Sullivans 06 - Let Me Be the One

She still did.
    “Don’t worry,” she teased, “I won’t tell anyone if you need to cover your eyes during the scary scenes.”
    “Nothing like knowing my friend has my back,” he teased back as he started scrolling through the available movies. “How about this?” Halloween was up on the flat-screen. “It’s a classic.” He grinned and added, “This first one was practically indie.”
    “Sounds great.” She curled her feet up under her and pulled a blanket draped over the arm of the couch onto her lap, even though sitting so close to Ryan already had her feeling way too hot and bothered to need it.
    Having only ever seen a handful of horror movies, mostly through her closed eyelids and the hand she couldn’t help but keep over her eyes, she knew enough to expect fairly immediate blood and gore. Instead, Halloween opened with a teenage couple getting hot and heavy on a couch.
    Vicki clutched the blanket tightly in her fists as she tried to keep her breathing slow and even while the kiss grew hotter and hotter. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest by the time the teenagers pulled apart and headed upstairs to the girl’s bedroom.
    Thank God , she thought as she let herself relax back into the cushions. Maybe, if she was really lucky, one of the teenagers would be slashed in the next scene.
    Normally, she would have been dreading seeing the crazy little brother wield the large kitchen knife, but anything was better than continuing to watch two kids, who were her and Ryan’s age when they met, making out and grinding against each other. Yes, she was totally prepared for—
    “Oh my God!”
    The little boy on the screen plunged the knife into his sister and Vicki couldn’t stop herself from leaping into Ryan’s arms and burying her head on his chest.

Chapter Nine
     
    Ryan immediately clicked off the TV. His hands stroked down her back and even though somewhere in the back of her mind she knew what a bad idea it was to get this close to him, she couldn’t even think of moving from his lap while her heart was still pounding so hard and she couldn’t get the picture of spurting blood out of her head.
    “It’s okay, Vicki,” he said in a gentle voice. “It’s just a dumb movie. It isn’t real.”
    “I know,” she said, but her voice was shaking as she confessed, “I’ve only ever watched the Chucky movies, with the doll who comes alive.” Those movies had been scary, but nothing like the slashing they’d just witnessed.
    “We could have watched something else. Just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean I can’t hack a chick flick every once in a while.”
    By then, her fear had receded enough for her to feel a little idiotic. “I don’t know what I was think—”
    She should have known better than to lift her head and look at him instead of moving off his lap first, but between her fading horror and rising arousal, her brain wasn’t functioning quite right. Unfortunately, with his mouth so close that she could practically taste the red wine on his lips, it was too late to get that thinking done.
    Ryan’s hands stilled on her back and his arms tightened around her. She couldn’t look away from his eyes, which were growing darker by the second. All she needed to do was lean forward the barest amount and her lips would be on his and she could kiss him the way she’d been dying to kiss him for half her life...and not just because they were putting on a show for someone else.
    Only, just as Vicki was about to close the gap between them, her brain finally clicked into overdrive with all the reasons why not, most of which started and ended with a crystal-clear vision of Ryan trying to be kind while helping her off his lap...and away from his mouth. He’d search so hard for the right words to tell her that while he was flattered by her attention, he valued their friendship too much to do anything to jeopardize it.
    And she’d be left feeling like the fool she’d been to actually convince herself it had been okay to give in to temptation.
    Moving as quickly as her suddenly clumsy limbs could manage, she shifted off Ryan’s lap. “You know what? I’ve got a big day tomorrow and you’ve got to pitch, so we should probably just head to bed.” She stood up, then concentrated on folding the blanket into a perfect rectangle.
    She was laying the blanket over the arm of the couch when Ryan also stood and said, “You’re right, we should probably skip the movie