Hunter tickled my neck and I squealed before grabbing his arm and pushing it away. He laughed heartily to himself.

“No fair!” I cried. Reaching my arm over, I decided to go on the offensive by tickling his ribs. He didn’t react at first and I watched his face for any sign of a reaction. Just when I thought he wasn’t ticklish at all and that I was at a terrible disadvantage, he guffawed loudly, and wriggled away. I knew he was being nice and could have stopped me at any point, but he let me continue tickling him a bit longer as he tried to squirm away on the couch.

My fingers felt only hardened muscle everywhere they went, and Hunter kept trying to get away from me. I was breathing heavy from the exertion, laughing along with him when he suddenly grabbed my wrist.

We paused for a second, both of us panting slightly.

“That wasn’t fair, you took advantage of me when I wasn’t ready!” Hunter protested.

I opened my mouth to argue. “What?! You were the one who started it!”

“Hm . . . you do have a good point, but now I’m going to finish it!” Before I could break away, he was on top of me, his fingers tickling my ribs. I giggled, taking short panicked breaths, but I couldn’t get away from his fingers torturing me.

Finally when I couldn’t take it anymore I squealed, “Stop, Hunter! Stop! You win!”

My face felt hot and my stomach hurt from laughing. I was afraid if he tickled me any more, I’d die from laughter.

He finally stopped, but still held my wrists firm in his hands. I let out a few more panicked laughs before sucking in deep breaths for a second, a layer of sweat on my forehead. We were both horizontal on his couch. Hunter was lying on top of me, his muscular chest pressed heavy against my br**sts. I could tell from the way he was breathing that I had made him work for it too.

Hunter looked down at me, victory in his eyes. “I win, Lorrie. Defeating you makes me the heavyweight-champion of tickling.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, Mr. Overly-Competitive.” I looked to my side and spotted the chocolate box that was nearly empty. “Last chocolate!” I frantically grabbed at the lone raspberry truffle, knocking the box off the coffee table in the process.

“Hey, no fair! Wait!” he cried.

I laughed. “Too late, Hunter, I’m the Chocolate-Champion. You gotta work on your hand speed.”

“I just gotta work on my mouth speed,” he growled. His jaw swooped in on the truffle in my hand and tried to bite it but I quickly pulled it away at the last instant.

Giggling, I continued moving it away each time he tried chomping at it like I was dangling a chocolate covered carrot in front of him. Sensing he was getting better at anticipating my movements, I hurriedly brought it to my mouth and bit down on the delicious truffle. An instant later, Hunter had bitten down on the other half that had been sticking out of my mouth.

Our lips touched.

We locked eyes. Neither us moved for what seemed like an eternity. Anticipation coiled in my stomach. My skin prickled. I exhaled heavily and slowly through my nose, flickering my eyes down to where our lips made contact. His light breathing through his nostrils blew across my eyelashes. My pulse thundered in my veins as a heated flush rose to my face. I gazed deeply into his gray eyes, feeling the chocolate melting between our lips. I stared, watching him watch me, watching his eyelids grow heavy, feeling my own lids falling. We both bit down on the truffle at the same time our lips locked.

I arched myself up into his mouth. His lips felt damp and hot. The melted raspberry chocolate swirled between us. I kissed him needily, wanting to feel every surface of his mouth against mine, wanting to taste every inch. Our tongues darted in and out of each other, exploring each other fully. His knee pressed against the crotch of my jeans and I ground my hips into him, needing to feel more. Something long, thick, and hot pressed against my thigh. I knew what it was. I’d seen it before when he was just wearing a towel and sitting on the coffee table in front of me, but now I felt it. Our tongues entwined, I felt his mouth begin to pull away—perhaps he had momentarily come to his senses—but I reached behind his head and pulled him back to me. Our mouths wrestled and our tongues tangled passionately.

Then there was a knock on the door. I pushed Hunter off of me, my skin suddenly clammy with a cold sweat.

The door opened and Gary’s voice drifted in. Shit. Hadn’t Hunter locked the door? No, of course not, he was probably expecting Gary.

We quickly disentangled ourselves from each other and sat upright.

“Hey boys and girls! Party’s here!” Gary said, setting something down on the kitchen counter that clinked loudly.

I could sense Hunter’s eyes on me, trying to gauge my response. Shit. How did it ever come to this? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. And on Valentine’s Day no less. We were supposed to be friends. Just friends. Of course Hunter was going to get the wrong idea now.

And if Gary saw us . . .

Turning around on the couch I saw Gary’s back was to us. He unpacked what must’ve been the beer.

“Hey Gary,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

Hunter didn’t say anything but I could tell he was still watching me. Damn it Lorrie, what’s wrong with you? You knew that hanging around Hunter on Valentine’s Day was a bad idea.

Hunter grunted something and Gary turned around to look at us. If Gary thought something was up, he was certainly a good actor. He walked over and then handed Hunter and me each a bottle of Miller Lite. We took our bottles and then Gary clinked his bottle against mine first, then Hunter’s.

“To being single,” he announced, beaming at us. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be funny or if he was just oblivious.

I nodded and took a long swig from my bottle, before turning back around in the couch, trying to avoid Hunter’s gaze.

“So, Gary, I saw some brothers from Phi Kappa Delta selling chocolates today, did you sell any too?” I asked, trying to mask the awkwardness between Hunter and me.

“Sure did. I just unloaded two boxes at the gym this morning. Those guys crave the carbs you know.” He winked at me before settling down on the lounge chair next to the sofa.

Hunter hadn’t said a single word since Gary arrived and it was making me nervous. I couldn’t tell if it was because he was mad at me or what. Surely Gary would notice something was wrong. I was antsy in my seat, both because I couldn’t talk to Hunter immediately about what just happened and also because I was worried about Gary catching on soon.

Gary switched the channel on the TV and we all watched a few rounds of a breakdancing competition sponsored by Red Bull. Hunter grunted a few words here and there, but he wasn’t his usual self. Sitting there next to him, and not being able to talk about it was painful.

After an hour, I made an excuse about needing to hang out with Daniela and took my leave. Hunter didn’t protest and just nodded slowly. We could barely meet each other’s eyes. We’d already admitted our attraction to one another and now we had kissed. It was easier to pretend a sleepover never happened and move on but how could we pretend that a kiss never happened?

Chapter Fifteen

HURT

The next day I sat in Psych 102, trying not to zone out while Professor Muller droned on about something to do with marshmallows and Harvard. I didn’t know what to make of the kiss between me and Hunter. Whose fault was it? What did Hunter think about it? Things between us were a mess and I had no idea how we were going to fix it. Even though we had become much closer over the past weeks, I still had my baggage. And Hunter had his as well—Gary and Mitch had practically pointed to it with a neon sign.