Finding Cinderella (Hopeless #2.5)(15)

She doesn’t laugh. I suddenly hate that I brought her here.

“Six, I didn’t bring you here expecting anything. Yes, I’ve brought girls here in the past but that’s only because I live across the street and I come here a lot. And yes, maybe I brought all those other girls here to have a little privacy while we made out, but that’s only because I more than likely just wanted them to shut up and kiss me because they were getting on my everlasting nerves. But I only brought you here because I wasn’t ready to take you home yet. I don’t even really want to make out with you because I like talking to you too much.”

I close my eyes, wishing I hadn’t just said all that. I know girls like guys who play the uninterested ass**le part. I’m usually pretty good at playing that part, but not with Six. Maybe because I usually am an uninterested ass**le, but with her I’m as interested and curious and hopeful as I can possibly be.

“Which house is yours?” she asks.

I point across the street. “That one,” I say, pointing to the one with the living room light on.

“Really?” she asks, sounding genuinely interested. “Is your family home?”

I nod. “Yeah, but you aren’t meeting them. They’re evil liars and I already told them I was never bringing you home to meet them.”

I can feel her turn and look at me. “You told them you were never bringing me to meet them? So you already mentioned me?”

I meet her gaze. “Yes. I might have mentioned you.”

She smiles. “Which one is your bedroom?”

“First window on the left side of the house. Chunk’s bedroom is the window on the right. The one with the light on.”

She stands up again. “Is your window unlocked? I want to see what your bedroom looks like.”

Jesus, she’s nosey.

“I don’t want you to see my bedroom. I’m unprepared. It’s messy.”

She begins walking toward the street. “I’m going anyway.”

I lean my head back and groan, then stand up and follow her toward the house.

“You’re a piece of work,” I say as we reach my window. She presses her palms against the glass and pushes up. The window doesn’t budge, so I push her aside and open it for her. “I’ve never snuck into my own bedroom before,” I admit. “I’ve snuck out before, but never in.”

She begins to lift herself up over the ledge, so I grab her by the waist and assist her. She throws her leg over the edge of it and slips inside. I climb in behind her, then walk to the dresser and turn on my lamp. I make a scan of the room to ensure there isn’t anything I don’t want her to see. I kick a pair of underwear under the bed.

“I saw those,” she whispers. She walks to my bed and presses her palms into the mattress, then straightens back up. She scans the room slowly, taking in everything about me. It feels weird, like I’m being exposed.

“I like your room,” she says.

“It’s a room.”

She disagrees with a shake of her head. “No, it’s more than that. This is where you live. This is where you sleep. This is where you feel the most privacy in your whole entire life. This is more than just a room.”

“It doesn’t feel very private right now,” I say, watching as she skims her hand across every surface of my room. She turns and looks at me, then faces me full-on.

“What’s the one thing in this room that tells the biggest secret about you?”

I laugh under my breath. “I’m not telling you that.”

She tilts her head. “So I’m right. You have secrets.”

“I never said I didn’t.”

“Give me one,” she asks. “Just one.”

I’ll give them all to her if she keeps looking at me like this. She’s so damn adorable. I walk slowly toward her and she swallows a gulp of air. I stop when I’m several inches from her, then I nod my head down toward my mattress. “I’ve never kissed a girl on this bed,” I whisper.

She looks down at my mattress, then back up to me. “I hope you really don’t expect me to believe you’ve never made out with a girl in your room before.”

I laugh. “I didn’t say that. I stated I had never kissed a girl on this particular bed. I was being honest, because it’s a brand-new mattress. I just got it last week.”

I can see the change in her eyes. The heavy rise and fall of her chest. She likes that I’m so close to her and she likes that I’m insinuating I want to kiss her on my bed.

Her eyes fall to the bed. “Are you saying you want to kiss me on your bed?”

I lean in closer until my lips are right next to her ear. “Are you saying you would let me?”

She sucks in a soft rush of air and I love that we’re both feeling this. I want to kiss her on my bed so damn bad. I want it more than I even wanted the damn bed. Hell, I don’t even care if it’s on the bed. I just want to kiss her. I don’t care where it is. I’ll kiss her anywhere she’ll allow me to kiss her.

I close the small gap between our bodies by resting my hands on her hips and pulling her to me. Her hands fly up to my forearms and she gasps. I dig my fingers into her hips and rest my cheek against hers. My mouth is still grazing her ear as I close my eyes, enjoying the feel of this.