He stayed.
Here with me.
And he showed me something that scares him.
This truth overwhelms me with a force that robs my own fear of its power over me.
‘We can do this. Together,’ I say, and I feel braver than I have in a long time.
‘Together?’ He wraps his arms around my back and gently pulls me toward him.
I nod. Around us the crickets are chirping, the wind makes the leaves rustle. His breath brushes my lips, hot and fast. My heartbeat quickens, my knees grow weak, but he holds me tight.
He has already tried to kiss me several times, and each time I stopped him. Now he doesn’t come any closer but only looks at me with his green eyes. And I want to do it. Without asking, without doubting, without worrying. I don’t want to think anymore about whether it’s good or bad or right or wrong. I just want to let go. Enjoy. Live.
Just here.
Just us.
Just now.
And at the same time so much more than that.
Slowly I close the last few inches between us. My lips touch his. He returns my kiss, and what I was just longing for becomes reality.
The world turns featherlight, time and space no longer exist. What usually weighs on me dissolves. Our kiss carries me away, I feel weightless. Boundless. Free.
My thoughts drift away like clouds in the wind, and inside me a silence spreads that is not empty but full of light. I feel nothing but him, but us, and in this moment, there is nothing that holds me captive. Nothing that pulls me back. Only the feeling of flying.
Chapter Twenty-Six
JADEN
More.
That’s the thought that consumes me. That’s what I want: more.
More of this kiss, more of Nyla’s closeness, more of this high she sets off inside me.
Nyla sighs softly against my lips.
In the distance, engines roar to life.
I pull her tighter against me, kiss her more intensely, feel my heart open, and let it happen. She’s allowed in, she should pick a place for herself, anywhere at all. As long as she stays here with me, in my arms. In my life.
Light flickers across my closed eyelids.
‘They’re coming,’ someone shouts, whoever that is. ‘Hey, Jaden, break it up, we’re about to get busy.’
‘We should…,’ Nyla murmurs against my lips.
I nod, but I keep on kissing her anyway. Just one more minute. One breath. One moment.
‘Okay, that’s enough now.’ Ray’s voice is suddenly very close. A hand touches my shoulder, and it’s not Nyla’s.
I lose Nyla’s lips, the bubble we had so wonderfully lost ourselves in together bursts. But the memory remains, and it makes me smile.
Nyla steps aside, brakes squeal, car doors open. A policewoman with her hair pulled back in a tight bun comes up to us on the porch.
