Best Served Fake

twenty-two // are we putting on a show?

Kai's lips were softer than I'd anticipated.

It was my first thought. It was surprising, this boy who was supposed to be bad and wild, whose kiss was gentle and sweet and slow. I had to stand on the tips of my toes to reach his mouth, and he was bent toward me, down, like two quotation marks. My kiss had been abrupt and fuelled by anger, without any thought or consideration, and he answered with something languid, slowing me down, expert in the careful way he kissed me.

His body was warm against mine, rock-solid against me, and he was so fucking hot I could hardly think. And the way he kissed me. The way he kissed me...

I gasped into his mouth when he bit gently on my lower lip. Kai didn't waste the opportunity, kissing me deeply, his tongue sweeping my lips, touching mine with a deft efficiency. His kissing was all practised technique, slow and sexy, the kind of kissing that said I know exactly what I'm doing. He didn't need to hide a lack of expertise by kissing me hard and fast. The kiss wasn't hesitant; it was the kind of kiss you imagined on a hot summer day by a private pool, the kind of kiss that promised other things, and promised that they'd be good.

His hands came up to cradle my hips, pulling me further into the line of his body, until we were pressed completely together. Mine answered by sliding into his hair, pulling him down further, and he let me drag him without protest. The only sound he made was a small, satisfied noise in the back of his throat.

It was the sexiest sound I'd ever heard, and I felt it through my whole body.

With another quick nip to my lower lip, Kai pulled back to look at me. His blue eyes were completely swallowed by black, and his kiss-swollen lips were parted with surprise. I knew I must look the same; doe eyes wide and glazed with satisfaction and something else. I searched his face for a hint of regret, but all I saw in Kai's face was naked desire.

I smiled.

Kai brought his lips to my ear. "Are we putting on a show, Little Valerie?"

That voice. Husky and sexy and oh, god. I wanted to hear that voice whispering a million different things to me. 

I kissed the slope of his neck with a drag toward his ear, marking a trail. "Yeah, we are."

His chuckle was warm and low and sent a shiver ricocheting through my nerves. "I hope you're ready for the performance of a lifetime."

And then he was kissing me again, and it wasn't slow or careful or anything like it. His lips slanted over mine, a hot, wet slide that drew a shuddering breath from deep within me, and he kissed me with wild abandon. My back arched into him, and the brush of his chest against me made him groan. I swallowed the sound, and tangled my tongue with his.

He didn't give me an inch. I could barely keep up, allowing him to sweep me away with practised strokes of his tongue and lips and muffled groans. Every sound he made drew an answering gasp from me, and I couldn't even think about things like breathing or thinking or anything but Kai and the pulsing thump of my heart.

It wasn't the kind of kissing I'd ever engaged with in public, but I couldn't think of anything beyond Kai, the smell of him, the feel of him, the taste of him. I was too hyperaware of him, of me, to feel anything else. Too see anyone else.

Somewhere distantly, I heard Will mutter something like "Cool, great chat, I might go", with a certain amusement, but I couldn't even bring myself to care. Everything was Kai. I hadn't kissed anyone but Tommy for two years, and through the dizziness that clouded my kiss-addled brain, I wondered why I hadn't been doing this always. Every slide of his lips against mine, every brush of his tongue, burned away any reservations I'd had about kissing a boy like Kai Delaney. I wanted to tattoo the outline of my lips on his.