AllFreeNovel
Share Us
19
My heart’s racing.
I’m swaddled in anticipation for Reid to find me, and I’m unsure what to make of the high level of excitement.
Is it silly to play a children’s game when we’re grown? Does it mean something else now?
“Cassie?” Reid taunts a reasonable distance from where I’m hiding.
I slap my hand over my mouth and sink deeper behind the thick tree. Hardly any sunlight is seeping into this side of the yard, so the shadows cover me.
It falls quiet again, with only birds chirping overhead. I tug my bottom lip between my teeth while listening keenly. There’s no sound of Reid anymore. I don’t even hear his feet.
Did he walk to the fort thinking I went there?
Everything becomes significantly still, akin to the moment in the movie before an epic event.
Too anxious, I peek around the right side of the tree and search the area. Reid is nowhere in sight.
“Ah!” I squeal as he suddenly jerks my back.
“Found you.” Reid heaves me from my hiding spot, and we tumble together in the grass, laughing.
“Too easy,” he teases. “This was one of your spots back then.”
“Whatever.” I playfully shove at his chest, only to end up leaving my hands there to feel the strong thumping like the night before.
Gradually, our laughter starts to settle as if we’re becoming aware of our position.
Fire blazes in my belly at the feel of his bulge at my pelvic. Breathing deeply, he hovers his face closer just as he throbs against me, making me gasp and push him off. Yet it feels as if I waited a few seconds too long. Did I like that?
Reid sits up in the grass, staring at me intensely. “Sorry. Hormones. That happens sometimes.”
“It’s okay.” I straighten to full height, brush off my clothes, and try to ignore what just happened. “Hide and seek was fun, huh.” I sputter a short laugh. “Like old times.”
“Hmm.”
His unraveling gaze has me shifting from one leg to the other. Why is he staring at me like that?
Reid pushes up from the ground and stands before me. I notice his hand moves just a tad as if he wants to touch me.
“I’m going inside,” I blurt and start towards the house. He shadows me, the heat of him waking a dirty need under my skin.
I enter through the kitchen and pause at the island. I’m watching for Reid to pass me when suddenly, I feel his slight touch on my lower back. It snatches the air from my lungs.
He doesn’t meet my gaze. He continues into the garage without a word.
I hear his car leaving soon after.
“Uhh,” oozes out, and I arch over the island and fight to normalize my breathing.
I press my trembling hand to my chest, feeling the wild hammering of my heart.
These emotions… I can’t let them grow.
We’re cousins. There can’t be anything more.
I don’t see Reid again until we’re having dinner across from each other. I attempt to avoid looking at him. But I find it rather difficult not to.
