Nobody's Hero by Liz Lee Page B

looked pretty ticked when I found you, but not all that sad.”
    She shrugged. “I don’t care what he does or with whom. I just know who it’s not going to be with.”
    “You afraid?”
    She took offense. “Hardly.”
    “Then why not? Why leave him at the prom with some other girl?”
    She lay back on the table and he was struck again by how perfectly beautiful she was.
    “This insight into the male brain is frightening, Riley.”
    “I’m just asking.”
    She threw her arms over her head and he had to force himself to look somewhere other than all that white skin.  
    They’d spent all night talking and suddenly he wanted to kiss her, to touch her soft lips with his own.
    She didn’t say anything for the longest time. In the distance thunder rolled and he almost missed her words.
    “Something’s wrong with me, I guess.”
    “What makes you say that?”
    “I don’t know. I’m different.” She bit her bottom lip and he nearly groaned aloud.
    “I spend all this time with him. And we kiss because, well, you know.”
    He shook his head and told himself he wasn’t dreaming. “I don’t know.”
    “It’s expected. We have to kiss, and it’s okay, but it’s not all that great. It’s just a kiss, you know.”
    Ah man. Riley knew she was just talking. She wasn’t asking him for anything, so he sat there silent, trying to figure a way out of this that wouldn’t land him in a whole heap of trouble. She kept talking.
    “I just don’t care. That’s not normal.” She sounded upset, but as he watched her face, he didn’t think she looked that upset. He wondered if this was some sort of joke.
    “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
    She shook her head. “It is though. All my friends talk like I’m the luckiest girl in the world and I don’t know, it’s just weird.”
    This whole conversation was weird. “Yeah, well, maybe you should write Dear Abby.”
    She laughed. “That’s a thought.”
    Her laugh broke the moment of tension, and he let out a deep breath. For a minute there he’d thought she was going to ask him to kiss her. Not that he’d have a problem with that.
    At least that’s what he was thinking until he saw the tear on her cheek. She tried to brush it away before he saw, but she wasn’t fast enough.
    “Damn.” The word was whispered. He was cursing himself as much as the entire situation when she met his eyes and bit her lip. He wanted her. Simple as that.
    “Damn.” He whispered the word again and this time he lowered his face to hers.
    Their lips touched. At first the kiss was tentative, almost timid. And he knew he was as afraid as she was because this was the perfect Callah Crenshaw. His tongue slicked across her bottom lip and she moaned against his mouth as she pressed her body to his.
    In minutes their chaste kiss changed to something far more tempting. Far more real. He wasn’t sure how long they lay on the picnic table kissing. All he knew was when he realized his hand was kneading her bare breast, they’d gone far enough. He pulled away, tried to catch his breath as fire raged through his body.
    “Damn, Callah, I don’t know what’s going on with you and your boyfriend, but there’s definitely nothing wrong with you.”
    The look on her face was a combination of shock, excitement and confusion. “That was incredible.”
    He nodded, tried to regain his balance. “It was something alright.” He slid her dress back up over her shoulders, smoothed the material, tried to ignore the red scruff marks on her long neck.
    He’d done that. He wanted to do more.
    She rested her hands against his chest. “We don’t have to stop, Riley.” She pressed her lips to his and the kiss grew again until he finally pulled away, trying to catch his breath, listening to her try to catch hers.
    “We do have to stop, Callah.”
    She shrugged, but he saw the smile in her eyes. He should’ve taken her home then. But he didn’t want to. Spending time with her was incredible.