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"I very entle voice, "that there’s anything you could do that would disappoint her"

He stopped walking and reached for her hand "The way I acted with you last weekendshe would have been disappointed with that"

"You’ve already apologized, Sean"

"But I shouldn’t have treated you like--"

"How about," she interrupted, "we agree to forget what happened last Friday night? We were both in a weird space and nothing really bad ended up happening, so I’d hate to ruin today by going back to that again"

He searched her face for several long et the bad stuff, like what a dick I was But I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to forget everything" He h that she could have easily pressed her lips to his before taking her next breath "Because I really, really liked kissing you, Serena And I’et pizza withas she said, "I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with you today, too You made a bad day so much better Thank you"

"You don’t have to thank lad I was able to be there for you when you needed me And if you ever want to talk about what happened this afternoon, I’m here"

Could anyone be sweeter? Not to h her veinsother than her desperate need to kiss hiain

And yet, it was that very desperation that scared her enough to need to take a step away froic and passion, but at the same time she didn’t have any experience with these kinds of intense feelings Feelings that had all come on so suddenly…ones that felt like they could zoom ahead really fast She needed a little tiure out if she could actually iven that any guy she was dating was sure to find his face in a tabloid photo pretty darn fast, which alsoto blow you off last Friday when I said I needed to study," she tried to explain "It’s just that I really need to do well this quarter That’s why I’ve got to work so hard all the ti tells ht"

Oh God, when he looked at her like that, with so much heat and desire, she couldn’t look away from him, couldn’t move All she could do ait for hiselse to fade away beneath the inevitable persuasion of his kiss

Only, right when she could alainst hers, he was the one suddenly taking a step back and letting go of her hand "Da to convince you to do soain, clearly pissed off at hiain--"

"There’s nothing to forgive" Because the truth was that she’d wanted his kiss just asfor you to kiss her And," she added with a small smile that she hoped would soften the blow, "I can say from personal experience that they would have liked it very much" She took a deep breath and made herself add, "Maybe one day I won’t always have to study quite so hard"