Until Harry(42)

“Hey,” he smiled, flicking his whisky-coloured eyes up to mine. “You asked.”

I playfully shoved him. “If you’re done teasing me, we can go back downstairs.”

He didn’t move an inch.

“Who says I’m teasing you?” he murmured.

I cleared my throat. “I say.”

“Why?” he asked.

Did he want the list?

“Because I’m your best friend, like your sister and I’m under eighteen,” I rattled off. “Three things you always remind me of when we talk about anything related to sex.”

Kale’s tongue swiped across his bottom lip and got my full attention. “I say those things for your benefit, not mine.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

He blinked and looked away from me. “Shit. Nothing. Forget I said—”

“Oh, no you don’t,” I stated and grabbed hold of his T-shirt when he tried to turn away from me.

Kale grunted but didn’t resist against my hold on him.

“Explain that,” I demanded. “Now.”

He looked up at the ceiling, then back down to me and said, “What do you want me to say, Lane?”

“I want you to tell me what you meant.”

His jaw set. “You sure you want to hear this?” he asked.

“I asked, didn’t I?”

He licked his lips and said, “I know . . . I know that you . . . like me.”

I felt my pounding heart drop to my stomach.

Be cool.

“Wh-Wh-What?” I stuttered.

Be bloody cooler!

I cleared my throat. “Run that by me again?”

He gazed down at me. “I’ve known for a few years that you like me in that way.”

I didn’t understand what was happening.

“Why do you think that?” I asked, trying not to appear as dumbfounded as I felt.

“Come on, Lane,” he said, his lip slightly quirked. “I’ve seen the way you look at me, how you get when I talk about Drew and other girls – and I’ve seen your scribbles on the back pages of your school journals.”

He. Did. Not.

I gasped in horror. “What?”

“‘Lane loves Kale’” – he fully grinned – “and my personal favourite, ‘Mrs Lane Hunt’.”

This wasn’t happening.

“Omigod,” I breathed, and tried to push away from him.

He laughed and swayed again as he grabbed hold of me. “Don’t be embarrassed.”

Embarrassed? my mind screamed. I am fucking mortified.

“Let me go,” I begged. “Omigod, I can’t ever look you in the eye again.”

Kale continued to laugh as I struggled against his hold, and it got under my skin.

“Stop laughing at me!” I shouted.

He pressed his face against my hair, and it halted my movements. “I’m not laughing at you, just at your reaction to me knowing you fancy me.”

The surface of my face felt like a supernova.

“Shut up, Kale!”

“Oh, give over,” he said, laughing again. “If it will make you feel better, I fancy you too.”

Everything stopped.

My heartbeat.

My breathing.

Time.

“You’re playing,” I whispered after a stretch of silence.

He nudged the side of my head with his face. “Look at me.”

I did.

I lifted my head until I was staring up at his transfixing face. “I’m not playing; I do fancy you.” He said this while looking into my eyes, and his eyes spoke to me too.

He was telling the truth. I felt my mouth drop open.

“Since when?” I asked, astonished.

He sheepishly smiled. “I told you. I noticed everything about you two months before you turned sixteen. You were upset over Anna O’Leary and Ally Day, and you got it into your head that you wanted a makeover. I noticed before that day that you were, um, filling out, but when you got your haircut and a new wardrobe, it highlighted everything that I found attractive about you. It was like a jolt of pure lust shot straight to my dick. I spent most of that day, and many more following it, trying to hide my hard-on from you.”

I could do nothing but stare at him with wide eyes as I thought, Is he saying all this because he’s had a bit to drink?

“I know,” he breathed, taking in my reaction. “This admission is very sudden and out of the blue, but fuck, you look insanely hot tonight, and when you looked at me downstairs with the want in your eyes and got catty with those girls over me, it took everything in me not to kiss and touch you.”

I lifted my left hand to my right arm and pinched the skin. I winced as pain filled me, and Kale frowned. “Why did you do that?”

“Just making sure I’m not dreaming,” I replied.

He stared at me for a moment, and then a breathtaking smile curved his luscious lips. I smiled back at him but grabbed hold of his arms once more when he swayed on his feet.

“Shit,” he grumbled and lightly shook his head clear. “The whisky is hitting me at the worst time.”

I giggled. “I feel like I should make a joke about you not being able to handle your liquor.”