Page 105 of Sing For Me

But then she reaches out and slaps a hand over my mouth, her eyes widening in fear. She mouths something but it’s too dark for me to make out, so she jerks her chin to the left. I glance over and see Paige prowling through the underbrush, only a few yards away.

Thinking fast, I pull off my hoodie—which just happens to be dark navy, and throw it over our heads. We huddle under the sweatshirt, our faces close together, and I try not to laugh. “Shh,” Eva chastises me. “You’re going to get us caught.”

“I’m going to getyoucaught,” I whisper back. “I can definitely run faster than you.”

Her eyes narrow and she pushes my chest, knocking my head from the shelter of our hoodie tent. I look up and see my Aunt Paige standing right there, looming over us. Shit.

But Paige doesn’t tag me. Instead, she gives me a little wink, nods at Eva’s still covered head, and makes a kissy face. I burst out laughing and Eva pinches my leg in protest. “Thanks, Paige,” I whisper and she nods, grinning, before stalking off through the woods in search of her next victim.

I duck back under the hoodie, still grinning, and face Eva. “What the hell?” she whisper-shouts, but I don’t answer. Instead, I take my aunt’s very good advice and press my lips to Eva’s.

She responds to me immediately, kissing me back, and everything goes from funny to overwhelminglygoodin about two seconds flat.I should have been kissing her this whole time,I think dazedly. Fuck being friends—why had we done anything else but kiss like this since the day we met?

She pulls back after a moment, eyes twinkling as she smiles up at me. “So is our time-out continuing then?”

It takes me a second to figure out what she’s talking about. The friendship time-out that she’d asked me for that night in the hot tub.

I’m shaking my head before I even consider my answer. “No,” I say, my voice husky and low in the silence of the dark woods. “I don’t want a friendship break, Eva.”

Her eyes widen, the smile slipping from her face. “You don’t want—”

I reach out to cup her face in my hands, needing to take that rejected look from her eyes. “I don’t want a friendship break because I don’t want to be only friends. Not anymore.”

She studies my face, her expression unreadable, and my heart gives a huge lurch. What if she doesn’t want this?

“If you’re still worried about things, we can go slow,” I add quickly. “We can take as much time as you need. I just…I want you, Eva.” She has to be able to hear the bare need in my tone.

Please want me back.

“I don’t need to go slow,” she whispers, and I pull back a little to read her face, hardly able to believe she just said what I think she did. She returns my gaze, steady and even. Sure. “I want you, too, Will. I want us to be more than friends.” She swallows and her next words come out a whisper. “I want to be yours.”

I have her up and in my arms before she can take her next breath. She squeals as I start walking through the woods. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you to my room.”

Her voice is breathless in my ear. “What about your hoodie?”

“Fuck my hoodie.”

I have her body pressed so close to mine I can feel her trying not to laugh. “What about the game?”

“Definitelyfuck the game.”

She giggles and presses soft, hot kisses along my jaw line and I groan, wondering just how rude it would be to lay her down in the leaves and dirt and have my way with her. “I can walk, Will.”

“Not letting you go.”

She squirms in my arms, her much shorter legs dangling in front of me. “I’m going to trip you.”

“Fine, then.” I swing her up and over my shoulder, fireman style, and she squeals, smacking my back. “Will!”

“This will go much faster if you shut up and let me take the lead.”

“Wow. That’s quite a line to drop on a girl you’re about to take to bed. I should probably let you know that I’m not into the whole blindfolds and chains thing.”

I laugh as I barge my way through the undergrowth. This feels so good. Laughing with her, her body close to mine, the promise of what’s going to happen when we get inside tantalizing my imagination.

I take us on an arching path through the woods that should bring us closer to the farmhouse. The last thing I want to do is come within sight of the lodge where everyone has no doubt gathered by now for the next round of the game.