Kiss Me Like This (The Morrisons #1)(32)
Author: Bella Andre

Serena was really pleased that her decision to trust her roommate had been a good one. Abi hadn’t leaked anything to anyone about Serena and Sean, not even to the other girls in the dorm. And it was so nice to finally have a confidant.

“I just don’t get why you’re holding out on him like this. Not just by not doing the most doable guy on campus, but by only seeing him once a week. If it was me,” Abi said with a wicked smile, “I’d be living in his bed twenty-four seven. Hey,” her roommate added as if she’d just thought of something, “doesn’t he have a twin? Wouldn’t it be fun if we dated Morrison brothers?”

Serena didn’t know what to say. She really liked Abi, and yet she definitely didn’t feel equipped to play matchmaker. Not only because everything with Sean was so fresh and new, but also because she hadn’t even met his twin yet.

“From everything Sean has told me, Justin sounds great,” she said carefully, “but—”

“Or maybe I should go for his rock-star brother, Drew,” Abi said with a dreamy look on her face. “He’s crazy hot and his music is amazing.” Without taking a break to let Serena answer her initial questions about why she wasn’t yet sleeping with Sean, Abi said, “Have you met any of them yet?”

“No.”

She hadn’t expected to, either. She and Sean were still slowly getting to know each other. Okay, she thought as she tried to fight back a flush that Abi was sure to comment on, so maybe the way he’d been kissing and touching her last Friday in the locker room hadn’t exactly been slow. Although the way he’d stopped when she’d freaked definitely had been.

Did he have any idea how much more his stopping made her trust him? Especially when she knew he’d wanted to do anything but.

“I’m sure you’ll be meeting them soon,” Abi said with perfect confidence.

Not for the first time, Serena wished she could be like that, so sure of her place in the world and what she wanted from it. Abi was planning to go into politics and Serena had no doubt she’d get the internship she wanted in Washington, D.C.

“Anyway, remind me why you haven’t slept with Sean yet?”

Even though Abi had proved herself to be completely trustworthy so far, Serena was still scared to tell her something so intensely personal. Namely, that she was a nineteen-year-old, world-famous virgin who had only experienced a guy’s hand in her pants for the first time last Friday…and that it had fueled every single one of her private fantasies since then.

“We both want to take it slow.”

Abi snorted in disbelief. “I don’t know any guys who want to take things slow. There’s got to be another reason.”

Serena thought about the way she’d thrown herself at Sean both of the last Fridays. “What if I said I wanted to go back to your room with you tonight?” and “More. Please.” Each time he’d been the one with the self-control to make them step back from the edge.

“He knows I’m not ready.”

“Like I said, I don’t know many guys who would care whether you’re ready or not. If you ask me, there’s only one reason he’d be willing to take things slow.” Abi cradled her chin in her hand and sighed. “He’s in love with you.”

“In love?” With her? Serena shook her head, so fast and hard that she nearly fell off the bed. “No. He can’t be.”

“Why not? Like I said before, when the housing office let me know that you were going to be my roommate, I was ready to totally hate you. But not only were you not all stuck up or into yourself the way I figured you’d be, you ended up being nice and real and helpful with my classes. If I were a guy—or swung the other way—I’d be all swoony over you, too.”

“Swoony?”

Abi grinned at the way Serena repeated the silly word. “Swoony and smitten.” There was a little pause before she shifted slightly on her bed so that Serena couldn’t quite see her hands or face anymore. “Besotted. Bewitched. Captivated. Enchanted. Enraptured. Hooked.”

Serena grinned. “I think I get what you’re trying to say without the online thesaurus.”

“How’d you guess?”

“You were saying the words in alphabetical order.”

Abi tossed her phone back onto the bed. “What about you? Are you in love with him, too?”

Serena reeled from the pointed question, even though she’d known it had to be coming. “We only met a few weeks ago.”

“So what? Are you telling me you don’t believe in love at first sight? Or that it can last forever?”

That was just the thing—Serena didn’t know what she believed. For nineteen years, her mother had taught her that love wasn’t real, that no one would ever love her the way Genevieve did, and that her mother was the only person she’d ever be able to trust. At the end of Serena’s first frat party, it had looked like all of those things were true.

But in the past few weeks she’d come to trust Sean in a way she’d never trusted anyone else. Even going so far as to offer to model for him if it would help him get back into photography after the break he’d taken since his mother’s death.

She inhaled a deep, shaky breath, before blowing it out. “I’d like to believe it’s real. And that forever is possible with someone.”

For once, Abi didn’t have a snappy comeback. Instead, all she said was, “I’m pretty sure we all would.” But before the moment could get too deep, she added, “Hey, didn’t you have a question for me?”

With thoughts of love dancing around inside her head, it took Serena a few seconds to rewind to the beginning of their conversation and remember her question. “I’m the one who asked Sean out this week, so I’m in charge of planning our date on Friday night. I was wondering if you’d be able to help me with what I was thinking of doing.”

Abi’s smile grew as Serena explained her plan, and when she was done, her roommate said, “Of course I can help you. But if you ask me, this plan is bound to send you straight into Sean’s bed. Which means you must be more ready for him—and for falling in love—than you think.”

* * *

“How did you sneak this stuff in here?”

Sean’s voice was low enough that only Serena could hear it. As he quickly zipped up her backpack to hide the small bottle of tequila, shot glasses, penknife, and lime she’d packed for tonight, her stomach twisted. Had she already screwed up this date night?