Keep (Seaside Pictures 2)

And I was suddenly very aware that I wanted a repeat of the other day.

The kiss.

Our lips pressed together in a frenzy, the sliding of her bottom lip across my top as my tongue flicked away bits of chapstick.

“Zane.” Fallon coughed. “You’re doing it again.”

“Being weird?” I offered.

“Yes.”

“Sorry.”

“So, let’s just…clean up in here and we can finish the last two rooms, sound good?”

“Yup.”

“Is this helping your creative process Mr. Hollywood?”

I grabbed the trash bags and shrugged. “Not really, but I’m not by myself, so I guess that’s progress.”

“What would you be doing right now if you weren’t here?”

I hesitated, unsure if I should be honest or just laugh it off.

“Zane…” Her voice was pleading, a bit unsure, but still pleading. And I hated lying to people when they were trying to be nice, human, good.

“I would be trying to write music. With the shades down. Naked.”

“Why naked?”

“Nothing good ever happens while clothed.” I winked.

But she didn’t buy it.

And that was my second mistake.

Giving her a truth followed by a lie.

Because now she knew my tell.

She knew what was fake and what was real.

Which meant I was no longer in the position where I could afford to be the liar…Did I mention that sometimes I hate my life?

Chapter Twelve

Fallon

I TOOK HIM EVERYWHERE.

And like a pubescent child, he was demanding and sometimes whiny. I made a mental note to bring marshmallows and some sort of sugary soda to keep him occupied while driving in the car.

“Money,” Zane blurted before I dropped him off at his house. “You need money.”

“What?”

“For school.” He did that nonchalant shrug thing. “Right? I mean you said your financial aid didn’t kick in right away, so what if, I pay you?”

“You do realize I was going to do it for free, right?”

“Gas costs money, and so does your time, not to mention the fact that I had to stop at least three times for food, and girls gotta eat too.” His eyes flashed. “Eating is important.”

“O…kay.” I tried not to frown, but he wasn’t making sense again. “So you want to pay for food.”

His hands started to shake, he quickly pulled at the door handle, but I grabbed his arm.

“Hey,” My fingers dug in, keeping him in place. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m always okay.” He flashed me a fake celebrity smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well for one, you’re shaking. Then again, I’d be shaking too if I consumed that much sugar within a twenty-four hour period. But you just…something seems wrong.”

He jerked his arm away. “I need to pay you.”

“What is with this obsession to pay me? I don’t want your money!”

“But it’s necessary.”

“Why?” I threw my hands in the air. “And why are we fighting about this?”

“Shit.” He leaned against the seat of the car and dropped a couple of f-bombs that had my eyes widening with a mixture of shock and horror. Had I seriously pissed him off that bad? “If I pay you, this stays business, alright?”

Confused, I pushed further. “So you need me to be more professional? Is that it?”

“God save me from ignorant women.”

“Hey!”

He swallowed my next sentence, quite literally, with the cheerful help of his tongue as he slid it past my lips. Hands dug into my hair as he tilted his head, his mouth pressing against mine in a different angle that I felt all the way down to my toes.

He kissed like he sang.

With smooth wicked strokes that had me wondering how any guy would ever compare.

I leaned into him; our chests just barely grazed one another as his lips slid against mine over and over again, like he was enjoying the feeling of them touching more than the actual kiss itself, like he wanted to memorize the exact feel.

With a jerk, he pulled away. Bright blue eyes locked on mine. “I have to pay you.” His voice was deliciously raspy. “Paying you makes this your job. Kissing you makes you equal parts boss and employee. I can’t kiss someone I work with. It’s against the rules.”

“What rules?”

“Every rule.” His eyes were desperate. “So, I pay you. And we go from you doing me a favor to mutually benefitting from our business endeavor.”

“And then we go our separate ways,” I added, trying to figure out why my heart sank a little, and why I wanted him to kiss me again.

“Absolutely.” His smile was back. “Except, I’ve always had a hard time following the rules, so I’m going to kiss you again…”

“But you just said—”

His mouth covered mine. The kiss wasn’t gentle, it was punishing, like he’d gone from wanting to coax it out of me to demanding I kiss him back, forcing me to press against his chest in a way to gain leverage between our bodies.

He broke away. “I’ve always been horrible with authority.”

“In this case you’re your own authority.”

“Damn it.” He winked. “Sorry, I just…” He cursed under his breath. “Know that I completely agree that this sounds insane, but can I kiss you again?”