Page 32 of Cruising for Christmas
She tipped her head back to look up at him, and her smile nearly knocked him off his feet.
“I know,” she said softly. “Thank you for thinking of me.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and walked down the hallway with her once the elevator doors opened.
“Of course.”
* * *
Norah steppedinside the open door that Ian held for her. She smiled tentatively up at him. Her stomach was a ball of nerves, knowing that they very well could sleep with one another that night, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it.
He was Shay’s brother, after all. Wasn’t there some sort of best friend code against that? But as Ian had pointed out earlier in the trip, it would be Shay’s fault if anything happened between them since she put them in the same room together… withonebed.
Perhapsfaultwasn’t the right word. But it would have been her doing.
Although Shay said she’d take the credit and would find it awesome if they wound up together. But maybe she didn’t mean it. Norah had told Shay nothing would happen with Ian, so maybe Shay only said she’d encourage it since she hadn’t expected it to go anywhere. Norah sighed.
“Okay, I can see that war raging in your head. We aren’t doing anything tonight,” Ian said, breaking Norah out of her thoughts.
“What?”
He led her over to the bed and sat down, tugging her down next to him. The butterflies beat wildly in her chest.
He tapped her temple. “You are in your head, and I don’t want you to regret anything.”
“I wouldn’t regret anything.”
He raised an eyebrow, and she sighed.
“I just keep thinking about what Shay would think.”
“I’m not sure she’d care,” he said. “Does it matter anyway? She literally put us in the same bed.”
Norah giggled. “That’s true. But I don’t want to upset her.”
He studied her for a minute before nodding. “We won’t do anything.”
His eyes flickered down to her chest, and the heat spreading up her neck told her she was blushing furiously. A slow smile spread across his face.
“You look gorgeous, by the way.”
“Thank you.”
They stared at each other for a beat, and she knew she was as red as a tomato. The constant blushing around him was making her feel like a teenager who had never been around a boy before.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she breathed.
He leaned forward and captured her lips with his, cupping her jaw with his hand. His lips were soft as they moved with hers. It wasn’t like anything she had felt, as they seemed to move together flawlessly.
She had been in several relationships in the past, but never had a kiss felt like this. There wasn’t a learning curve to learn each other’s mouths. They just instinctively knew.
After a moment, he pulled back and pressed their foreheads together.
“Let’s stop there. Otherwise I won’t be able to quit,” he said.
She hummed in response, enjoying his touch.
