“Okay. Very good,” Hayden said as she leaned back, sounding like an encouraging grade school teacher. “Now let’s still keep it simple, but try moving and shifting our lips a little this time.”
Emmaline looked on with interest.
Sanjana and Hayden came together again, not touching anywhere except for their mouths. Hayden nibbled on Sanjana’s top lip and then slanted her lips to deepen the kiss a little.
They all watched, riveted to the lesson.
Hayden pulled back “Everyone get that? Take it slow . . . don’t dive in like it’s a race. Ready to try now?”
Lia and Monica squared off in front of each other as Hayden turned to Emmaline. “Want to try?”
Her heart started to pound faster. “Er. Yes.”
Hayden peered closely at her face. “You don’t have to do this.” She paused and gave her an encouraging smile. “No one should ever feel pressured into doing anything they don’t want.”
Emmaline nodded. “Sure.”
She knew that. She knew no one here was forcing her into doing anything she didn’t want. These were her friends. Even Hayden, though she hadn’t known her for a long time. This was a safe group.
But she was hovering on the brink . . . about to hit a milestone—her first kiss. That’s what had prompted all these lessons, and yet she wanted her first kiss to matter. She didn’t want it to be an empty encounter, something to toss away for the sake of practice.
She wanted her first kiss to be with someone who gave her butterflies.
As much as she cared for the girls in this room . . . none of them made her stomach somersault.
She wanted that.
She needed that.
Hayden stared at her in such a knowing way. “Maybe you can just observe and take notes tonight.”
Emmaline released a relieved breath but still felt conflicted. Actual hands-on experience was obviously best.
Monica and Lia were oblivious to her internal struggle. They’d already started practicing. In fact, they were practicing quite enthusiastically. Lia lifted a hand to brush the hair back from Monica’s shoulder, and then her fingers stayed there, lingering in Monica’s hair, caressing the brown curls between her fingertips in a way that seemed almost sensual . . . as though she was really into it.
They kissed for several more moments without appearing inclined to stop.
Hayden glanced at Emmaline’s bedside clock, obviously noting the time they were dedicating to this kiss.
Sanjana cleared her throat, as though that might part the two of them, but they didn’t look ready to stop.
Emmaline shifted where she sat, starting to feel like a voyeur witnessing something personal and intimate.
Sanjana leaned sideways and whispered with a hand over her mouth, “Maybe they need their own room?”
Suddenly a knock sounded. Emmaline’s gaze shot to her bedroom door and then back to the two girls kissing, lost to each other and oblivious to the potential intrusion on their practice session. Maybe the music was too loud. Or maybe they just didn’t care.
There was one more knock and then the door opened, swinging wide to reveal Nolan and Beau in the threshold.
“Hey, we’re going for another pizza. Can Hayden move her car so we can back—”
The rest of Nolan’s words died and then he and Beau just stood there, gaping at Lia and Monica in a full make-out sesh.
The girls must have finally sensed their audience. They eased apart, faces still very close, almost cheek-to-cheek, as they turned to find everyone staring at them.
“Hey,” Monica greeted, her eyes a little bright, her voice a little breathless.
“What’s going on?” Nolan demanded, looking thoroughly perplexed.
“Nothing, Nolan,” Emmaline snapped. “Did I tell you that you could come in?”
“Emma!” He looked again at Lia and Monica. “They’re kissing and you’re sitting around watching.”
Sanjana started laughing.
Lia and Monica joined in, their laughter much quieter, almost nervous as they exchanged shy glances with each other.
“Oh, just tell him, Emmaline,” Sanjana managed to get out amid her laughter. She pointed at Nolan and Beau. “If you could see your faces. Priceless. If you had come in earlier, you would have seen me and Hayden kissing.”
Nolan’s eyes widened. Great. Now he was convinced they were having some kind of orgy in here. “Sanjana,” Emmaline snapped.
“Oh, just tell him,” Monica agreed, pushing her glasses up her nose. “It’s healthy experimentation. Nothing to worry about.”
Nolan pressed his fingers to his temple. “What. Is. Happening.”
Emmaline looked to Beau, hoping he might help her. He’d been silent this whole time. For him, a couple girls making out was probably just another Saturday night.
Sanjana chose that moment to answer Nolan’s maybe rhetorical question. “Emmaline hired Hayden to give us lessons.”
Oh no no no no no.
She did not just tell her brother that. In front of Beau no less.
Emmaline punched Sanjana in the arm. Even Hayden’s usually passive expression cracked. She looked suddenly wary, watching Nolan like she didn’t know how he would react to that news.
“Lessons? On what?” He glanced around like he expected to see textbooks and laptops open or something.
Goodness. He wanted them to spell it out.
Sanjana was still rubbing her arms. “Lessons on seduction. Tonight, we were specifically working on kissing.”
Nolan closed his eyes in one long, weary blink. He looked a lot older than eighteen in that moment. It really was like getting busted by a father.
For a moment she wondered what her dad would have done in this situation. He would probably have backed out of the room with a stammering apology, too embarrassed to stick around and interrogate a bunch of girls.
Not Nolan. He looked ready to lose it . . . and he never got mad. Never raised his voice or lost his temper.
When he opened his eyes again, he was staring at Hayden with enough contempt to blast the wrapper off a lollipop. “You’re teaching my sister how to seduce a guy? So. In other words . . . you’re teaching her how to be like you?” The implication was clear.
To be like Hayden was unacceptable.
Everyone fell silent then. The only sound was the music from her laptop.
“Nolan,” she reprimanded in a hushed voice, fearful he’d crossed a line and hurt Hayden’s feelings.
Hayden might be tough, but words could wound, and the way Nolan was acting was not okay.
A muscle ticked near Hayden’s eye, the only sign of emotion she gave. She didn’t react, but Emmaline knew something was simmering very close to the surface. This whole situation could get ugly if she didn’t do something to diffuse it right now.
“It wasn’t her idea,” Emmaline blurted, deliberately not looking Beau’s way. If she was making this admission, she was not looking at him. She’d been crushing on him too long to have to endure his expression right now.
It was mortifying enough that he now knew she had to hire someone to help her attract a guy. More mortifying than her brother finding out. Because it all boiled down to one thing.
Beau was not her brother.
He was a guy. A guy she’d always had feelings for. An attractive guy who always smelled good and had no problem walking around without his shirt, showcasing his washboard abs. He didn’t need to know the level of her desperation. If he looked at her with pity, she might have to move schools, change her name, and don a permanent disguise.