When she saw me, she abandoned her cell in the grass and spun to get away from me, but I grabbed her by the waist. She shrieked and tried to wiggle out of my arms, but I pulled her closer. Both of us were laughing our asses off. I had her from behind and I put my mouth down on her neck and bit her gently. “You’re dead,” I whispered.

She giggled and turned in my arms to face me, her hands on my chest, the Toilet King pressed between us. We were both cracking up.

“Look at you,” I said. “Thirty seconds into the zompoc and you’ve already lost your shoes, your phone, and you’ve been bitten.”

She beamed up at me. “So what now?”

“I guess we just wait for you to turn.”

She laughed and I felt it rumble against me.

Then her eyes dropped to my lips. My eyes dropped to hers.

“You could always kiss me while we wait,” I said, my voice low.

“But it won’t count if I kiss you.”

“Well, if you only want to kiss me to check a box,” I said, talking to her mouth, “it’s better that we don’t.”

Her eyes came back up to mine. “But we’re supposed to check a box.”

“Call me old-fashioned, but I want to kiss someone who wants to be kissed.”

“I want to be kissed,” she said.

“By anyone? Or me specifically.”

“You.” She smiled coyly. “Specifically.”

I narrowed my eyes. “No. I don’t believe you.”

She gasped. “What?”

“If you really wanted to kiss me, you wouldn’t care who kisses who. You would just do it.”

“Well, do you want to kiss me?”

“Yes,” I said without even thinking about it. “I do. And not to check a box either.”

She bit her lip. “Well then?”

“Well nothing. I’m officially deciding not to kiss you. You have to kiss me first. To rule out any ulterior motives.”

“Isn’t not kissing me the ulterior motive? I thought we had an arrangement. You’re not going to hold up your end of the bargain?”

She pressed her hips into mine, and I had to suck in a breath. Something mischievous flickered across her face.

She was teasing me. And it was working.

Her perfume drifted up between us. Her scent hypnotized me. Absolutely entranced me. Whatever pheromone was made for me, she had it. I felt drunk by the proximity to her.

It was dim on the side of the garage. A motion sensor light had gone on but it was toward the back of the house. It was quiet and private here. Nobody could see us.

She peered up at me, still smiling, and I wanted to kiss her so bad it made me ache.

Her eyes went to my mouth again. “I don’t kiss men first,” she said. “They kiss me.”

“That is a very stupid rule,” I said, a little breathless. “Especially from someone who only has so much time before they’re a zombie.”

She snorted. Then she bit her lip. “Kiss me, Justin.”

“I told you,” I said, staring at her mouth. “I don’t want to check a box.”

She leaned into the erection I had growing between us and I wanted to die.

“Justin…” she said quietly. She was so close she whispered my name across my lips.

She slid a hand up my chest, around the back of my neck, and I felt her fingers curl into my hair.

Fuck…

“Justinnnn…”

I put my forehead to hers and closed my eyes.

I could do this. I could stand my ground. I wouldn’t kiss her, not until I knew it was more than just a game for her.

But God, I wanted to. Everything in me screamed to do it.

Everything in me screamed to do everything.

I tipped her chin up and began trailing my mouth down her neck. She sucked in air at the contact and tilted her head. I slid my hands up the back of her shorts and she arched into my body.

“Oh hell,” she breathed. Then her face came up and she finally gave me what I asked for.

The second her mouth made contact, I parted her lips, and her tongue plunged against mine and every single thing that mattered in my entire life was somehow happening on the lawn next to Neil’s garage.

I liked the way she kissed. I liked the way I kissed when I was kissing her. It was that unreal physical chemistry that you never get right on the first try, only it was right. We should have been doing this weeks ago. Day one. No way was it this good and we’d only now tried it. What a waste…

“Is it just me, or are we really good at this?” she breathed.

I answered by kissing her again.

She smiled against my mouth and tugged at my belt, pulling me with her until she hit the wall of the garage and I pressed into her.

I was so hard there was no way she didn’t feel it.

Her palm slid under my shirt around my lower back and I ran a slow hand up her rib cage under her top. “Is this okay?” I whispered.