He actually blushes, and I have to fight back my grin because I still really want to be mad with him a little bit longer. I kind of like where this is going.
“Yeah. That’s just it. You’re perfect for me there too, but that’s just the start of it. You read me like a book. Always have. You get me like no one else—not even Riley. And then I messaged Dad, and he made me realize—”
I bite my lip to contain the sudden rush of emotion that comes from hearing him say out loud what I’ve always felt. I’d love to throw myself into his arms, but that’s not an option right now with the state of him. The fact that he messaged his father speaks volumes, but I can’t have this conversation in a parking lot while we’re covered in another guy’s vomit.
“Come on.” I tug his arm again. “Take off that shirt and we’ll get you cleaned up, and then we can talk properly.”
SIXTEEN
Bastien
Between us, we manage to get my shirt off without getting any of the vomit on my face. I have to tear the shirt, but that seems like a small sacrifice. The stench clings to my skin and makes my belly churn, but I manage to hold down my nausea. Mostly because a slab of guilt settles on top like a stone slab over a coffin.
I can’t believe I charged in there like that without even calling Vera first, without checking if she wanted me here. I wouldn’t blame her if she never talked to me again. Guy got what he fucking deserved for spiking Vera’s drink, but she didn’t need me to charge in and save her. She had him handled.
Of course she did.
Right now she’s being kind and not chewing my ear off, even though I deserve it. I’m feeling strangely rational again now that she’s right beside me, even if we’re not talking.
I avoid her gaze on the drive to her dorm room, and the only thing that compels me to get out of the car and follow her inside is how badly I want to shower and wash the stink from me.
“Come on. Showers are through here.” She leads me to the communal shower room, and another surge of guilt forms a thick band in my guts at the fact that she’s having to look after me. I’m causing her even more trouble. “Listen, maybe I should go.”
“Bas, just get in the shower, OK? You can have your existential crisis afterward.”
That drags a tiny laugh from some reserve I didn’t know was there. “Yeah. OK.”
“My room is number fifteen when you’re done.”
I shower quickly, relieved to be rid of the smell. Then I pull my underwear and pants back on, leaving my chest bare. I spot clean my jacket, leaving little wet patches on the front, and then I find room fifteen and knock softly on the door.
When she opens it I have to curl my fingers into fists at my side to keep from grabbing her up into my arms. All at once I’m hit with her scent and the sight of her legs, which are bare beneath an oversized sweater—at least I think they’re bare. Gods help me.
Maybe she has on a tiny pair of shorts. Either way my mouth waters, and it takes me a moment to gather my wits enough to talk. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Her smile curves up at one corner of her lips more than the other, and I want to kiss the other corner until it stretches all the way across her mouth.
“You smell a lot better.”
I take a step forward, not knowing if she’s going to let me in or send me home. I know what I deserve, but I still hope…
Her orange-and-lemon scent curls around my senses until my reason gets foggy and I have to drop my nose toward her neckand breathe her in. My next words are unsteady. “You smell amazing. You always smell amazing when you’re not wearing perfume.”
Her hands drift up, hovering over my chest like she wants to touch me but she’s not sure.
I want to tell her to touch me however she wants, wherever she wants, to use me like she did in the cave. I clamp my mouth shut tight around those thoughts, though, and wait for her to decide what she wants. I wouldn’t blame her if she shoved me out the door and told me to drive back to Mosswood.
I don’t expect what she actually says next.
“Did you really mean all that stuff you said back at the bar?”
She still has doubts. I guess that’s fair, given how I was the one who rejected her four years ago. It’s just that, since January, my whole world has shifted, and it’s hard to even remember what the hell I was thinking back then. “Yeah. Every word.”
There’s a little pause which feels like a hundred thousand years. She looks like she wants to cry, and the only thing that stops me dropping to my knees right here in the doorway to her dorm room is the fact that her scent isn’t sad. There’s no trace of the bitter smell of sadness. Instead her scent blooms with rich sweetness, like a flower opening up in the sunshine.
I have about half a heartbeat’s warning before she takes a running jump into my arms. Jacket forgotten, I catch her up, groaning at the feel of her small body against mine. She throws her arms around my shoulders and her legs wrap around my waist, and she clings to me, rubbing her nose through the patch of hair below my collarbone. I stagger forward. The door swings closed behind us, and I kick it for good measure, letting out a satisfied grunt as the latch clicks and she’s all mine.
That’s all I have time for before she lifts her chin and my mouth is on hers, crushing our lips together. I find a place where I can press her against a bare section of wall and try in vain to getmy fill of her. It’s hopeless. I’ll never get enough of her soft lips against mine. Of her flavor. The way she clings to me so fiercely.
