Kissing Jayden: a romantic teen thriller Read Free Page A

and I wondered what it would feel like … to be kissed by Jayden Stone. I didn’t even know how many times I had heard other girls in the bathroom talking like, “ Oh my God! Jayden Stone! ” but I had always pretended not to care, mostly because I had always known that I was never ever going to be one of those girls.
    I took a few choppy breaths, but I still couldn’t even move. The smell his aftershave was making my mouth water. I inhaled and moved my hands off his shoulders, kind of steadying myself against his chest. Then, before I knew it, my hands had kind of glued themselves to his muscles. When his thumb traced my lower lip like the other day, I nearly melted. This time — even more embarrassing — my knees started to give out. Lucky for me, his arm around my waist kept me from falling down and melting into the floor.
    My eyes drifted closed, like I was in a trance. When I finally opened my eyes again, Jayden was staring down at me with this sort of conflicted look. I watched as he slowly he bent toward me. Then my eyes closed again, and a second later his lips brushed against mine. I gasped and felt sparks shooting through me. It was like fireworks were going off in my head, and I totally would’ve totally collapsed if his arm hadn’t been so tight around my waist.
    He pulled back a little, and I felt his breath on my neck. He cupped my cheek in his other hand and when his lips grazed mine again, everything started spinning. Then, all of a sudden, he kind of nipped my lower lip, and I jerked and whimpered softly in the back of my throat.
    He groaned and pulled me in even closer, and I totally forgot we were in front of a bunch of people. My hands gripped his shirt even tighter … and that was when I heard it. The sound of clapping right next to us. It was like a splash of cold water in the middle of summer — shocking. In a daze, I turned and saw Mike Jensen’s smirking face a foot away from mine. Jayden immediately let go of me.
    “ Nice , Stone. You said you could get any girl in school to give it up on command, but The Bookworm ?” he crowed. “Awesome!”
    “Mike, man. Back off,” Jayden snarled, turning to face Mike with his fists clenched.
    It took a couple of seconds for reality to catch up with me, and when Jayden turned back to me, my hand flew, connecting with his surprised face a second later.
    All I could think was: How stupid could you get, Molly?
    I should have known it was too good to be true!

Chapter 3: Kissing in the Dark
     
     
    It was terrible. Awful. But I had to admit that for weeks after the dance, I kept thinking about that kiss. The feeling of Jayden Stone’s lips pressed up against mine. I couldn’t help it. It was addictive. In class, if I got really bored, that’s exactly where my mind went. I replayed that scene — right up until Mike Jensen’s stupid, leering face — in my head too many times to count.
    Kelly and Stace were really supportive. They kept saying things like, “That jerk!” But I could tell they were thinking that it made sense — the fact that the whole thing had turned out to be a bet between Jayden and Mike Jensen. Yeah. Invite poor little never-been-kissed Molly Adams to the Valentine’s Day dance and then embarrass her in front of everybody. The thing I still couldn’t believe, though, was that I had actually slapped Jayden Stone in front of everyone!
    About a week after the dance, I had gotten another major surprise when Tyler Williams from my Trig class had asked me out. Later, he told me that the whole thing with Jayden had made me seem more “approachable.” Whatever that meant. But with shaggy blond hair, big brown eyes, and dimples, Tyler was everything Jayden Stone wasn’t. Cute, harmless, and nice.
    But one thing I found out fast — not all guys could kiss like Jayden Stone. The first time Tyler had kissed me, it had been okay. Comfortable. Definitely no fireworks. The problem was: it hadn’t really gotten any better the next