Puck'd

Chapter 10

Puck

The first pass of her lips against mine is short and sweet, nothing more than a simple peck. It's almost a tease after the heavy makeout session she greeted me with at the party.

We grin at each other with our faces still close.

"Hmm," I ponder aloud, "I think we can do better than that."

She giggles while I brush my thumb under her chin to draw her closer again.

Our lips brush together softly but rather than allow her to move away, I curl my hand under her chin to keep her in place and deepen the kiss.

She tenses slightly, and I immediately draw back to give her some space.

Whatever it was that gave her that reaction quickly disappears, and this time she's the one moving towards me to bring her lips to mine.

In no time, our tongues are dancing together, and Marlowe is pressed against my body like she can't get close enough.

My hands itch to run against the smooth skin on her bare legs. My brain shouts at me to pull her into my lap so that she can wrap those fine legs around my waist.

My heart begrudgingly reminds me that this experiment of ours was supposed to be practice for how to not get carried away.

I ease back from the kiss and chuckle softly when she tries to start it up again.

"Easy, cheer girl," I tease, knowing I'm as much to blame as she is, "Maybe too much enthusiasm?"

Her face falls. She puts some space between us and looks away while twisting a piece of grass between her fingers. "Right. Sorry. I... I have no idea what I'm doing."

Crap. I didn't mean to embarrass her. I thought she'd know that I was only teasing.

"It's okay, MJ. I don't know what I'm doing either. This is new to both of us. Don't feel bad." I reach for her hand and gently tug on it to urge her back towards me. "Fake dating is harder than it sounds but I'm sure we'll figure it out."

She moves closer to me again and allows me to wrap an arm around her shoulders but then she lets out a tired-sounding sigh. "I didn't mean the fake dating thing... I meant kissing."

I don't think I heard her right.

I frown while leaning forward to get a look at her face. "Did you say kissing?"

She looks away from me as she nods. "Yeah... Especially French kissing. I've done it a grand total of like, three times."

I quirk an eyebrow at her exaggeration as a grin spreads across my face. "Three times, huh?" I chuckle while I reach a hand up to lightly rest against her cheek. I turn her face back towards mine. "MJ, we've french kissed three times."

"Yeah," she speaks the word softly before dropping her eyes from mine.

Huh? Is she saying I'm the only one she's...

My train of thought stops when I remember the night we came to agree on this arrangement. She's totally messing with me!

I begin to laugh, and her eyes flash back to mine with an angry scowl. She reaches up to pull my hand away from her cheek and then crosses her arms over her chest with a huff. Her attitude would be kind of cute if she wasn't being so ridiculous.