“I don’t get it.” He leaned back slightly, stretching one arm along the back of the couch. “Wasn’t that the whole point? Getting Austin to want you? To chase you?”
The lie came to my lips before I could stop it. “I didn’t think he’d actually ask me to do something like that in front of everyone. I—I got self-conscious, okay? It felt like I was about to make a complete idiot of myself in front of a room full of college students.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. Not entirely.
I was insecure. Still learning how to feel okay in my own skin, still unlearning every shitty voice telling me I was too fat, too average, too nothing. But if Eden had asked me? If he had been the one sitting there, smirking, waiting,wanting?
I would’ve danced for him in front of the whole damn school.
“I get that,” he said eventually. “But it’s weird. You’ve been fearless lately. Confident. I didn’t think that would rattle you.”
“It was different,” I lied. “Austin makes me feel… weird. Off-balance. Not in a good way.”
Eden was quiet again.
I couldn’t look at him.
Because if I did, he’d seeeverythingI was trying to hide. He’d gotten pretty good at reading me.
“Was it just the audience?” he asked, voice softer now. “Or was it because it washim?”
My breath caught.
Keep lying.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “Maybe both.”
I felt the couch dip beside me. His arm lowered from the backrest, and I felt his hand graze mine. My fingers curled instinctively, but I didn’t pull away.
“Because you didn’t seem uncomfortable when I did it,” he said.
My eyes flicked up to his.
There it was again… that unreadable expression. That quiet, controlled storm he kept locked behind his gaze. But tonight, I could feel it cracking at the edges.
Fuck.
“You didn’t make me feel like a joke,” I whispered.
He didn’t move.
“And maybe,” I added before I could stop myself, “you’re the only one I’d ever actually want to do that for.”
His breath hitched.
I felt it more than I heard it.
Then he leaned in, slow like he was giving me every chance to stop him. “Alana…”
I didn’t stop him.
He kissed me—soft at first, just a brush of lips, like he was testing the water. It was pointless anyway, because Eden knew he could kiss me. He knew I liked it. He knew Iwantedit.
I leaned into it immediately.
And everything exploded.
His hands cupped my face, my fingers curled into the front of his shirt, and all the heat, all the tension that had been buildingbetween us finally spilled over. The kiss deepened, grew messy, needy, breathless.