Only Her Best Friend - Cami Checketts Page 0,36
The kiss took on a life of its own as he framed her face with his palms, tilted her head, and gently deepened the kiss. She reached up and clung to his muscular biceps for stability. Her head was cloudy, and she felt like she was drifting on a sea of happiness.
When he pulled back, he murmured, “Yes, there will definitely be more kissing.”
“Sounds good.”
He released her and watched as she slipped into her house. She hurried as she dripped across her hardwood floor to her bathroom and shower. The warm shower felt amazing, but nothing was as amazing as being in Cruz’s arms. His lips on hers. Oh, my, this was really happening. She could hardly believe it.
She put on some of her peach lotion and lip gloss, worked leave-in conditioner through her hair, and brushed the tangles out. She slid back into her floral sundress and rushed out into the main area, anxious to talk to him, to touch him, to kiss him. Cruz was already waiting for her, and he’d already mopped up her water puddles.
“Hey.” He stood from the couch and walked toward her. “Is it time to talk?”
She smiled. “What do you want to talk about?”
He grinned. “This.” He bent his head and gave her a pure, gentle kiss. He smiled and rested his forehead against hers. “What did you want to talk about?”
Meredith wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him down to her, and whispered, “This.” Then she proceeded to kiss him with a stored passion she didn’t know had been building inside her since their kiss thirteen years ago. She ran the tip of her tongue along the inside of his upper lip. Cruz groaned and lifted her off her feet, returning her kiss with as much passion as she’d ever experienced.
He pulled back and said, “Okay … wow. We might have to work on some other subjects before we come back to that one.”
“Why?” She stared into his blue eyes.
He blinked and admitted, “If you knew how desperate I am to be close to you right now, you’d call your dad to shout me to repentance and kick me out of your house.”
She let out a surprised giggle. She was far too innocent, but she loved that she had this effect on Cruz. “Okay, we’ll talk about something else and give you time to get your head on straight, but we are coming back to that subject.”
“Deal.” He took her hand and led her to the couch. They sat side by side, and he sounded like an excited little boy as he said, “There’s so much to talk about.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. Did she tell him she loved him first? Did she tell him how long she’d loved him? They needed to talk about where their relationship could go from here and how to work out long distance.
“You have to tell me about earning ‘Google Cruz’ time,” he said, leaning toward her.
“That’s what you want to talk about?”
Cruz nodded. “Definitely.”
She felt overcome with worry, disappointment, and embarrassment. She’d hoped they’d talk about a relationship between the two of them, and all he cared about was her weird obsession with googling him. Did she even know how to form a relationship? She sure hadn’t had a lasting one during her twelve years as an adult.
She stared into his eyes. Did he love her? She didn’t know. His kiss had said he did but maybe she was too innocent to read that correctly. Even though he’d promised he wasn’t a player it was obvious he’d kissed a lot of women, she’d even seen photos and videos online to prove it. Googling him? Argh! It seemed the over-confident Cruz Chadwick only wanted to know about how obsessed she was with him just like every other woman. Maybe she wasn’t special to him at all.
She wanted to hide her insecurities and she needed some time to think. “I need to get some rest,” she said. “Working early.”
His eyebrows rose. “You don’t want to talk about googling me?” He sounded surprised and disappointed. As if searching him online should be her favorite subject.
“No, I don’t. It’s humiliating.”
“What’s humiliating about it?”
Meredith didn’t get mad very often, but she felt embarrassed like she was being backed into a corner. She was definitely tired and overly emotional from not sleeping well last night and the effect his kisses had on her.
She should’ve just excused herself, but instead she said, “You want every woman googling you and being obsessed with you.