Page 20 of Kiss Slay Replay

“I’m accepting.”

“The thing is, I think I left my pack in my cabin.”

“Did you?”

“I’ll have to go get them.”

“I’ll walk you.”

“What a prince.”

“Qualsiasi cosa per te, amore mio.” He hangs his arm around my shoulders and guides me through the floral arches onto the path.

I’m curious if my friends are still watching. If Ravi is watching. But I’m too proud to turn around. I’m in the arms of someone new. Someone fun and attractive who is clearly into me. I should be savoring this, not caring about who else cares. I should let the world be empty except for the sound of my heels crunching into the dirt, the coos of nature, the musical duo at it again, Danny humming to himself. Only I can’t escape my anxiousness. Is Danny humming because he’s bored? Am I boring him already?

I almost ask What did you think of the ceremony? but decide against small talk.

I almost tell him I just realized there’s a good chance my cigarettes might actually be in my car but my car keys are at the cabin so what does it matter?

I almost reach out and touch him because I’m pretty sure the cigarettes are just a ploy for us to get a moment alone together.

“What did you think of the ceremony?” he asks me, as we round the corner approaching the cabins.

He went for small talk. Interesting.

“It was sweet. What did you think?”

“Don’t ask me that. I told you I’m an asshole.”

“You asked me.”

“You’re not an asshole.”

“It’s this one,” I say, confidently walking up to what is probably the right cabin. I dig the key card out of my bag and press it to the sensor, hoping it opens, otherwise I’ll look stupid.

“Look,” Danny says.

I turn around to the sunset—the sky blazing orange, magenta, red. To the lake reflecting the vibrant hues. It’s staggeringly beautiful.

“Such an asshole,” I say. “Stopping to admire the sky.”

He does that thing again, like earlier in the woods. He looks at me without saying anything. The awkward laugh, the messing with his hair. The lip bite.

Then he reaches out and lifts my chin with two fingers. He brings his face to my face. I can smell the whiskey on his breath. He doesn’t kiss me. His one hand is still under my chin, his other on my hip. But they’re adventurous, his hands. They travel.

Our lips are almost touching, and it’s there, that electricity. That rare, supernatural chemistry.

I’ve been on a few bad dates since Ravi. I’ve kissed other people, but it’s all been so anticlimactic. Empty. No spark. No butterflies. But this is different. Because I’m feeling this. Feeling that spark. The butterflies.

“Willa?”

I’ve been stuck in this rut, in this post-breakup purgatory, and I just want out. A fresh start. For someone to save me. Maybe it’s him. “Do it, asshole.”

Danny takes my face in both hands and kisses me. It’s surprising in its instant intensity, like getting knocked down by a wave in shallow water. He’s aggressive but not rough. There’s a certain choreography to it, to us stepping over the threshold, to him pinning me against the wall, lifting me up, tangling his fingers in my hair and pulling my head back to kiss my neck. To me pressing my hips into him, slipping my hands under his suit jacket to get a better feel of him—how he moves, whether his muscles tense when I touch him here, or here, or here. Here.

He inhales sharply. Pulls my hair a little harder. Reaches down, searching for the hem of my dress.

Do I want this? Because it’s happening, and it’s happening fast.