Finding Cinderella (Hopeless #2.5)(17)

“And you better be done with that guy in Italy,” I reply.

She nods. “I am,” she says, although her eyes seem to tell a different story. I try not to read into it because whatever it is, it doesn’t matter now. She’s here with me. And she’s happy about that. I can tell.

“You better not take back the girl who broke your heart last night,” she adds.

I shake my head. “Never. Not after this. Not after you.”

She seems relieved by my answer.

“This is scary,” she whispers. “I’ve never had a boyfriend before. I don’t know how this works. Do people become exclusive this fast? Are we supposed to pretend we’re not that interested for a few more dates?”

Oh, dear God.

I’ve never been turned on by a girl laying claim to me before. I usually run in the other direction. She’s obliterating every single thing I thought I knew about myself with every new sentence that passes those lips.

“I have no interest in faking disinterest,” I say. “If you want to call yourself my girlfriend half as much as I wish you would, then it would save me a whole lot of begging. Because I was literally about to drop to my knees and beg you.”

She squints her eyes playfully. “No begging. It screams desperation.”

“You make me desperate,” I say, pressing my lips to hers again. I choose to keep this kiss simple, even though I want to grab her face again and hold her against the wall. I pull away from her and we stare at each other. We stare at each other for so long I begin to worry that she’s put some kind of spell on me, because I’ve never wanted to just stare at a girl like I want to stare at her. Just looking at her causes my heart to burn and my chest to constrict and I’m sort of freaking out that I barely know her at all and we’ve just made ourselves exclusive.

“Are you a witch?” I ask.

Her laugh returns and I suddenly don’t care if she’s a witch. If this is some kind of spell she’s put on me, I hope it never breaks.

“I have no idea who you even are and now you’re my damn girlfriend. What the hell have you done to me?”

She holds her palms up defensively. “Hey, don’t blame me. I’ve gone eighteen years swearing off boyfriends and then you show up out of the blue with your vulgar mouth and terribly awkward first kisses and now look at me. I’m a hypocrite.”

“I don’t even know your phone number,” I say.

“I don’t even know your birthday,” she says.

“You’re the worst girlfriend I’ve ever had.”

She laughs and I kiss her again. I notice I have to kiss her every time she laughs and she laughs a lot. Which means I have to kiss her a lot. God, I hope she doesn’t laugh in front of Sky or Holder because it’s going to be so damn hard not to kiss her.

“You better not tell Sky about us,” I say. “I don’t want Holder to know yet.”

“What about school? I enroll tomorrow. You don’t think it’ll be obvious when we interact?”

“We’ll pretend we hate each other. It could be fun.”

She tilts her face up and finds my mouth again, giving me a light peck. “But how do you plan on keeping your hands off me?”

I slide my other hand to her waist. “I won’t keep my hands off you. I’ll just touch you when they aren’t looking.”

“This is gonna be so much fun,” she whispers.

I smile and pull her against me again. “Damn right it is.” I dip my head and kiss her one last time. I release her, then reach behind her and turn the doorknob, pushing open her front door. “See you tomorrow.”

She backs up two steps until she’s in her doorway. “See you tomorrow.”

She begins to turn and head into her house, but I grab her wrist and pull her back out. I wrap an arm around her lower back and lean in until my lips touch hers. “I forgot to accidentally touch your boob.”

I catch her laugh with my mouth and graze her breast with the palm of my hand, then I immediately pull away from her. “Oops. Sorry.”

She’s covering her laugh with her hand as she backs into her house. She closes the door and I immediately fall to my knees, then onto my back. I stare straight up at the roof of her porch, wondering what in the hell just happened to my heart.

The door slowly reopens and she looks down at me, sprawled across her front porch like an idiot.

“I just needed a minute to recover,” I say, smiling up at her. I’m not even excusing the fact that I’m shamelessly affected by her. She winks, then begins to close the door.

“Six, wait,” I say, pushing myself up. She opens the door again and I reach up and grab the doorframe, then lean in toward her. “I know I just broke up with someone last night, but I need you to know you aren’t a rebound. You know that, right?”

She nods. “I know,” she says confidently. “Neither are you.”

With that, she steps back into her house and closes her door.

Christ.

Motherf*cking angel.

Chapter Three

“Let’s go!” I tell her for the fifth time.

She grabs her backpack and groans, then stands up and pushes her chair in. “What’s your freakin’ deal, Daniel? You’re never in a hurry to get to school.” She downs the rest of her orange juice. I’m standing at the door where I’ve been standing for five minutes, ready to leave. I hold open the front door and follow her outside.