While I explained, I slowly went through the motions. First I raised one arm, twisted, squatted, and brought my arm down.

Her hands lost their grip on my neck immediately and I easily caught them with my left hand, pressing them against my chest while I lifted my other arm and stopped inches before my elbow could actually make contact with her face.

“Whoa.” Noelle stared in wonder at where her hands were immobilized before she looked back up at me. “That was sick.”

Letting go of her, I took a step back. “Do you want to try?”

Noelle nodded.

“Is . . . is it okay if I touch your neck?”

She cleared her throat, the sound loud in the quiet. “Yeah.”

It was only then that I fully understood what I had gotten myself into. My heartbeat stuttered as I reached out and put my hands on her neck, carefully brushing her hair out of the way.

Her skin was warm and smooth like velvet; her pulse thrummed under my fingertips, matching the violent pounding of my heart.

Only a breath away from her, the world narrowed down to the curve of her lips and her eyes, dark as they burned into mine.

In the silence, the only sound was my blood rushing in my ears and my shaky breathing. Then, my voice, barely above a whisper. “Are you going to be mad if I kiss you?”

Noelle tilted her head a little and smiled in a way that made me feel like I was burning up. “I’m going to be so fucking mad if you don’t.”

I couldn’t breathe and I was lost, and then my hands moved to her cheeks and my mouth was on hers and I was found.

The first thing I realized was that Noelle tasted like sugar and cherries.

The second was that, for someone who liked to act like nothing mattered to them, Noelle kissed like nothing in the world mattered more, like she had a point to prove or a score to settle, like this was a battle to win mountains and kingdoms and she was the last soldier standing.

The third realization came when I felt her smiling against my lips, my thumb moving to rest on the dimple in her cheek: I suddenly couldn’t remember why I had ever thought that wanting this was wrong.

My eyes slowly fluttered open to see Noelle with her eyes still closed. When she opened them, her pupils were blown wide, her eyes dark and hooded.

“I should have done this weeks ago,” she muttered, the rasp in her voice sending a shiver down my spine. A heartbeat later her hands grabbed onto my hips and pushed me up against the wall.

Where the first kiss had been like a drizzle in July, this one was a hurricane.

This time, her lips were hot and demanding as they crashed onto mine, her hands sure and steadying where they rested on my waist. My fingers moved to tangle in her curls to anchor myself, just enough to keep me from losing myself in the waves of heat rolling off her. I was trapped between her and the wall at my back, but I didn’t mind that in the slightest; without it, I probably would have slid to the floor right there, nothing but a puddle of endorphins and the looping thought of finally finally finally.