The Kiss (2 page)

Chapter Two

Two Years Earlier

Eliza was early at the coffee shop, but she didn’t mind. The fact that she still had about half an hour until Greg arrived meant that she had enough time to compose herself perfectly, so she’d look her best when he first laid eyes on her.

She and Greg had been dating for nine weeks, but intimacy between them was still an issue. It wasn’t just the physical aspect that was lacking; Greg seemed to want to keep her at a safe distance, and she supposed that was part of his charm. He was the tall, dark, and handsome type—the guy who didn’t need to talk much, but whose words carried substance when he did. Public displays of affection were out of the question for him, and she was entirely fine with that. Being a few years her senior, he was over the teenage-drama love scene, he’d told her, and she could totally live without it, herself.

They didn’t go out much; Greg found clubs to be outside his comfort zone. They didn’t see each other all that often, either. Eliza had at first found that weird, but he’d explained that a personality like his felt repressed when he had to adhere to societal norms such as seeing his girlfriend every day or having to talk with her over the phone, so she’d stopped pressuring him. She was proud of how much she’d grown and overcome her insecurities since she’d started going out with him.

Being with Greg made her always strive to be the best she could.

She straightened her skirt for the millionth time and brought her compact out of her purse to make sure her lip-gloss was still as shiny as before she’d taken a sip from her coke.

It was in the mirror that she first saw the man who’d be the bane of her existence for a long time to come.

He wore a white shirt and faded jeans, and his look screamed
danger
. It wasn’t his tussled hair, scuffed boots, or the Zippo he kept flicking, as much as his eyes. His gaze was intense, piercing, even under the poor lighting. A shiver ran down her spine when it found hers through the mirror. He smirked, and she held her breath, instinctively knowing that to smile back would be perilous.

She put the compact back in her purse and concentrated on her drink. Well, tried to, at least. Her mind kept going to the guy, and she couldn’t even say why; it wasn’t like he was her type. He wasn’t tall or buff enough. Or handsome.

Well, maybe he was handsome, if you went for the bad-boy type. Where Greg emanated calm power, this guy seemed to be a bundle of nerves, on edge—someone she could never feel safe around. Not that she’d want to be around him. Or think of him any longer. She’d only seen him for a split second, after all.

Someone pulled out the seat opposite to hers, and she found herself looking at a white-clad chest. She raised her gaze to see what she knew she would: the smirk and green eyes that had unsettled her so.

She gulped, then forced a smile. “That seat is taken.”

“It is now. By me.” His voice was dreamy. Rough and velvety at the same time, it felt like a caress.

She scoffed anyway. “No, by my boyfriend, who’ll be here any minute now.”

“Well, sucks for him. I’m not going anywhere.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her challengingly.

She shrugged. “It’s your ass on the line.”

He tapped his fingers on the table. Eliza hated men who chewed their nails, but on him it seemed to add to the bad-boy look. “I don’t think my ass is in any danger,” he said, “but yours could be, if you asked me nicely.”

She flinched, disturbed at how his voice and words made her body react. She felt her skin flush and her temperature rise… and not in an unpleasant way. It usually took a heavy kissing-session with Greg for that. She was extremely proud of herself for finally saying, “Not in this lifetime. Now leave me alone.”

“Or what?” The words were uttered slowly, his tone turning the straightforward question into some kind of dirty suggestion.

Despite his persistence, nothing about him made her feel
physically
threatened. Holding his gaze, she tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean,
or what
? I told you. My boyfriend will beat you senseless if you don’t stop harassing me.”

His jaw clenched, relaxed, clenched again. “Not that I wouldn’t like to see him try, Eliza, but your precious Greg isn’t coming. He’ll call you.” It took a few moments for his words to sink in, but he was off his seat before she could ask how he knew her or Greg.

She followed him and caught up with him at the bar. “How…
Who
are you?”

“Nate.” He sounded bored. “Greg knew I’d be here and asked me to let you know
he
wouldn’t.” He turned away from her and threw a buxom blonde sitting to his left some cheesy line, but Eliza wouldn’t leave the matter alone.

“And if he sent you, why were you such a jerk just now?”

He looked at her over his shoulder, one hand planted higher up the other blonde’s thigh than propriety would allow. “I felt like it. Thought you needed it. I know the kind of girl your boyfriend goes for.” He ran his tongue over his teeth. “Personally, virgins aren’t my thing.”

The bimbo next to Nate giggled and, covering his hand with hers, pulled it a bit higher still.

Eliza blanched. “Did he—”

“No, he didn’t tell me. He didn’t have to. I can smell it all over you.” He turned away. “You better get going. Now.”

“You’re a pig.” Yes, that was a lame insult, but she was too shaken up to bother finding a better one.

“And yet I’m your
boyfriend’s
best mate. Doesn’t that make you think?” He only caught her eye briefly before facing the other way again.

Eliza turned on her heel and left, but not before seeing him stick his tongue down the other blonde’s throat.

She’d never admit it out loud, but Nate had been the reason she’d slept with Greg a week later.
***

Alan walked her to her dorm and thanked her for the lovely evening.

Her keys kept evading her fingers as she plundered through her clutch bag. He obviously thought she was giving him some sort of signal, because the moment she found them and turned to say
goodnight
he leaned in for a kiss.

No matter how much she’d hoped for that kiss at the beginning of the night, there was no way she’d accept it now. She turned her face to the side, offering him her cheek. Then she pushed the key into the lock and let herself into her room hoping Krista was still up.

She’d need her best friend’s help if she was to find her mystery-man.

***

Krista took the news as expected.

She started bouncing and squealing, doing as good a cheerleader impersonation as possible. A nasty fall off the bed didn’t deter her; she got up and resumed her bouncing around the room.

“Long-ass draught is finally over,” she said, time and again.

Worried the next fall—or bumping her head into a shelf—might cause her friend irreparable damage, Eliza tried to calm her down. She made every effort to explain that for all she knew she did
not
have a secret admirer; someone was probably just acting out a dare.

“Yes, you’re right.” Krista obviously tried to sound serious, but the humongous grin on her lips seemed about to split her freckled face in two. “Was your childhood traumatic, Ms. Green?” she asked in a pompous accent. “Lie down and tell me everything.” Nodding to herself, she mimicked taking notes on her open palm with an invisible pen. “So, you believe there was a dare for someone to kiss you whenever the two of you were in the same room and electricity happened to want some time off? I can see why that would make sense.”

Eliza rolled her eyes. “No, Krista, but maybe cutting the lights out was part of the dare.”

Krista nodded. “And maybe someone
bought
the club, so they could turn the lights on and off for people to kiss
you
. I mean, that’s more likely than someone secretly having the hots for you, right?” She brushed a red lock of hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear.

Eliza tried to glare at her, but couldn’t keep a hopeful smile from blossoming on her own lips. “So you think I have an admirer?”

“
Yes!
” She sounded exasperated. “And it’s so cool! We can—do you think we could get a saliva sample? My uncle Aaron could run tests, and—”

Eliza just arched an eyebrow.

“So, that’s a no?”

“That’s a no.”

Krista frowned, obviously mulling things over. Eliza had always loved her friend’s analytical nature, and especially the way her entire face lit up when she came up with solutions to problems. “
Eureka
!
” Krista’s dark eyes sparkled.

“I-what-a?”

“Not
you
, ‘eu’—
Never
mind.” She waved her hand. “I have a plan.”

Eliza scooched back on the bed until her ass hit the head board, and crossed her legs Yoga style. She placed her hands on her ankles, arched her back, and rolled her head. Then she cracked her knuckles. “Shoot.”

“Okay. Here goes: we make a list of suspects, and you go out with
all
of them.”

“Hmmm…as far as plans go, this one is rather simple,” Eliza said. “The list of suspects exists, but there are a couple of hitches to your plan.” Her friend’s face fell, and she hastened to correct herself. “Your otherwise
brilliant
plan.”

Smiling again, Krista motioned with both hands for her to go on. Her excitement was palpable.

“One, I can’t start asking men out, and two—” She made a face of distaste. “I’ll have to kiss them all to know who’s the one.”

“You
always
have to kiss a guy before you know if he’s the one.”

Eliza couldn’t really disagree with that. “Okay. So how do I go about it?”

Chapter Three

Bill closed his right eye and looked at Ms. Chase. She appeared to be next to her desk.

He opened that eye and closed the other one.
In front of the desk
.

He wondered when he’d gone from trying to guess her bra color to playing this stupid game so time could move just a little faster.

Oh yeah, when he’d realized English Lit was as far from being
his thing
as being a sewer cleaner. A naked sewer cleaner. Without shoes.

He wanted to kill Nate for urging him to take that class, and would do so right then and there, if Nate’s fervent note-taking wasn’t giving Bill ammo for endless hours of mocking.

With the lecture hour finally over, Bill stood to leave. His way to salvation, however, was suddenly blocked by a certain redhead.

“Hey.” She beamed a smile at him.

“Hey, Kris.”

“Have a minute?”

The two had known each other since they were kids. He was a couple of years older, but Krista had always been smart beyond her years. They’d hung out all the time until he’d gone to college and they’d drifted apart. He’d seen her around campus, and they’d gone for coffee once or twice, but their friendship just couldn’t be what it used to. Maybe it was that it just wasn’t cool to hang with the freshmen—or that’s what Greg said.

Then again, Krista wasn’t a freshman anymore.

They walked outside silently, until she chose a bench and they both took a seat.

“What’s up, Krissy?” He used the nickname only her nearest and dearest got away with. “Is something wrong?”

She shook her head, then grinned. “Something is actually about to be really right for you, Mister!”

“For me?” He grinned back. “Did you realize I’m the man of your dreams, after all these years?”

“Get a grip, William. I know what you look like in diapers.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.” He tickled her side but retracted his hand awkwardly when he remembered the girl next to him wasn’t his best friend any longer and hadn’t been for a couple of years now.

She blushed. “Never mind that. Remember Eliza?”

Of course he remembered Eliza. He remembered her the most awkward of moments: when he was alone in the shower or trying to sleep. He’d had a crush on her for a while—a
long
while—when she’d first moved into town and Krista used to drag her everywhere with her. Greg had gotten to her first, however, and Bill was now over it.

Still, she was hot.

“The name kind of rings a bell,” he said.

Krista stared him down. “It better, because you’re taking her out on Friday night.”

***

Eliza knew what she was doing was wrong, but
the end justified the means
.

She licked her lips and batted her eyelids innocently, seemingly completely focused on what the teaching assistant was saying about football. Or she guessed it was football. She hadn’t really been listening, her mind occupied with thoughts of how she could decipher which of the three men sitting at the same table as her could be into her.

The way she saw things, Cal—
that was the
TA’s name, after all—Mike, and Leo were inseparable. They hung out together inside and outside of campus, studied together, and trained together. It made sense that, if one of them liked her, the others would know. All she had to do was make herself available. If she was right about one of them being her mystery man, she hoped her flirty-yet-not-aggressive routine would either get him to ask her out or get his friends to suggest they go out.

It wasn’t working so far.

She’d pretended she had some questions about class and asked if she could join them when she’d seen them seated at the campus cafeteria. Luckily for her, none of them had minded that she hadn’t said a word about class once seated but had instead been asking the guys questions about themselves.

She’d winked at Leo
and
smiled seductively at Mike
. And she might have overdone it a little
when she ran her fingers along her collarbone and bit her lower lip once or twice while looking at Cal.

None of them seemed to notice her efforts.

In fact, they were talking
to each other
now, patting backs over their team’s victory—
if
the subject was still football—and ignoring her.

“Wow, look at the time.” She glanced at her watch-free wrist. “I better get going.” To Cal, she said, “Don’t want to hog all your lunch break time. I’ll just ask you those questions in class.” She pushed her chair back, and he stood and helped her out of it.

“We could—I mean, if you want, meet off-campus. For your questions,” he blurted as she turned away.

“No, it’s all right. They’re not that important.” Positive that none of the men was interested in her, she didn’t get what he meant until he curled a hand around her upper arm and gently turned her to face him.

“We don’t
have
to talk about the questions. We could talk about…class in general. Say, at
The Zoo
?”

Even if she hadn’t
caught on
,
the wolf whistles Mike and Leo gave out certainly clued her in
. She
smiled. “Say, Saturday?” Also, someone needed to build a new bar-slash-club in her town, stat.

“I’ll pick you up at your dorm. Is eight all right?”

“Sure. See you then.”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Actually, you’re wrong.”

“Huh?”

“You’ll see me tomorrow in class.” By his goofy grin it appeared he was pretty darn proud of himself for making
a funny
. Eliza decided to call it
boyish charm
. After all, if he
was
her mystery kisser, a little goofiness could be forgiven.

“Right. See you then.” She gave the guys a little finger-wave. “See ya.”

She’d bet good money they were all staring at her ass as she swished it side to side on her way out of the cafeteria.

***

“Well?” Krista didn’t even say
hi
when Eliza walked inside their room.

“You first.” Eliza dropped her armful of books onto her desk, sat on her bed, and rested her right foot on her left knee to undo the laces of her sandal.

Krista was face down on her own twin bed, head hanging over the foot of it. She carefully placed her book marker all the way to the spine of the book lying on the floor and closed it. “Me first, what?” She rolled to her side, slid a bit higher up the bed, and rested her cheek on her palm, obviously enjoying taking her time and playing dumb.

Eliza let her sandal drop to the floor, reached behind her for her pillow, and threw it at her friend’s head. “You suck.”

“Me suck, what?” They both dissolved in giggles.

Eliza caught her breath first. “So, do I have a date for Friday?” she asked, fumbling with her second sandal.

“Yess’m.” Krista gave her a mock salute. “Do you, um, have a date for Saturday?”

“Uh huh.” She stood, grabbed a pair of tracksuit pants and a
T-shirt
from her closet, and walked to the bathroom.

“Wait! With whom?” Krista ran after her, but Eliza slammed the bathroom door in her face. “
With whom
?” Krista banged her open palm on the wooden surface repeatedly.

“
I can’t hear you.”
She totally could.

“Are you gonna make me wait?”

“Yup. And I want to shower, too.”

“I’ll wait.” A thump came from the other side of the door. Could have been Krista’s head.

“You better.”