“You’re so hot,” I suddenly heard myself say into his neck. His laughter stopped and he moved his head to the side to look at me. Suddenly, I wondered if I should have said that at all.
“Val . . .” he whispered breathily.
“Yes?” my equally breathy voice whispered back.
“You’re so beautiful.” He smiled at me, not the silly goofy smile of before. A warm, genuine, and dare I say, sexy smile.
“Really?” I lifted my head so that I could look at him better.
“So insanely beautiful.” He looked at me and my heart stopped. Wait! This wasthe look, wasn’t it? The look that I had always wanted to see on Matt’s face, but never had. I blushed. I couldn’t help it. Little prickly flames licked my cheeks and I was sure I’d gone a bright shade of crimson. This was the drugs talking. It must be. Alex and I were travel buddies,weren’t we?And the green ribbon! The fucking ribbon. Rule number one!What was happening?
“VAL!” a voice screamed at me from my subconscious and at first I looked around to see if someone was talking to me.
“Yes?” I replied into the air.
“You know the answer,” the voice said.
“What?” I asked, looking up into the sky this time, as if this was where the voice had come from. Was it a divine voice? Not that I believed in the divine, but bloody hell someone was talking to me,weren’t they?
“Did I say something?” Alex asked, looking confused
“Did you?” I asked, equally confused now.
“I don’t know.” Alex looked around too.
“I think someone is speaking to us,” I whispered in his ear, leaning forward so the voice couldn’t hear me.
“Is it Siri?” Alex whispered and I started laughing again. Alex joined in and once again we were gasping for air. We finally stumbled back up to our feet and smiled at each other goofily.
“Do you really not remember that kiss?” Alex suddenly asked, totally changing the direction of the conversation.
“You sound like me now,” I said with a smile. “Wondering if Matt remembered the kiss.”
Alex stuck a finger out at me and waggled it. “If Matt forgot that kiss, then he has a serious problem. No one can ever forget kissing you. You are, like, the best kisser ever.”
“The best kisser?” I burst out laughing again. No one had ever called me that.
“I’m being serious.” Alex took a step towards me. “That was literally the best kiss of my entire life.”
“No!” I gasped. “You’re kidding. Was it?”
“Yup.” He nodded and his eyes drifted down to the hickey on my neck. My hand automatically came up and touched it as it burned.
“I wish I remembered it now,” I said.
Alex stepped backwards and leaned against one of the trees, his arms were folded, his eyes locked on me. They were almost the color of liquid mercury now. Swirling and glistening and dancing in the ever-changing light. So beautiful to watch. So hypnotizing, so, so . . .
“We could do it again.” I suddenly heard some version of myself say.
He smiled. “We could,” he stated matter-of-factly. “But what if you forget it again?”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and waved it at him. “We’ll record it,” I said, walking over to him.
His eyes widened in surprise. “Interesting idea.”
I stepped closer to him. Then he stepped. I stepped. He stepped again and soon we were face to face. Only a few centimeters of nothingness separated us. We looked at each other and smiled. I looked down at my phone and flicked my finger across the screen until I arrived at the video. I turned the phone around, as if taking a selfie, and held my arm out to the side. We were still smiling at each other. I could feel the effects of the weed really kicking up a notch now. It pulsed through me, making my body warm and relaxed. I felt like I was standing on a sunny beach somewhere, soaking up the sun. I pressed record and leaned in until our lips touched. His lips brushed mine. Not innocently or softly, but in a hard and demanding way. And then he pulled me closer and before I knew what was happening, his lips slammed into mine, covering my mouth with a hot, hungry kiss.
I opened my mouth and soon he was kissing me harder and deeper, with an urgency that spurned me on. I wrapped my free arm around the back of his head and slid my fingers through his hair, tugging on it tightly as I changed the pace up and took control. Slower this time. I ran my tongue over his lips, tracing them, caressing them. His breathing quickened and he let out a moan. I could feel his sharp breaths against my mouth as I teased him relentlessly with the tip of my tongue, darting it across his lips.
