“Gorgeous?” I repeated, eyeing Jaxon suspiciously. Was he trying to be funny?

“Afraid so, Sara. You look hot.” He spoke so casually and then shrugged as he looked around the place. “Most of these girls pale next to you. That’s why some of them are staring daggers into the back of your head.”

Before I could respond, we were barraged by some of my peers and their dates. Being among friendly faces, I was able to forget the attention even though it felt like there was a neon sign on the two of us.

The evening was fun. We had a buffet followed by an awards ceremony that students had participated in to vote for their favourite friends. Afterwards, tables were pushed aside and the dance floor was made bigger to accommodate everyone.

Jaxon, who looked calm and easy, had a content smile on his face throughout. Then he grabbed my arm and forced me up.

“I’m not a dancer,” I squeaked loudly, pushing myself back into my seat.

“Don’t be boring, Sara,” he replied, pulling me forward onto my feet. “I told you I was going to dance with you. So come.”

I was mortified at first, especially when he broke out dancing in front of my stiff body. I covered my face with my hands, fighting the blush that wormed itself in. But he grabbed me and brought me close to him, moving in ways that forced my own body to reciprocate. Pulling away my hands so that I could see him, he raised his eyebrows and said, “Relax, Tiny. Just enjoy yourself. Pretend no one’s watching.”

Giggling like a school girl and terrified of how I must have looked, I did what he asked. Everyone was so involved with their partners, and with their friends, there was no concern over anyone’s terrible dancing skills. In fact, as I looked around, there weren’t many fantastic dancers at all. Feeling more at ease, I let go and moved along with the music.

Despite the amount of attention girls were paying Jaxon, he batted nobody an eye. He kept his eyes solely on me, bringing me even closer when the music slowed down so that I could see nothing but his face and shoulders.

“You clean up really well,” I muttered to him.

“Expected me to look like a bum?”

“No, just not this slick.”

He smiled widely. “I’ll take that as a compliment, right?”

“Does it sound like an insult?”

I felt his shoulders shrug under my arms. “Telling me I look good tonight might mean I look terrible most days. So, knowing you, there could be a hidden insult somewhere in there.”

I stared into his deep blue eyes, watching the humour dance about his face faster than our own dancing. In fact, we were way slower than everyone else, especially now that the music had changed and picked up pace. My arms still comfortably sat around his neck, and my fingers absentmindedly pulled at the back of his hair, tangling it around each finger.

“You should know better than anyone else that you’re handsome,” I said to him, motioning with my chin around us. “You’ve never had a problem with girls. Have you ever even been rejected?”

“No, but like I said before, I never go looking for it.” He was suddenly serious with that statement.

“Why not?” Girls were never a topic of interest between us. This was probably the first time I ever probed him about it.

“Hadn’t met someone I wanted to chase, I guess.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “That feels really relaxing, by the way.”

“What?”

“Your fingers in my hair.”

I frowned at him and assumed he was trying to change the topic of our conversation, so I dropped it. I eyed his straight nose, full lips, chiselled chin, high cheekbones and random freckle here and there, and agreed internally that he would never have to go hunting for a girl – they would come crawling to him. And for the first time, I could really see that beauty about him. It wasn’t the usual “Yeah he’s hot, who cares” attitude, it was more of a “Holy shit, how did I not notice it before?”

The first improper thought I’d ever had of him was right then and there, and it was staring at his lips, thinking, I wonder what those taste like. I felt immediately regretful for thinking it; after all, he was my best friend, nothing more.

“You alright?” he asked me.

I must have reddened significantly at my dirty thought. “I’m fine.” I turned my head away from him, mentally kicked myself, and wondered if it was just the special night that had evoked those feelings in me.

“No you’re not.” He put a finger under my chin and forced me to look back up at him. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

I heaved a shrug, finding it suddenly hot in here with his gaze so intently fixated on me. “Just thinking about what you said. I find it hard to believe you never wanted someone.”

“I didn’t say I never wanted someone.”

“So you do?”

He smiled down at me, wistfully. “I guess you could say that.”

“Well, what’s stopping you? I’m sure she’d move mountains to be with Jaxon Barlow, the bad boy of Gosnells.”

His smile faltered. “That’s not all I am.”

“That’s not you at all,” I corrected him. “I’m just stating a common fact on why girls are crazy for you.”

“I don’t want any of them.” After he said that, I felt his arm tightening around me, and his face coming closer to me. He rested his forehead against my own, and though we were still rocking back and forth, we weren’t at all paying attention to the fast paced music in the background.

It was the feel of him around me, of his forehead against mine, of his gentle and caring voice, and of the way he was looking at me that had my heart stopping cold in its tracks; something was unfolding fast, and I was too terrified to confront it.

That dirty thought of kissing him morphed into doing more. Images flashed through my mind: of his bare strong body wrapped around mine, of his hot breath in my mouth, of his hands roaming up and down my body. His experience would undoubtedly send me over the precipice of bliss. I imagined him satisfied, or nearing the height of it; of his moaning in my ear; of his hands tightening around my waist as he drove himself and me to dizzying ecstasy.

I was fucking him in my head while he was holding me tightly with his forehead against my own! This was wrong, and yet it sent such delicious jolts of pleasure through me. How on earth could it be wrong if it felt so damn right? All the years of suppressing the magnetic pull that was Jaxon had suddenly broken free, and I was orbiting crazily around the scorching sun that was him, just waiting and wanting to be burned.