The Kiss Equation ✓

13 | The Second Kiss - Part 2

I was angrily shoving my notebooks and a handful of sharpies when I heard his light knock on the door(his bedroom door, that was).

"Hey," Aelius said, clearing his throat.

I was staring at the laptop monitor, in the process of shutting off. I didn't turn or respond, instead kept my eyes zoomed on the screen. I could see his reflection in the glare on the screen as soon as it turned black and almost dropped the laptop when my eyes captured his appearance.

Aelius Carter Hayes was leaning against the doorframe of his bedroom, bare-chested and only in a pair of gray sweatpants that hung low on his waist. To add the cherry on top, drops of water dripped down his wet black curls while his earrings gleamed against the dying sunlight filtering through the window.

The same sensation pulsed through me that I'd been feeling around him since that day in the pool when he pulled me in his embrace and made me aware of his devilish touch. I sucked in a deep gasp that was about to escape from my lips and continued stuffing my bag with my things scattered on the rug where we were studying that afternoon.

"I'm sorry about the handouts. I didn't mean to mock you. I guess I've just been a shitty kissing tutor for you."

"You guess?" I clipped, snapping my head in his direction, and that was a wrong move because the moment my eyes soaked in his appearance face to face, my insides shuddered. His blue aquamarine eyes held me captive. I realized if I didn't run away from his vicinity in record time, I might do the unthinkable. And the fact that I had no experience or idea of how to do the same wasn't helping my cause either.

Get the hell out of my sight, Hayes, else I might kiss you. The warning rang in my head, and I panicked. What if I choked him to death with my shite kissing skills? I shook my head and turned away.

"You don't have to bother about it. I'm not going to ask you for it anymore." I said coldly, concealing the disappointment creeping into my heart. "It was a stupid idea anyway."

"Now, it wasn't a stupid idea." His voice was casually soft. "If it's because of those google dumps, then you know I was only trying to help you."

"Fuck those boring handouts. No one even cares about reading some cheesy article about kissing." I started at how icy cold my response was. I unplugged the charger, rolling the cord around the adapter more than necessary to escape looking at his face. I intentionally avoided looking into his eyes while I mumbled. "It was a stupid idea because I thought I could solve my hopeless kiss equation by getting a kissing tutor. Stupider even because I believed I could prove to Alex that I wasn't the second-best."

Not even a second later, I felt his presence hot against my back as he took a few hurried steps toward me. "Why would you want anything to prove to your ex-boyfriend, Eve?"

"I hate being the second best, Aeli. I know it sounds pathetic, but I want to prove to Alex that I'm better than Micaela. I don't want to feel rejected or looked down upon, and next Saturday is his birthday party, the perfect day to give him a taste of his own medicine."

I felt shame sizzle through my skin under his scrutinizing gaze when I turned to face him. Aelius clenched his jaw tight, the muscles jumping offbeat and the veins around his neck down to his balled-up fists pronounced he was holding through the last thread of his patience. My words affected him.

"So, you want to kiss Alex on his birthday and make him fall for you once again," he punctuated each word with gnashing teeth and shooting fire my way, although he tried to be as casual as possible. "You want me to teach you how to kiss so that you can kiss your sorry ass ex-boyfriend who didn't think twice before cheating on you and who had his filthy cheating tongue in my girl's mouth."