Free Touch Slowly (Red Light: Silver Girls series) by Debra Kayn Page B

his friends went through before they discovered cars, girls, and chugging beer. Far as he knew, none of them ever continued once they reached eighteen years old.
    "What got you into spraying the sides of buildings?" Emmett thrummed his thumb against the car.
    "Attention." She laughed softly, which belied her usual hard assertiveness toward him. "From a boy."
    He chuckled. "Isn't that how the story always goes."
    "Since the beginning of time." She lifted her feet off his door, swiveled, and perched on the side of the seat and put her shoes on the ground. "Bad boys with all their delicious meanness and loner status always break little girls' hearts."
    "Including yours?"
    Her lower lip swelled, and she nodded. "Cried for at least an hour."
    "An hour? Damn, you must've been heartbroken." He whistled softly, amused at the retelling of the teenaged Nova.
    "It took that long for another boy to notice the tears running down my face and comfort me." She shrugged on a laugh. "Not all boys are bad."
    "Do you believe that?"
    "I'm twenty-six years old. I've learned a lot about boys...men."
    He squatted down in front of her, bracing his elbows on his knees. She was too far away from him to have a conversation about her past.
    Full of secrets and intrigue, he wanted to know more.
    "What about me?" He tilted his head. "Did I blow it with you tonight when I accused you of bringing trouble around to the trailer park?"
    She waved her hand between them. "Already forgotten."
    "Then I still have a chance?"
    She stilled. "A chance at what?"
    He rocked forward on the balls of his feet, slipped his hand behind her neck, and brought her forward. "This."
    Nova's body became weightless under his hand, giving him permission. He captured her lips and held her in place. The extra beat of his heart. The pulse in his balls. The closeness with her was enough for tonight.
    He pulled his mouth away slowly. Everything about her remained a mystery. Her taste. Her tongue. Her response. He only wanted to find out if what he felt going on between them was real.
    "You can't do that again," she whispered, pushing against the hold he had on her neck.
    He let her go and stood. Except, he stayed in the path of her exiting the car and took his position against the door again. "I don't think either of us can make that kind of decision right now."
    "You have no say in if we kiss or not."
    "Sure, I do."
    "No." She stood, forcing herself into his space between the open door of the 'Cuda. "You don't."
    She sidestepped away from him and walked over to the strip of river rocks at the edge of the water. He followed, keeping his distance, and stood an arm's length away from her.
    "It was a good kiss," said Emmett. "You've got to admit there's something between us. You were curious, too."
    She glanced at him and shook her head. "That wasn't even a real kiss."
    "Then what was it?"
    She stuck her hands in her back pockets. "We pressed our closed mouths together. I get more action putting on lipstick."
    He ran his tongue along his bottom lip. Yeah, she wore lipstick.
    "You know what I think?" He picked up a rock and tossed it into the river. "I think you have three months of vacation time, and we're going to see more of each other."
    "You're wrong." She let her head fall back and looked up at the sky. "You've taken this whole night and ran with it."
    "You asked me out." He turned to her.
    "Right," she mumbled and faced him. "You can take me back to the inn now. I'm sure the people who are in the room next to mine have fallen asleep."
    "You're sure?"
    "Absolutely." She nodded. "I think I made a mistake. When I asked you out for coffee and company, I did so because I felt bad about what happened earlier at Shayla and Nick's house and thought I'd try to fix things between us, seeing as how you live next door to my cousins."
    Emmett slipped his fingers into her hand. "The mistake wasn't yours. I didn't understand why you'd be sneaking money to Shayla, and I was looking out for my