“Why don’t you just...take care of it? Bathroom’s right there.” I pointed. I wouldn’t seriously do that to him, but I was still pissed about the nonkissing.
“Shit, Jos, please. I can’t...I can’t with you here.” He put his hands over the area. I could probably take care of it for him. Not that I had much experience, but how hard could it be?
He looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes like he was concentrating on something. I could be a total bitch and drag this out if I wanted. Instead I got up and went to my room, grabbing a sweatshirt that I’d bought in the boys’ section of a store that might be big enough for him.
“Here,” I said, coming back and handing it to him. He tied it around his waist with the main part covering his issue. “Need a hand with that?”
I’d hoped he would laugh, but he just looked hopelessly embarrassed. Well, that was nice. Now I got to be on the other side of it.
“You think this is funny?” Oh, now he was the mad one.
“It is pretty funny. You know, unless you’re you.” I smiled at him.
“I can’t have this, Jos. I can’t be like this around you. I never should have been alone with you like this. It won’t happen again.” He turned to go up the steps, but I grabbed the back of his shirt.
“Why? Why can’t it happen?” He faced me slowly.
“Because...you’re off-limits.”
“Off-limits? What, you think my sister would get pissed? You’re really going to let that stand in the way of this? Whatever this is, or could be? She’ll get over it.”
He shook his head.
“No, it’s not that. It’s not just Renee.”
Now we were both frustrated.
“Will you do me a favor? Will you just be straight with me, for five seconds?”
“I have to go, Jos. I’m sorry.” He jerked away from me and took the stairs two at a time before wrenching open the door and slamming it behind him. I heard voices above and then the front door close seconds later. He’d gotten out of there like he was on fire.
The door opened again to reveal Hannah’s slack-jawed face.
“What the hell just happened?”
It was going to be a long night.
* * *
I filled Hannah in on most of the details, mostly because the whole thing was so unbelievable, I had to say it out loud to make sure it had actually happened.
“Girl, he has it for you so bad.” Everyone else had gone to bed, so Hannah had sneaked into the kitchen and gotten snacks, including a bag of M&M’s and Skittles that I’d stashed in the back of the cupboard behind the flour.
“Well, yeah, I guess he kinda does.” Understatement.
“And by ‘bad’ I mean, he wants to take you to pound town.”
I threw an M&M’s at her.
“You are disgusting.”
“He wants you on board his meat rocket. He wants to put his basilisk in your Chamber of Secrets.” I kept chucking candy at her, but she didn’t stop and we were both laughing so hard that the candy missiles were ineffective.
“I swear, you know way too many of those,” I said when she finally ran out.
“Well, I’ve put all that time not going on dates to good use.”
“Clearly.”
I found an M&M’s in the blankets and popped it into my mouth.
“Back to more important matters. How was it?” Her eyes gleamed.
“It was...” How could I describe it? “It was really good. He puts the ‘issing’ in ‘kissing.’”
“He wants to put his issing in you.”
* * *
It was much later that I finally went into my room and went to bed and Hannah went to sleep on the couch.
I was definitely too wired to sleep for a while, so I listened to some music. It was an Ingrid kind of evening, so I put “Can’t Help Falling in Love” on repeat.
The moments with Dusty replayed themselves in my mind, in slow motion, and then sped up. I relived the feel of his mouth capturing mine, his hands wrapping themselves in my hair. And I’d been...yeah, I’d never been like that. I hadn’t felt out of control. It was more the opposite. It was like I knew what I wanted and how to get it with complete and perfect clarity.
But it wasn’t going to happen again, at least according to Dusty. What was his deal? I was kind of done with him jerking me around. I’d have to find a way to get him to tell me. Maybe I could kidnap him and tie him up. That could be enjoyable. There were lots of other things I could do if he was tied up. I’d never seen the appeal before now.
My phone interrupted my visions of Dusty tied to a chair. I’d put it on vibrate, just in case he decided to text or call and tell me he was sorry. Again.
We need to talk.
Well, don’t be ominous at all, Dusty. If I didn’t know exactly what it was about, I’d be freaked out of my mind.
Go for it. I’m all ears.
My phone rang a few seconds later.
“Are you awake?” he said, his voice almost a whisper, as if he was afraid of waking me.
“Dude, if I was sleeping, I wouldn’t have answered the text.”
“I guess that’s a good point.” I thought he would laugh, but he didn’t. “Look, Jos. What I did was completely inappropriate. I took advantage of you and it won’t happen again.”
“You took advantage of me? Um, what kiss were you experiencing, because the one I was sharing with you was pretty f**king amazing. Like, earth-shattering and fireworks and all that. If there were Kissing Awards, that would have won in a landslide.”
He took a few seconds to answer. He sighed.
“It was pretty epic.”
“Pretty epic?”
“What do you want me to say, Jos? That if I were in the same room with you that I’d kiss you like that again? And again? And again? I’d kiss you until we both forgot our names. I’d want to take off that shirt and those shorts and count every freckle until I knew exactly how many you have. And then I would taste every inch of you until it was burned into my memory so I could never forget it. And then...” He stopped and I almost screamed in frustration. While he’d been talking, my hand had drifted down to my shorts so I could find some release from earlier. I burned with it.
“And then?!” I finally said.
“Jos, I’m not having phone sex with you right now. Why do you keep doing that to me?”
“Oh, do not blame this on me, buddy. I’m not the one who tackle-kissed you. That was all you. It’s not my fault you can’t keep it in your pants. Or, you can, but it did not look comfortable. How are you doing now?” I may not have had a hard-on, but I was definitely suffering from some sexual frustration.