The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 42: Chapter 42 - The Kiss

His eyes dropped to her mouth, lingered there long enough to make her face heat, then slowly rose again to meet hers.

”Roxie...” he said, voice low and rough.

The way he said her name sent a warm flutter through her stomach, and she hated how much she liked it. She hated him for making her feel it when he was the same guy who had been driving her insane for weeks.

”Zac—”

He kissed her.

Everything else fell away so fast her brain could not keep up.

Her eyes flew wide open. For one long second, the carnival behind them seemed to vanish. The lights, the music, the laughter, the people moving past the rides, all of it slipped somewhere far away until there was only the soft, warm press of his lips against hers.

His hand slid from her chin to her cheek, cradling her face with a gentleness that completely wrecked her. His thumb brushed slowly across her skin, careful and warm, like he knew this mattered even if he did not know why.

Roxie could not move.

This was her first kiss.

The realization hit late, but when it did, it hit hard enough to make her chest tighten.

Her first kiss.

And it was with Zac Prescott.

Her eyes slowly fluttered shut, and that was the biggest mistake she could have made, because the second she stopped staring at him in shock, she started feeling everything instead.

The kiss was warm and sweet and terrifyingly real. Zac’s lips moved against hers softly at first, careful enough to let her figure out what was happening, then with a little more pressure that made her fingers tighten around his jacket.

He tasted faintly like soda and carnival sugar, and his breath was warm against her face, steady in a way hers absolutely was not.

She had always thought a first kiss would be awkward. Weird. Embarrassing. Something she would survive and then overthink later in the bathroom mirror.

This was not like that.

This felt way too good.

That was the problem.

Zac kissed her like he had wanted to for a long time and was trying not to scare her with it. That should have been impossible, because Zac Prescott barely knew how to walk into a room without making everything about him, but here he was, holding her face like she was something breakable and kissing her like he was trying to be careful with every piece of her.

Her fingers loosened, then tightened again in his jacket as she leaned in without meaning to.

Zac felt it.

She knew he felt it because his breath caught softly against her mouth.

That tiny sound went straight through her.

Roxie kissed him back before she fully understood that she had decided to do it. It was shy at first, uncertain and embarrassingly inexperienced, but Zac did not pull away or laugh or make one of his stupid comments.

He slowed down for her, matching the small press of her mouth, and the tenderness of that made her stomach twist harder than any arrogant thing he had ever done.

For a few long seconds, she forgot the fight, the carnival, the students who might be filming anything with a pulse, and the fact that she had told him she hated him less than five minutes ago.

She forgot everything except Zac’s mouth on hers and the way her whole body reacted like it had been waiting for this while her brain wasted time arguing.

Then his tongue brushed against hers.

Reality came back violently.

Her entire body went hot with shock. The wet heat of him, the confidence in the way he deepened the kiss, and the low sound that caught in his chest were too much at once.

She was kissing him back.

Actually kissing him back.

Like she wanted it.

Like she wanted more.

Panic slammed through her.

Roxie jerked away with a sharp gasp.

Her lips felt warm and tingling. Her face burned. Her legs felt shaky enough to be personally embarrassing.

Zac’s eyes opened, dark and unfocused for a second, and the sight of him looking at her like that made everything inside her riot.

She turned and ran.

”Roxie!”

His voice followed her through the trees, but she ran faster, one hand grabbing at his jacket when it slipped off her shoulder. The ground was uneven under her shoes, and branches brushed against her arms as she pushed back toward the carnival lights.

Shit, shit, shit, what had she just done?

Oh God. What the hell did they just do?

Her lips still felt like his. Her face was burning so badly that everyone around her suddenly looked suspicious. The couple near the food truck glanced in her direction, and Roxie was instantly convinced they knew. The girls laughing near the Ferris wheel definitely knew. Even the old woman carrying a giant stuffed bear looked like she could see straight through her.

It was ridiculous. Nobody knew anything.

But Roxie felt like the entire town could look at her flushed face, messy hair, and guilty eyes and immediately figure out she had just kissed Zac Prescott behind the carnival trees.

Her first kiss.

With him.

After telling him she hated him.

The thought made her want to throw herself directly into traffic and disappear.

”Roxie!”

Zac sounded closer now.

She did not look back. She could not. If she saw his face right now, she was going to die from embarrassment, confusion, and whatever else was clawing around inside her chest.

She reached the parking lot and nearly crashed into someone.

”Whoa.”

Ethan caught her by the shoulders before she could fall.

Roxie stared up at him, chest heaving.

Ethan blinked, his eyes moving over her face, her hair, the jacket around her shoulders, and the look she was absolutely failing to hide.

”Roxxane! You okay?”

”No.”

The answer came out raw and immediate.

Ethan frowned. ”That’s concerning. Where did you go-”

”I need a ride.”

His eyes narrowed. ”A ride?”

”Right now.”

He looked over her shoulder toward the carnival, then back at her. ”Do I want to know?”

”No.”

”That sounds like a yes.”

”Ethan.”

Something in her voice made him stop.

His motorcycle was parked a few spaces away. Without asking another question, he grabbed the helmet hanging from the handlebars and put it in her hands.

Roxie looked back.

Huge mistake.

Zac had just come out of the crowd.

He stopped when he saw her, then his eyes moved to Ethan, to the motorcycle, and to the helmet in her hands. Even across the parking lot, Roxie saw his expression change.

Ethan followed her gaze and muttered, ”Oh.”

Roxie shoved the helmet on with shaking hands. ”Go.”

”Rox—”

”Go.”

Zac started toward them fast.

Her stomach dropped.

”Ethan!”

”Okay. Okay.”

Ethan climbed onto the motorcycle, and Roxie barely got the helmet strapped before getting on behind him. She grabbed his jacket for balance, still shaking too hard to care how insane this looked.

Across the parking lot, Zac broke into a run.

”Roxie!”

Her heart lurched.

”Go!”

Ethan did not argue this time. The engine roared to life, loud enough to make people turn their heads, and the motorcycle pulled away from the curb with a hard growl.

Roxie looked back one last time.

Zac had reached the edge of the parking lot. He stopped there under the yellow lights, breathing hard, watching them disappear into the night.

The distance grew quickly after that. The carnival lights shrank behind them, the crowd disappeared into color and noise, and the cool night wind whipped against Roxie’s clothes until her burning face finally started to cool.

But her heart refused to calm down.

Because the farther she got from Zac, the clearer one terrible realization became.

Running had not fixed anything.

She still wanted to kiss him again.

Inside the helmet, Roxie let out a frustrated scream. The sound came out loud and muffled against the padding, and when it did not help, she screamed again, fists clenched against Ethan’s back.

”What the hell happened?” Ethan shouted over the roar of the engine, concerned but steady.

Roxie said nothing. She could not even speak. The words were stuck somewhere between her pounding heart and her tingling lips, and when she licked her lower lip without thinking, the memory hit her instantly.

Zac’s mouth.

The brush of his tongue.

The sound he made.

The way her body had answered before her brain could stop it.

She screamed again, pure frustration this time.

Ethan slowed the motorcycle a little. ”Roxxane, talk to me. Did someone hurt you? Do I need to go back and kick someone’s ass or—”

She looked over her shoulder and saw headlights cutting through the dark road behind them, moving fast enough to make her stomach twist.

She did not even know if it was Zac, but the thought of facing him right now made panic rush up her throat.

”He’s coming!” she yelled. ”Faster, Ethan! Go faster!”