Page 101 of Reckless
He let me.
He kept leaving the final inch to me and I kept choosing it anyway.
“Kelly.”
He stood there barefoot in the sand, hair wind-tossed, mouth slightly bruised-looking from the kiss, and if there were a more reckless sight available to women on this earth I did not want to be introduced to it.
“We’re not pretending that didn’t happen,” he said.
I laughed softly.“No.I don’t think we are.”
“Good.”
I looked back at the ocean because that answer was too much and too honest and exactly the sort of thing that would make me kiss him again if I let myself stay facing him much longer.
Silence.
Then, after a beat, I said, “This can’t happen again.”
The lie sat between us instantly.
Still, he did not challenge me.
That was maybe the most romantic thing he could have done in the moment.
He was watching me in that same dark, attentive way, but something about him had changed.
“Are you okay?”He asked.
I nodded once.
Then, because staying any longer felt like asking the ocean for an audience and I had enough problems, I started toward the path back up.
He fell into step beside me.
Not touching.
Every inch of air between us felt aware.
The cove disappeared behind the rise.
The real world returned.
I stopped with my hand on the terrace gate.
Xerses stopped too.
I stared.
He asked, “What.”
I looked up.
Then, because I couldn’t help myself and because if I didn’t say something normal I was going to drag him back down the path and undo all my own hard work, I said, “You have my lipstick on your mouth.”
“Where?”
“Lower lip.Left side.”
