Crossroads by Megan Keith Read Free Book Online Page A

you, but I would like to, you know, be with you again.”  Her words taper off to an almost whisper.  She is embarrassed which is adorable.  I grab her hand and pull it to my lips. I kiss it and then hold it tightly against my mouth.  Her breath falters and her eyes search mine.
    “Em , of course I want to be with you again,” I reassure her and watch as she visibly relaxes.
    “So it’s agreed then?  We’ll be friend s with benefits until you leave,” she says with a nod, waiting for my acceptance.
    I feel the blood drain from my face.  Friends with benefits?  She can’t be serious!   I can’t give her that!
    “We can’t let feelings come between us, ” she continues, “We don’t have time for that.  It will only make things harder when we have to say goodbye.”
    I don’t know if she’s trying to convince me , or herself.  She is right about one thing though, we don’t have much time.  And I get it.  She’s trying to protect herself.  She doesn’t want to get hurt, and I sure as hell don’t want to hurt her.  Again.  Saying goodbye will be hard enough for me, I don’t want to break her heart as well.  But what we have is so much more than friendship.
    I have no idea how we are going to do this, but if this is what she needs to hear, to stop herself from getting attached to me, I cannot argue because I want to protect her too.
    “Okay, ” I nod.
    Pity it’s too late for me.  My feelings are already way too strong to ignore.   Last night, finally being with her, was so much more than I ever thought it would be.  Even though I had to cut it short, leaving before I wanted, to go to the gig, it was still the best night of my life!

Emma
     
    Nick suggests that we lighten the mood by playing a friendly game of cards.  After the heavy conversation at lunch, I cannot argue that the mood does need to be lightened.  He requests strip poker and I laugh because there is no way in hell I would play that with him, not now.  I couldn’t find anything but a pack of Uno cards anyway and strip Uno doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.  So for the past couple of hours we have been chatting happily while I kick his arse at Uno.  It’s been great!  I’m so glad to have my friend back.
    “Uno!” I shout triumphantly, then lick my last card and stick it to my forehead.  It’s a silly thing that my brother Ethan and I used to do when we were kids.  Just that little bit of moisture holds it in place until you can either put the card down or pick up another.  You place it in a way that you can look up and read it, but your opponent can’t.  I stupidly told Nick about it a couple of rounds back and he dared me to do it for the rest of the game.  Of course, I couldn’t say no when he gazed at me with those incredible eyes, even though it was obvious he expected me to.  I love to surprise him.
    “You’ve re ally got to stop doing that now,” he says with a dark and desirable expression on his face.
    “ Stop what?  Winning? ”  I grin at him.
    “No, looking so adorable.  You are making it impossible for me to stay on this side of the table. I’m gonna have to jump across it and kiss you in a minute.”  It’s the flirtiest thing he’s said to me all day.  It does wonderful things to my insides.
    “Is that so?  Well maybe if you called ‘Uno’ once in a while you could stick a card on your head and we’d both look adorable.”
    “Uno!” h e calls smugly, as he tosses down a card.  He pokes his tongue out and sensually licks his remaining one before sticking it to his forehead, keeping his eyes on mine the entire time.  I squeeze my legs together under the table as a shiver rolls through me.  Yep, he looks adorable.  Adorably sexy, that is .  I see what he means about it getting hard to stay on opposite sides of the table.  I look at the card he has just put down on the pile, a red six on top of my yellow three.
    “Hey!  You c heated, you can’t put that