Just when she wondered if he was going to lean over and kiss her, he straightened. “Okay, go ahead and try it on me.”
She shifted, swallowed, and tried to smile the way he had.
“Turn up your sultry. Pout your lips. You know, like you’re about to kiss someone.”
You were supposed to pout when you kissed someone? “Um . . . what?”
“Oh,” he said, understanding. “You still have virgin lips. I’d better teach you how to kiss then too.”
She nearly squeaked in alarm. They’d gone from flirting to kissing? Of course, the idea of kissing Jaxon wasn’t completely unpleasant—because, after all, he was gorgeous. But still, kissing a guy with a girlfriend wasn’t right. She leaned away. “What about Brittany? Aren’t you dating someone?”
“She’s nottechnicallymy girlfriend.” Jaxon dragged out the wordtechnically. “I don’t want to limit my options. Besides, this is just practice. Like how you get your learner’s permit before you get your driver’s license. I’ll teach you how to kiss right so when Andrew finally comes to his senses, you’ll leave him mesmerized.”
Mesmerized. That word had so much sway. Her life would be so much better if she could mesmerize guys. She scooted back toward Jaxon. “I guess practicing is never a bad thing.”
Jaxon took hold of Kate’s side of the blanket and tugged her closer. The blanket was hardly big enough to stretch across them both, and it pulled away from his side, leaving him uncovered.
She took hold of the edge near him and held on to it so he would be warm too. It was the polite thing to do. The fact that his arm lay across her and hers lay across him. . . well, it was just what had to be done to keep warm.
Jaxon leaned over, his gaze lingering on lips, and then his mouth gently pressed against hers.
He hadn’t been exaggerating when he said he knew how to mesmerize girls. He was really good at this.
Jaxon suddenly lifted his head. Only then did Kate hear the crunch of footsteps on the other side of the horse trailer. She startled, half standing up before she remembered that she and Jaxon both held onto the edges of the blanket. She stumbled and fell sideways, pulling him to the ground on top of her. His weight pushed into her and the air went from her lungs. She wasn’t sure which mortified her more, that she’d fallen or that she’d managed to take Jaxon with her. Whoever was walking toward them would be on this side of the trailer in a few seconds.
“Don’t move,” Jaxon whispered. “Keep quiet.” Her flashlight had fallen at her side. In one quick motion, he turned it off. In the dark, they had a chance of keeping hidden. Maybe the person would stroll right by without noticing them.
Kate lay perfectly still. She was afraid to move a muscle in case the sound of shifting gravel gave them away.
The footsteps rounded the trailer, and a flashlight beam spread out in front of them.Please, she thought,just keep moving. The footsteps paused. The flashlight beam swung their direction and landed directly on them.
Busted.
The light silhouetted a pair of broad shoulders. She couldn’t tell who it was until the man swore. “Jaxon,” Landon snapped, “have you lost your mind? Get off that girl.”
Landon. Of all Jaxon’s brothers, he was the one she least wanted to be holding that flashlight. Why couldn’t it have been Dillon, who would’ve just laughed about their predicament?
As Landon marched over, Jaxon shifted off Kate. Quicker than she’d thought possible, Landon grabbed hold of Jaxon and hauled him to his feet. “What’s wrong with you?” Landon barked. “The girl is barely fifteen. She’s the last person you should—”
“Lay off.” Jaxon shook off his brother’s grip. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
Only then did Kate realize what it looked like—Jaxon lying on top of her that way. She stood up, mortified. The beam of Landon’s flashlight was too bright. She wondered if the whole camp could see it. “We weren’t doing anything wrong,” she said hurriedly. “He was just teaching me how to kiss.”
Jaxon let out a resigned breath and dropped his gaze to the ground. She had not made this any better.
Even in the dim light, she could see Landon’s eyebrows rise. “He was teaching you how to kiss?”
“Yeah,” she stammered. “He was just showing me. Sort of like a learner’s permit, except with kissing.” She knew her words sounded idiotic, but she was nervous. She stopped herself before blurting out, “Our clothes are still on.” She didn’t want Landon to think undressing had ever been under consideration. Instead she added, “It didn’t mean anything.”
“Oh, it does mean something,” Landon said. “It means you’re either too young to be unsupervised or you’re not smart enough to come up with a better excuse when you get caught.” His chin tilted down in disbelief, and his gaze raked over her. “Seriously, you’re going to go with a kissing learner’s permit?”
Her cheeks flamed in embarrassment. She’d started the day feeling so grown up, and now she felt small and stupid and awful.
Jaxon glared at Landon. “Leave her alone.”
Landon pointed a finger at his brother as though he could pin him with it. “No, you’re going to leave her alone. So help me, if I see you within arm’s reach of this girl again, I’ll rip your limbs off. That is, if there’s anything left after Cal gets through with you.”
That was really too much. Kate coughed in indignation. “You have no right to threaten us.”