Chapter 5
Savannah
The New Year’s countdown flashed on the big screen above our heads as showers of party poppers rained over the crowd.
Across the bar, Darcy and Jesse were making out against a wall, his leg between her thighs and her hands flat on the TouchTunes machine at her left shoulder.
A deep pang in my chest caused me to swallow hard.
I couldn’t fault my friend for finding such a good guy, though their love of exhibitionism was alarming at times.
Really, we had an apartment. Couldn’t she wait until they got there to dry hump her fiancé?
It had only gotten worse since they’d gotten engaged.
We’d all be graduating in a few months, Darcy and Jesse off to start their new lives.
Knightly would begin his internship with that fancy architectural firm, and I’d be, what?
Crying over grad school applications and eating salt and vinegar chips until my tongue was numb?
A long yellow streamer fluttered in the air, landing in Knightley’s hair as he was being pulled down into a kiss by the woman he’d been chatting with an hour before.
A tightening sensation clenched under my ribs as Knightly tilted his head to the side, the woman’s open mouth landing on his cheek instead of his lips, smearing her spit on it.
He laughed, that deep, bawdy thing that always gave me warm tingles, as he turned to me.
The woman’s lower lip stuck out as she stared at him.
When he didn’t look back at her, she huffed loudly and stomped away.
“Happy New Year, Bana.” His grin stretched his cheeks and crinkled the corners of his brown eyes. His hand rested on my elbow, heat searing through my thin, long-sleeved shirt.
“Yeah.” I couldn’t help but smile back, despite the woman’s drool still shining on his skin. Using my sleeve, I wiped his cheek. “You too.”
More confetti floated down, the paper horns sounding around the space, honking and hooting.
Knightly’s hand drifted from my elbow to my waist, and then his face was close to mine.
I could see the little scar on his brow from where he’d been hit by a piece of ice in his freshman year.
There was time enough for me to turn my cheek, but I didn’t.
When his mouth landed on mine, it was more a brush of lips, slow and chaste.
Someone behind me pushed into me, and I stepped closer, taking that opportunity to throw my hands around his neck to pull him in for a deeper kiss.
The mint of his gum and the sweetness of his breath invaded me as I parted my mouth to mold against his, warm and welcoming.
Heat flared under my skin everywhere we touched.
With my chest against his, his arm rested on the bar top, brushing against my ribs.
I curled my fingers into the soft, little hairs on his nape.
Cold liquid splashed on our sides, leaving us both gasping and wrenching apart as we watched a man stumble into the wall, his beer horizontal to the floor and dripping all over us.
“Sorry, dudes,” the man slurred. “Let me just.” He leaned forward, reaching his hand out between us to the bar, the side of his arm brushing against my breast. Holding out a sopping towel, he handed it to Knightly. “To clean yourself up.”
With the damp fabric in his hand, Knightly glanced from me to the man and back to the towel before laughing. “Thanks, dude.”
Scowling, Knightly wiped at my soaked arm as he watched the guy rambling through the packed hall to the bathroom. After tossing the cloth on the bar top, he grabbed a stack of paper napkins, patting my wet sleeves. He was still dripping onto the floor.
“Should kick that guy’s ass,” he muttered.
Snagging my own stack of napkins, I pressed them to his side, where he’d gotten the brunt of the spill.
His firm stomach contracted as I patted him, and he sucked in a breath, his gaze darting to my lips.
His throat bobbed, and my mouth parted. I should look away; he should.
Then he shook his head, grabbing the stack from my hand to finish the job.
The beer was already drying stickily on our skin.
“There’s no need. He’s harmless. Be nice.”
His gaze snapped over to me, that crooked smile back, the melted gold embers of something I couldn’t quite name flashing in his eyes. The napkins were set back on the bar top, and he leaned into me, his mouth hot on my ear. “We both know I’m not nice. I’m yours.”
My lips still tingled from his kiss, the ghost of what could have been if we hadn’t been interrupted. But he was pulling away before I could process the heat of his statement.
I’m yours.
What was I supposed to do with that? Friends didn’t kiss like that, did they? They certainly didn’t whisper flirty things in each other’s ears. Then again, friends didn’t do a plethora of things we did for each other.
“Knight—”
Over his head, he raised his hand in a wave, a casual grin spreading across his face. “There’s Darc and Jess heading out. We should probably go.”
His hand gripped mine, our fingers entwined as he led me through the melee. The one that had dried me moments before, that had lain on my stomach in the tent. Those fingers that had caressed my cheek as I’d cried into his neck over a nasty breakup.
Ahead of us, Darcy and Jesse were laughing, stumbling into one another, and singing loudly on the street. We followed his sister and her fiancé into the damp night for the five blocks to our apartment.
I broke first. “So, that kiss was...”
Beautiful? Electrifying? All too short and needs to happen again?
“Different, right?” he asked, his hands in his pockets.
Like a pinprick in a balloon, I felt the expansion of hope slowly leak out of me. Swallowing hard, I fought to paste on my most convincing smile. “Totally, but that’s New Year’s, right? It doesn’t matter. It’s okay if it’s a little weird.”
His amber eyes were now on me, his jaw tight as he stared down at me. “Yeah, right?” He studied me for a minute before nodding as if I’d said something more. “Let’s get you back home before we get attacked by a marauding pack of frat boys. Darcy would never forgive me.”
With his arm over my shoulders, he led me down the rain-soaked streets.
I’m yours.
Why did I feel like I’d never be his?