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He presses his forehead to mine, his eyes closing. “My dick might fall off from overuse. But I’ll take the risk.”
“You’re taking an awful lot of risks lately.”
“You’re worth it,” he says, and wraps me up in his arms. “Told you, babe.”
I say nothing, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
***
“You really think someone is after you, huh?” My mouth is full of cheese-and-ham baguette, so it comes out garbled.
Yet he apparently understands, because he nods and puts down his own half-eaten baguette sandwich. “I know it sounds absurd.”
“More than my story? Please.” I swallow and take another bite. I’m starving. “Though I don’t get why anyone would be after you. Me, I have my dad’s debts on my back. But you?”
He leans back in his chair and taps a rhythm with his fingers on the tabletop. “Fuck, I don’t know. Can’t make heads or tails of it. I mean…” He wipes a hand over his mouth and glares at his plate. “Why? What happened a year ago to change everything?”
“If it’s true.”
“If it’s true,” he agrees. “Fuck. Ray, there’s—”
Thunder booms, rattling the windows, and I jump a mile, my chair crashing back to the floor. “Shit!”
“It’s just thunder.” He gets up and comes to me, drawing me into a bear hug. I cling to him.
“God, I hate thunder. But I love storms. Isn’t that weird?”
“You love other Storms apart from me?” He squeezes me until I yelp.
“You’re the perfect Storm,” I tell him, and he laughs. I love the sound. It makes me smile. I also love the fact he came over to hug me.
He’s easy to love.
“How come you don’t have a girlfriend?” I let him drag me back to the table as the rain starts pelting the kitchen windows and lightning flashes in the night. He straightens my chair, and I sit back down, a little sheepishly.
I mean, who else is scared shitless of thunder at the age of nineteen?
Only me.
“How about you?” he shoots back.
“Yeah, well. I know I’m irresistible,” I wink at him, “but with all the running about, I haven’t been able to keep even a girlfriend, let alone a boyfriend.”
“You’re the prettiest girl on earth,” he says, and I snort, picking up my baguette. God, if I’m not careful, I might even start believing him.
“You haven’t answered my question.” I brandish my baguette at him. “You’ve only been hiding here for, what, a month?”
“A bit longer.” He rubs the back of his neck, mouth twisting. “Haven’t had a steady girlfriend since high school. I went out with girls, messed around, but it didn’t stick. I just couldn’t trust them.”
“You trusted me easily enough.”
His eyes flash at me, a brilliant blue. “That’s because you saved me from the storm.”
“You mean, from yourself.”
He smiles. “That, too.”
We’re both silent for a while, listening to the rain, with his words hanging between us, bright like stars. I don’t know what I meant, but he obviously does, and something about it is twisting my heart.
