Stay with me

“And why is that?” I didn’t like people telling me what I could and couldn’t do, even if a relationship was at the bottom of my list.

Alicia, Jake, and Ollie exchanged glances until Ollie faced me again. “A long story for another day.”

“So, where you from?” Alicia quickly changed the subject just as Bria lifted her arms and wrapped them around Isaac’s neck. Her cropped shirt raised higher, nipples almost showing. Isaac dragged his hand up her side to her breast and grabbed a handful, caressing beneath the thin fabric.

As I winced, Bria moaned while her eyes stayed on Ollie, but Ollie was oblivious as he scrolled through the music on the phone.

After a few seconds of the groping, Bria turned around and kissed Isaac. I’m not talking about an i

“I … eh …” I snapped my head away from the two who were locking lips and back to Alicia. “P.A.”

“P.A.?”

“Pe

All three of them danced. Well, I wouldn’t use the term “dance.” I didn’t even know what term to use to explain what they were doing. They looked like three mammals in Antarctica fighting for warmth.

Alicia and I went back and forth with irrelevant questions to pass the time, and finally, the perfect amount of drunk hit, and I was feeling good, but not good enough to participate in the friction of the three starved animals.

Somehow our conversation went from twenty-one questions to laughing about Stanley, the security guard. Ollie sat with his long legs out in front of him and ankles crossed, leaning on his hands behind him and listening intently. The weight of his gaze stayed on me as I turned my attention back to the entertainment of Isaac, Jake, and a sweating Bria dancing.

“Come on, Ollie. There’s room for you in here, too,” Bria whined. Ollie shook his head, and Bria made a pouty face. “For once in your life, have a little fun.”

“What are you afraid of, Ollie?” I asked mockingly as I bumped him in the shoulder with mine.

A nervous smile rose, and his adorable dimple appeared. “That.” He nudged his head Bria’s direction. “I’m afraid of whatever that is and what it will eventually turn into. That’s not my cuppa tea.”

Bria pulled Jake’s face down to hers and they kissed. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “I thought he was gay,” I whispered over to Alicia.

Ollie looked over to the mammals for the second time tonight. “He is,” he stated simply.

What in the hell did I walk—or drop—into?

Alicia lifted her shoulders in a half shrug before she stood to join the other three, leaving me alone on the floor with Ollie.

“What about you?” Ollie asked.

“What about me?”

“Are you the type of girl to have fun or the kind who sits back and watches everyone enjoying themselves?”

“I don’t know … neither … both.” I sighed. “I usually don’t drink, so I suppose drinking is my way of letting loose tonight.”

Ollie smiled and leaned over on one elbow. “Why don’t you drink?”

“Because I like being in control, and I don’t want to end up doing things like that …” I pointed over to Bria making out with Isaac. “I don’t kiss people. I’ve slept around but kissed only a few—fewer times than I can count on one hand. The act is too personal.”

Ollie raised a brow. “You’re trying to tell me kissing is more personal than sex?”

“Yes, both psychologists and scientists can prove kissing is more intimate than sex.”

Ollie tried to control his lips, but small laughs blew through them.

“Laugh all you want, but it’s true. You ever saw Pretty Woman?” Ollie shook his head as he recovered from his smile. “It’s about a prostitute who meets a man. They have sex but agree not to kiss. But eventually they do, and once the kiss happens, everything changes.”

“You’re full of it,” he said to me. “Sounds to me you haven’t met the right one to prove you otherwise.” He raised a challenging brow.

I glanced back at the other four dancing, lost in music and alcohol swimming in their veins, and decided I was done being boring. I brought myself to my knees and knelt in front of Ollie. He lifted himself back on his palms, supporting his upper half, as his expression changed.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Don’t worry. I don’t want to kiss you … I want to prove something.” A sudden rush of adrenaline hit me all at once.

Ollie’s mouth parted slightly before he nodded. He cleared his throat. “Alright.”

Straddling his lap, I faced him and he lifted off his hands and leaned forward. He placed his hands over my lower back and dragged me closer to him. Our faces were now only inches away from each other. I tried to avoid eye contact. I hadn’t thought this through. What was I thinking? Why was I doing this again? My mouth opened to say something, but nothing came out as everything else around us blurred.

Then my eyes helplessly met his, and a sudden calmness swept over me. He held my gaze as he crossed over an invisible barrier to whatever was hiding inside me. My mouth moved, and I didn’t recognize my own words. “Your desire to look into my eyes right now is far greater than the thought of sex, even though you just touched me and pulled me across your lap.” My fingers found his warm arms, and he closed his eyes momentarily at the sudden touch. “At this point, you don’t want sex. You want something far greater, something deeper. All you want is to feel close to me. You want to take in my scent, take in my breath—”

“How do you know what I want?” Ollie asked, his voice cracking. He was still. Unmoving. His arms rested over my thighs, and his hands hadn’t moved from their spot on my back.

“Because I’m sitting on top of you, and you’re scared to move. I’m surprised you were capable of speaking, since you hardly could get through that sentence.”

Ollie’s lip twitched, but his eyes remained locked on mine.

I continued, “You’ve dropped your guard already because I can see it in your eyes. But you’re still afraid I won’t accept you because I hear the worry in your breathing. Yet, you haven’t turned away because you have already accepted all of me, and the anticipation of knowing it’s mutual is worth every torturous second.”

Ollie’s eyes fell from mine to my mouth. He wet his lips. My heart pounded. His fingers inched below the back of my shirt until they found my bare skin. I sucked in a breath as he exhaled. His fingers grazed their way up my back until his palms rested over my sides. It felt right when it shouldn’t—it shouldn’t have felt like anything. He dropped his forehead to mine and his chest rose and fell unevenly. “And I can’t kiss you?” His minted whisper over my lips sent a shiver across my skin.

I shook my head against his and he closed his eyes. “Normally, kissing would increase an attachment among both parties. It’s the only sexual act that allows both people to equally penetrate and be penetrated with the same, incredibly sensitive body parts—which is the lips. The lips have the thi

There were only two sounds: my pulse and his erratic breathing.

“We can’t kiss, Ollie. Now that we both know we have chemistry, if we took it further with kissing, you would fall for me.” I shrugged. “It’s science.”