Page 46 of The Hopelessly Bromantic Duet

TJ’s still looking at his phone, not at me. But I’m studying him. The way he swallows, his Adam’s apple moving up and down, the stubble lining his jaw. I’m recording every detail, staring at the man next to me and wanting him so much.

TJ raises his face. “And then you kiss the robot,” he says robotically.

“I do,” I say, and my skin is on fucking fire.

He glances back down to the screen, licks his lips, and reads his next line. “I wanted to?—”

I shut him up when I grab his face.

His eyes lock with mine. His brown irises darken.

“Practice precedes perfection,” I whisper.

Give me your permission, TJ. I want it so badly. Want to kiss you so very much.

My roommate’s quiet, just breathing as he looks at me, my eyes, my mouth. He darts out his tongue, flicks it across the corner of his lips.

My breath catches, and I slide my thumb along his stubbly jaw. The scrape of his beard drives me wild.

Hedrives me wild.

Another few seconds tick by. He closes his eyes briefly, opens them, and angles his face.

Then, the American crushes his lips to mine.

It’s not a chaste kiss at all.

It’s full of passion, yet we don’t even open our mouths. It’s just his lips pressed hungrily to mine and mine locked greedily with his. His aftershave goes to my head. My body thrills everywhere at the feel of his mouth hunting mine.

Then it’s his hand on the back of my neck, his fingers playing with the ends of my hair.

And still, we never part our lips. We never stroke our tongues together. We just kiss with so much restraint that the holding back makes it the hottest kiss I’ve ever had.

After ten, maybe twenty seconds, he lets go, breathing out hard. But his hand stays in my hair, mine remains on his face, and I don’t want this moment to end.

“You should do that in the audition,” TJ says, his voice full of gravel.

“Yeah?”

“That’s how you should kiss your robot lover,” he says emphatically.

“Like I’ve wanted nothing else for the last week?”

His lips twitch. He likes what I said. “Exactly. Do it just like that. You’ll capture the longing perfectly. I felt it.”

I felt the longing fucking everywhere. In my bones. My cells. My dreams. I still feel it. “So, I should do it like I’m kissing the man I’ve been dying to kiss?”

He snaps his gaze away from me like eye contact is almost too much, and his breath shudders out. “You should. You really fucking should.” Then he squeezes my thigh. “Let’s walk around the park and run lines.”

Olivia’s words march from my subconscious to front and center in my brain.

I must have picked the park because I wanted to find a way to kiss him. I wanted to find the loophole in the roomie code. I wanted to practice.

And if we’d practiced at home, I don’t know that I could have stopped.

But I know weshouldstop.

We really should.