Touch & Go Read Free Page A

threaten him or try to scare him away. The whole point was to be passive. If I need to be direct, I’ll do it myself.”
    She felt bad even saying it, because that was so not who Sam was. Not anymore. But—
    “Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. I’m not even going to talk to the guy.”
    Ava breathed a sigh of relief.
    “Good.” Only there was still a tension in the air. In Sam, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the doorway since they’d gotten out there. “So what are you going to do?”
    Sam squinted down at her with a look she recognized as typically preempting some fool move sure to torque her off. Only instead of the usual, “Don’t be mad,” this time he said, “Don’t freak out.”
    Steven stepped through the door and Sam kissed her.

Chapter 3
    Ava was giving it her college best, really she was, but there was no stopping the freak-out in progress.
    Sam was kissing her.
    His lips were on hers in a soft press that, based on its closed-mouth properties alone, should have been benign. But this was
Sam.
And he was in strict violation of a no-fly zone their friendship
never
breached. Sure, she and Sam were touchy-feely friends of the highest order. He always had an arm around her. Her legs draped over his. Something. She was a cuddler, so contact in and of itself was no big thing. But there were lines friends didn’t cross. Lines that started above the knee and ended below the belly button. Panty lines. Bust lines. And most important, lip lines. Which meant the intimacy of that taboo contact, even as chaste as it was—well, it was crossing wires Ava had spent twenty years trying to keep straight.
    So the freak-out?
    Yeah, it was on.
    Because now how was she supposed to look at Sam’s hands without thinking of them warm at the sides of her face as he lowered his mouth to hers? How was she going to look into his eyes without seeing that last instant when they dropped to her lips? And how the heck was she supposed to look at that gorgeous, easy smile of his and hide the fact that after twenty years of wondering what his kiss would taste like, she wished the only one they were likely to share through the course of their entire lives had lasted just a little longer, gone a bit deeper, been a smidge more real?
    Because already it was over.
    Five beats of her heart and Sam was withdrawing. Slowly.
    Really slowly, actually. And then after a point, not at all. The contact that had been a soft press was still there, but only in its most minimal form.
    “You’re freaking out,” Sam stated quietly against her lips, one big hand moving from her cheek to brush back through her hair.
    “A little.” No point in denying it. He knew her too well to miss the tension radiating off her in waves. They’d be lucky if Steven couldn’t catch it from where the ass was still watching them from the door.
    Sam let out a low laugh, his mouth curving against her own and making that place deep inside her heart ache from the overwhelming pleasure of it. Another light caress through her hair, and she had to remind herself this was for show before she did something crazy like melt into a touch that felt altogether too real, but wasn’t.
    “We can stop now,” he murmured against her lips. “Let the guy believe what he will. Or…”
    The ache in Ava’s chest ceased with all other activity there. Her heart stalled, her breath caught on that single dangling word. Two letters she knew deep down to her core were trouble, but tempted her too much to ignore.
    “Or,” she prompted, her whisper hardly reaching her own ears.
    The corner of his mouth hitched hard on one side. “Or you let me kiss you for real…and you kiss me back.”
    The obvious answer here was to leave it at the single kiss and let Steven draw his own conclusions. That would be the smart thing. The safe thing.
    “But Ave, if you can’t handle it, just say the word and we’ll end it here. Cut out and go back to your place to watch
The Hangover.
”
    If she