Just saying, how do you know you’re ready for what comes next if you’ve only kissed him once?”

“Are you being serious right now?” I couldn’t tell because his expression wasn’t giving anything away.

“Deadly. You need my training as much as you need your next breath, and you know it.”

I stared at his mouth, remembering the velvety touch of it on mine. Kissing him didn’t suck, and it didn’t make things awkward, but the thought of doing so now felt wrong in different ways.

“Wouldn’t that be cheating in a sense?”

He scoffed. “He’s an eighteen-year-old guy who hasn’t asked you to be his girlfriend. As far as I know. Who’s to say he’s not hooking up with other people?” Dash softened his next words. “He did just get out of a long-term relationship, Pegs.”

The whole “he’s a guy” thing didn’t fly with me. Dash was right, though. Byron hadn’t promised me anything, and he hadn’t said he wasn’t seeing other people. He hadn’t even hinted at it. I swallowed the sting that tried to swell my throat.

“It feels wrong,” I said, planting a hand on his chest when he drifted closer.

His hand wrapped around mine. “That makes it even better.” His face hovered over mine, giving me a chance to stop this, but I didn’t.

His gaze narrowed, sharpening the bright blue of his eyes. My heart kicked faster, sprinting as his nose brushed mine and strands of his hair rained down to lick at my forehead.

My eyes closed at the first glide of our skin, and my stomach ceased knotting when his bottom lip fitted itself between my lips. Gentle, caressing, hypnotizing strokes had my body pliant and growing warm as his hand left my cheek and started drifting down my body to my hip.

When my mouth opened farther, and my tongue stroked hesitantly at the underside of his top lip, he groaned. “Good, that’s so good.”

I did it again, swiping a little deeper, and his teeth caught my tongue, gently scraping over it. I fizzed and faded beneath him, a desperate sound leaving me.

“Pegs.” Mom knocked, and Dash flew to the other side of the bed. “Is Dash staying for dinner?”

She opened the door as I stuffed a heap of popcorn into my mouth.

Setting a basket of clean clothes on the floor, she looked over at us, her lips puckering. “Don’t tell me you’ve filled up on junk the one night I actually decide to cook.”

“I’ve always got room for your cooking, Peeny.”

Dash had called her that since he started talking, and ever the sucker for it, Mom smiled. “You’d better.” She shut the door, and the popcorn sprayed out of my mouth as we both rolled over and started laughing.





Peggy



I rounded the corner, dropping my hall pass as I saw a couple making out against the wall.

“Such a dirty fucking girl,” Lars said against Daphne’s neck.