Page 69 of Movers and Fakers

We stay transfixed in this spot beneath the lights for what seems like forever and a breath. Eventually, Hayes breaks the seal of our lips and pulls back just enough to gaze down at me with that soft smile I’ve grown fond of. His eyes are as dark as evergreen trees bathed in morning fog, but filled with a forest fire of desire. He runs his fingers through my hair and hums.

“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.” The low rasp of his voice makes heat swirl deep in my abdomen. I play with the hair at the nape of his neck; it looks like spun copper in the glow of the lights surrounding us.

“I think …” I bite my lip. I didn’t know it was possible for my entire body to blush, but it certainly feels that way as I stare up into his hooded gaze. “I think I have too.”

A slow grin spreads across his face.

“You shouldn’t say things like that, Princess. It might go to my head.”

I roll my eyes, but there’s a smile pulling at my lips, too.

“If I didn’t say it, you would have given some ridiculous line about winning me over.”

He chuckles and runs his thumb along my pulse. It skips in response to his touch.

“Mm, I don’t know. You’ve distracted me tonight. I can’t think of anything other than kissing you again.” He lowers his head. “May I?”

“Are you going to ask me every time?” I whisper, feigning annoyance.

His lips brush mine. “Is that a yes?”

I grip his jacket and pull him closer, forcing our mouths to meet. Our first kiss was impassioned but measured. Hayes had been gentle and warm. This kiss is different. When I tugged him toward me, I pulled us off the edge of a cliff. And now we’re falling into a feverish sort of affection. My breaths are shorter and quicker; I feel as though I’ve danced through a performance three times in a row. This coupled with the trembling spreading through my limbs has me disoriented. Hayes hums into the kiss, then pulls back ever so slightly.

“So sweet.” The breathless murmur is all he utters before capturing my lips in another dizzying kiss.

I’m wishing this moment could last forever when a sharp beeping noise pierces the air. I pull back, my breathing stilted.

At the end of the tunnel, a campus security cart sits, blue lights spinning.

“Take it inside, lovebirds!” the guard shouts from inside the small golf cart.

My face flames with embarrassment. I hide it against Hayes’s chest, which is shaking with barely controlled laughter.

“Yes, sir! Sorry about that,” Hayes calls back.

“No need. I was young once too. Just can’t have ya scandalizing the university,” he drawls, furthering my humiliation.

The cart rolls away, leaving a laughing Hayes and a mortified me in its wake.

“Stop laughing,” I grumble, and hit his chest. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny,” he counters. “What a story to tell. Our first kiss and we get caught by security.”

I tip my head back so he can see how unamused I am.

“I’m not telling anyone this.”

He grins. “You don’t have to—I will.”

I go to hit him again, but he catches my arm and smirks.

“Careful, Princess.” He presses a heated kiss to the inside of my wrist. “You know what happens when you try to fight me. We wouldn’t want to get caught in a worse position than this.”

Just when I think I can’t get any warmer, he says that. I think if someone took my temperature right now, they’d say I have a fever.

“You’re an incorrigible flirt,” I mutter.

He gives my wrist another scalding kiss, his eyes sparkling with a potent mixture of desire and mischief.