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I gesture for her to walk up the stairs. She goes and I’ll admit to watching her butt move from side to side. “What if I said yes?”
“What about it? Right or left?”
“Right. If I said yes, would you have come up?”
She takes a right at the top of the stairs and glances at me from under hooded eyelashes. “Yes.”
Screw me. “Really?”
She laughs and I have no idea what that means. Stella peeks into my bedroom and the left side of her mouth tilts up. “Nice.”
My eyebrows pull together, knowing my room isn’t anything special. Mom decorated it. I sleep in it. I never get bent out of shape over the contents. I cock a hip against the doorframe across from Stella. “What’s nice?”
“It has a bed.”
All the air is sucked out of my chest. “Stella...”
She steps into me and rests her hand on my chest. I swear to God the heat of her fingers burns past my clothes to my skin.
“Where is your family?”
“Gone. To Lexington.”
Stella bites her bottom lip. “So...we have until midnight?”
I’ll give her a hell of a lot longer if we can figure this out. “Yeah.”
She reaches up to touch her barrette and I capture her hand, knotting her fingers with mine. I don’t want her nervous, not with me. “I didn’t bring you here to make out. You showed me a part of you; I wanted you to see where I come from.”
Stella moves her thumb on my chest and my blood becomes very, very warm.
“We should talk—about what happens after today,” she says.
I nod and even though I should place eight feet of distance between us and possibly a wall, I slip a hand onto the curve of her waist and nearly lose my mind when Stella’s breath catches in her throat.
“We’ll talk...soon.” Think with your brain, moron. “We should talk now.”
Stella also nods, but then starts to shake her head no while licking those beautiful lips. They look soft and I long to find out if they are.
“Jonah,” she whispers and those gray eyes plead with me.
My hand eases from her hip to her face, my thumb brushing against her cheek. Stella leans into me—all soft curves, all feminine, a heat that sparks and smolders at the same time. Her head tilts up as I lower mine and I know the moment our lips touch, any hope I had of returning to my old life will no longer exist.
Stella
A small voice yells at me from the back of my mind: this is more, this is more, this is MORE!
But as Jonah’s lips hover within a whisper of mine and his breath heats my face, I don’t care that I’m setting my heart up for a crushing blow. I fist the material of his shirt and it’s not to keep him close, it’s to prevent me from running.
For a few seconds, I want to know what it’s like not to settle or dream, but to live. To be the girl who’s cared for, to be the girl who’s cherished, to be the girl who’s kissed.
Jonah’s arm tightens around my waist and his fingers tunnel into my hair. His touch causes a hum along my body, a vibration in my blood, and as I push off my toes to cross that small distance left between us, my lower lip trembles with anticipation.
I hold my breath the moment our lips connect. The soft pressure is like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings. His fingers move in my hair and the gentle massage creates a warming sensation throughout my muscles. Like stepping into a hot bath.
Jonah moves his lips and I follow along, drinking in his heat, his goodness. I inhale and I’m overwhelmed with the scent of spices, the scent of Jonah, and it causes me to desire more.
I part my lips and a soft moan leaves my throat when Jonah slides his tongue to meet mine. Liquid warmth explodes in my body and I become lost. I release my grip and my fingers trail along his chest, feeling the plane of his muscles through his shirt.
