Page 154 of The Score

To anyone looking, it might seem like an intimate moment, like the million such moments Pen and I have shared before. To anyone who doesn't know we said we'd marry platonically, it might look like a simple quiet interactionbetween husband and wife. But I bite her earlobe so she knows exactly what I'm up to.

I nibble on the fleshy bit. "There's one item we can cross off your list before you go back home tomorrow."

She takes a sharp breath in. "Are you serious?"

"You said you wanted a distraction."

She pulls back to stare at me, eyebrows high on her forehead. "I did not expect that."

"Wouldn't you say it's a nice distraction from… everything?"

She gives me a slow nod. In the violet lights of the club, gooseflesh appears on her skin.

"I'd start with a kiss if I could," I say. "Right here. To get you in the right mood."

"And you can't?"

"Our friends would get confirmation that we're not strictly platonic anymore. Dom might get a reprieve."

"Mh, yeah. We can't have that."

And yet, neither of us seems to care. Pen doesn't turn to check if they're looking, and neither do I. The beat of the music still reaches us from below, but it goes ignored. She and I are in our own little world, nevermind the couple hundred people around us.

"But I really want to kiss you." I press my lips to her cheek. "I need your lips." A little closer to her mouth. "In public." Right at the corner of her mouth. "Before I do things to you in a secluded corner of the club. The kind we don't want witnesses for."

She shakes her head. Her hand has barely moved on my thigh all night, but she changes her mind. Her fingers go up my leg— not too much, but enough.

"That kind of kiss sounds evil," she whispers, "if you don't plan to explain it to our friends, before we disappear in search of a dark corner."

"I won't explain a thing tonight. Let them stew in their questions. All I want is a kiss, and the thrill of crossing another one of your sexual fantasies off your list."

"You want to kiss me so badly that you'd be willing to risk more interventions?"

"I don't care about that much at the moment." I caress her temple, bringing her hair back behind an ear. "But if it helps, we'll tell anyone who wants to know that kissing in public was part of the performance."

I hate the idea, but if she doesn't feel anything for me like that, then it will be a performance for her. A fun little interlude in the story of our friendship. For me, it's the way I'm trying to get to her heart.

"What do you say?" I ask. "Can I kiss you?"

"How cute of us." She licks her lips. "You're asking permission for a kiss, when we've done so much more. Basically non-stop. Including now, when kissing is foreplay for something else. Or is this the whole of the distraction? A tease? A promise, perhaps?"

"It's only the start." I kiss her cheek, then closer to her lips again. "I'm starving that badly right now."

"If your goal was to get me hot and bothered, then congratulations. You won."

"Yeah?"

I gaze into her eyes. She searches mine. Her lips part.

"Yeah," she breathes. "I like the thought that you can't hold back. That you're starving for me."

"Is that right?"

She licks her lips. "Why would I lie?"

I lick my bottom lip.

She stares at me with wide eyes and parted mouth. "I told you I want to be had. Do you feel like making a claim in front of our friends, too?"