Free Kissing Her Crush by Ophelia London

cuteness gone.
    “She’s kidding,” Natalie said.
    After that pseudo-lecture the other night, his family would murder him if he was caught on tape making out at Hersheypark. He was trying to repair their relationship, not rip the stitches.
    Worse, though…no one at work could find out. This was exactly what HR was looking for: an example of ethical misconduct. Not that he had to maintain a squeaky-clean reputation to be hired by the NIH, but this wouldn’t exactly help his cause.
    How had he let it happen? Well, he hadn’t …it just happened , like he was out of control. Which was complete BS because he believed in the exact opposite. Mind over matter could overcome just about anything, like craving sugar and fat, as well as irresistible women.
    Something about it made him smile, though. Luke couldn’t think of the last time he’d made out with a woman that didn’t result in clothes hitting the floor. They’d just kissed, like they really were a couple of kids taking advantage of the tunnel’s privacy.
    “Ah, yes. It’s you.”
    Luke snapped awake to see the gray-haired woman looking at him while adjusting her glasses. She smiled like he was something to eat. “There aren’t many good shots of you when Natalie was on your lap. She’s either leaning over you, or you’re at her neck like Bela Lugosi. Though there’s one really good part at the end—”
    “Anyway,” Natalie cut in. “He’ll pay the fine and we’ll go.”
    “All right, dear.” She adjusted her glasses again. “But I must compliment both of you on your style.”
    Luke cleared his throat, passed the women a credit card, didn’t bother looking at the charges, and signed his name blankly.
    “Come back any time,” the woman said. “ Any time.” He couldn’t help laughing, but when he turned to share the moment with Natalie, she’d gone.
    By the time he’d made it outside, she was a good ways away, and he had to take her by the elbow so she’d stop. “Are you mad?”
    “I must be, right? Freakin’ loco in the cabeza.”
    “I mean, are you angry about…what happened?”
    “Oh.” She bit her lip. Luke remembered how it had felt between his teeth, soft and full. “Why did you do that, anyway?”
    “Kiss you?”
    She stared up at the sky. “Um, yeah .”
    He slid his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “It was an impulse. You were saying that stuff about it not being a requirement and then the lights went out and, I don’t know. It was entrapment. I had no choice.”
    “You always have a choice.”
    Luke sighed. Of course, she was right. It might’ve been an impulse, but he could’ve squelched it. Truth was, he’d been dying to kiss her; he just hadn’t known it until that moment.
    “Okay then.” He looked her dead in the eyes. “Why did you kiss me back?”
    She rubbed her nose and glanced away. “Yeah, um, I claim entrapment, too.”
    They looked at each other, a moment of heavy silence, then Luke said, “We broke the ride.”
    Finally, a big smile curved those lips. “And we looked worse than those kids who were in the boat before us. I was straddling you like it was prom night, and your hands were about to unhook my—”
    “No they weren’t,” Luke jumped in, grinning. “But if that’s what you want, I can certainly—”
    “No!” She huffed and crossed her arms. Natalie Holden was just as tempting post-kiss as she was pre-kiss. “We can both call it entrapment or caught up in the moment or whatever, but it will never happen again.”
    “Was it that bad for you? I might be rusty at the whole first kiss thing, but you seemed into it.”
    Two starbursts of red spread across her cheeks. “That wasn’t our…I mean, it’s not that,” she said, dropping her voice as well as her chin. “I’m not about to screw up this trial because you’re an awesome kisser.”
    He cocked an eyebrow. “I am, huh?”
    “We have to drop the subject. Let’s just silently agree to never speak of this,