Chapter 11: Chapter 11: The Kiss

Kaden Sario is as still as stone beneath me, our mouths close to touching. Can he feel my heart? The way it’s beating against his, threatening to tear through my chest at any given moment? We’re not taught how to kiss. There were no kisses shared between Fortunates and Unfortunates in the slides I studied in class. In fact, a kiss between the two classes is considered unlawful if construed as romantic.

“If kissing isn’t hard, why do I feel so out of my depth?” I ask, losing breath the longer his brittle obsidian irises bore into mine.

“Because you want to be good at it. You want to please me.”

Do I? My eyelids flutter. He’s right. I do want to please him. Pleasing him is the key to my survival, and, if he needs me to boost his family name, as he claims, then I am valuable to him.

“I want to please you. I’m afraid I don’t know how.”

“Kiss me,” he simply says, blasé, and I pull back.