Page 41 of Reckless
“Don’t,” she said quietly.
“Don’t what?”
“Act like us sitting together by choice at a few parties suddenly meant we’d be good at this plan of yours.”
“I’m not.”
“Then what are you doing?”
The answer came out before I’d fully cleaned it up.
“Trying not to hurt you because of something I did.”
Silence.
Kelly’s face moved in tiny, charged ways when she was moved against her will.Her mouth got still and her eyes went brighter.
I had no business noticing how attractive that was.Or how much touching her arm sent a ripple of awareness through me.
She looked away and swore under her breath.Not theatrically.enough to tell me she was losing ground she did not want to lose.
I waited.
Finally she said, “Britney is going to set you on fire.”
“That seems fair.”
“No, I mean… she’ll probably use accelerant.”
“I’ll wear something less flammable.”
That bought me exactly half a second of almost-amusement before she caught herself and glared harder.
“Don’t flirt while trying to trap me into a fake relationship.”
“I’m not flirting.”
“Would you prefer I flirt?”
Her face did something wonderful and murderous.I said nothing.
Then she narrowed her gaze and said, “I want to buy the white dress and get married after the ceremony, honey.”
I smiled before I could stop it.“There it is.”
“God.”She shoved a hand through her hair and laughed.“God, that is fucking deranged.”
“A little scary.”
“I don’t think you get much choice in how I talk but that was a bad joke.You and I will never get married.”
My heart sped up.“I don’t remember asking.”
“You didn’t but you started and this is the exact path everyone we know went down.You sure this is the only way?”
“I have no other options,” I said, “And one weekend means I’ll take the larger hit where I can and keep you out of the blast where I can’t.”
Her eyes narrowed with immediate suspicion.“Why does that sound like another version of you making decisions for me?”
