There’s a different look in his eyes now. It’s still one of anger but there is something else there now too. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s a little bit like the look Warren had when he broke the cutlery in the lunchroom.
It’s mad, and protective, and … and unless I’m mistaken, more than a little ashamed.
“You think that we’re all the same?” he asks, his voice suddenly quiet.
I can tell instantly that question is rhetorical, so I keep my mouth shut.
“We are so far from being the same that we might as well be planets on completely different sides of the universe. You have no idea what you’re even talking about, Aubrey. As usual, you are letting your mouth run before your brain has a chance to reign it back in. In fact, I think that maybe you even—”
I’m not sure what in the world comes over me now. I don’t know how it happens, or what prompts me to even act on it.
But as I am standing there watching Warren come unraveled, something inside of me gives. He looks raw and pulled open, as if I have somehow been able to expose a true part of himself that he has been trying to keep hidden and covered up with this fake “asshole mask.” A mask that’s easier for him to throw on his face to cover himself than it is to let anyone see who he really is inside.
He looks upset at the thought that his friend might have betrayed his embarrassing secret.
He looks ashamed that his “flaw” which has been so scorned by his family might have leaked out into the hands of a girl that he doesn’t think he can trust.
And he also looks like he’s struggling within himself and trying to keep himself from exploding into a fit of something—rage, passion, some sort of angsty emotion that he is trying desperately to keep bottled up. I’m not sure what it is, but somehow, I feel it too.
So, I don’t even think, I just act.
And before I can stop myself or tell myself that it’s a really impulsive and most likely very bad idea—I kiss him.
I kiss Warren.
I reach my hands up to Warren’s face and pull him toward me and put my mouth on his. I press my lips against his and I am so swept up with emotion and a sudden longing for him, that I slide my tongue into his open mouth and kiss him with all of the pent-up angst that I didn’t even know I’d been holding onto.
And the craziest part is—Warren doesn’t push me away.
In fact, not only does he not push me away, but his tongue encircles mine. For a moment, I close my eyes and think about how wonderful this feels. And for a moment, I think about how wrong I might have been about everything, and how right things could be.
When I open my eyes and pull my mouth slowly from his, Warren is staring at me with a look of complete and utter shock.
“Why did you do that?” he asks.
His tone is a lot more gentle than I’ve heard before, and a lot more humble too.
“After everything we did to you last semester, after everything we’ve done—why would you kiss me? You know I’m not good, right?” he says.
“And you should know that I’ve kissed both Chase and Sterling too,” I say. “So, do with that what you will.”
I don’t know what he’s thinking, but I know my own heart is beating fit to burst from my chest.
The look in Warren’s eyes darkens, not in a bad kind of way, but in a much more … sultry … kind of way. It’s how I would envision him looking at me if we were in a much less public place than this, with much less clothing on.
“And you are expecting me to be bothered by that?” he asks.
The corners of his mouth are tipped up into the slightest smile. I guess my answer to that would have to be yes, I had expected him to be bothered by that. Aren’t most guys bothered by it when they think they have to share?
My mind is seriously boggled by these three guys. They keep surprising me at every turn.
“Aren’t you?” I ask.
“No,” he chuckles darkly. “It would take a lot more than that for me to be bothered.”
As the two of us stand there staring at each other, all I can think about is how I really want to kiss him again. Warren lifts his hand ever so slightly so his fingertips brush against my thigh, and it makes my nerves tingle in all the right places.
But just as I am about to reach for his beautiful face again and am imagining what it would feel like to twirl my fingers in his hair this time—Bridget starts heading down the hallway toward us.
Both Warren and I see her and immediately step apart.
It seems like neither of us wants to have to explain what just happened to her. We give each other a silent glance. I think that we both know that seeing us together would send Bridget completely off the deep end.
Considering how much she hates me, seeing me with her twin brother would probably be the equivalent of sticking hot pokers in her eye sockets.
Before she can get within earshot of us, I move back to whisper to Warren, “I meant what I said before. Just take the offer.”
“You’ll get in trouble if you get caught covering for me,” he says as he keeps an eye on his sister closing in. “You do know that, right?”
“Since when have you cared whether or not I get in trouble?”
He dares one glance at me.
“I guess since you just kissed me, and I enjoyed it a whole hell of a lot.”
Damn, I really want to kiss him again right now.
Stupid Bridget is always getting
