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Gently, he broke our kiss, his lips clinging to mine for half a second after he pulled away. I blinked, opening my eyes right as he dropped a hand to my waist and immediately dove back in. Ramming my eyes closed, I tipped to my toes, shoving my mouth against his as hard as I could. He increased the pressure of his palm against my lower back, clearly agreeing with my desire for him, and then he parted his lips.
I didn’t hesitate to mirror his movement, and his tongue was between my teeth within another second. This felt familiar. A rush of heat waved beneath my skin as I needed more, begged for more from him. There was nothing—
And he suddenly shoved me away.
Tripping over my heels, I plummeted toward the ground. An arm snaked around my waist, catching me just before I smacked against the dirt. And as quickly as he caught me, he let me go.
Placing a hand on the round pen railing beside us, I steadied myself and looked up at him.
Cassidy turned away from me, running his thumb across his mouth. My body turned cold, shriveling up within itself as shame coated my figure. “What…What’d I do wrong?” I whispered.
“I don’t want a pity kiss, Briar,” he snarled, keeping his back to me. He began stomping toward the road that would take us to his house.
“What are you talking about? It wasn’t!” I shouted, half of a lie. It may have started out with feeling bad for him, but somewhere between that emotion and the actual kiss, something shifted.
“Don’t. Lie.” He spun around and slapped a hand against a fence rail close to the path, steadying himself.
“How would you know, anyway?” I jogged after him, catching up to where he stood, his eyelids blinking really slowly.
“Because I saw the look on your face right before you kissed me. It’s the same one that’s been staring back at me in the mirror since I was a kid,” he hissed, his voice low.
Since he was a kid? Pity and shame for who? Himself? My brows pinched together as his words settled upon me. “Even if it was, why is it… Why does it bother you so much?” I whispered.
His jaw knotted, and he cautiously pushed off from the fence. “Because you know exactly how I feel about you. Because the next time I wanted us to kiss was when you reciprocated my feelings. Not like this.” He waved a hand at me, and I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth.
Everything in me weighed heavy, cementing me to the ground. He needed to know. The answer I was trying to give him right before we were hit needed to be voiced. “Cassidy, I—”
“Besides,” he started, narrowing his piercing gaze. “I’ve never chased a girl before. Never had to, and no…” he paused, pointing a finger at me to stop the words that were about to slip from my mouth. “Before you start with me, I’m not saying that to come across cocky or as if I’m better than others. I’m saying that I don’t know what I’m doing because I’ve never had to nor wanted to before now. But I’m trying. I’m aware I came on to you really strong at first and then I backed off completely when I recognized that you were overwhelmed. So, I know my intentions have probably been confusing, but I was very upfront with how I felt at the rodeo in hopes to clear everything up.”
Pressure built in my eyes as I watched him slowly turn around. “How was me kissing you now for a distraction any different than you taking me on that date to the rodeo?” I screamed at his back, more defensively than I should’ve shouted.
He sighed and took a step away. “A distraction was merely my excuse to ask you on a date in a way that hopefully wouldn’t overwhelm you again. Do you not realize how weird it’s been knowing you’re living in the room across from me, in my house, yet almost never seeing you? And I tried several times to come talk to you, yet somehow you were never around. So yes, when you asked for a distraction, I jumped at the opportunity.” His voice quieted as he shoved his hands in his pockets and continued putting distance between us. “But it was a real date to me, whether it was to you or not.”
Cracks shot through my soul, shattering my heart that seemed made of glass. “The—”
“Briar, don’t,” he harshly said, stopping me from confessing the truth. Stopping me from admitting to feelings I’d been trying to admit to for a while now. “I don’t need you to lie to me on top of giving me a pity kiss. Let’s just go to bed.”
My skin was numb to the cool gust of the evening; the only thing that remotely stirred any sort of feeling in me was him, and the further he walked from me, the less I felt. “You want to go to bed? Right now?”
“Yes, I do,” he answered and didn’t even glance over his shoulder as my boots crunched across the ground, closing the distance between us.
“What about your family? Have they given you an update or anything?” I asked, reaching his side.
Cassidy shook his head but didn’t look at me.
“And you’re gonna be able to fall asleep, despite not hearing anything from them?”
“No, I won’t, but what else am I supposed to do?” he snapped, finally throwing a sharp glare in my direction.
“I don’t know, go to the hospital? There’s work trucks you can take.”
“They asked me to stay and take care of things here.”
“Chores are done.”
“And I’m not supposed to drive right now—doctor’s orders, remember?”
I threw my hands on my hips and stopped. “Are you scared to drive?”
