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“Lu,” I murmur against her lips, pulling her against me so there isn’t a single bit of space between us. Our bodies meld together as my arm wraps around her waist, the hand at the back of her neck sliding down to her shoulders.
Her skin is warm beneath mine, and I feel goose bumps rise beneath my touch as my fingers gently brush against the bare skin of her shoulder, against the tiny straps I imagined pulling down this morning.
We kiss and kiss, never stopping, never coming up for air as we breathe each other in instead. My lips move slowly against hers, tongues touching. Everything about this moment feels intense and amazing and a million times better than I ever could have imagined it to be.
I don’t ever want it to end.
When the song ends though, we both pull back, far enough that our lips part, but close enough to still share a breath. I rest my forehead against hers, my eyes closed as I try to calm the craziness inside my head and my heart.
They are warring against me, against each other. One of them telling me to stop, to take this slow because I don’t want to fuck it up and I don’t want to get burnt. The other telling me to ignore all that shit and drag her inside, take this further, where we both want it to go.
Where there’s no turning back.
“Jack,” she breathes out, my name nothing more than a quiet whisper between us, but still with a tiny trace of hesitation that makes up my mind.
“I don’t want to stop,” I whisper, my forehead still against hers, eyes closed. “But I’m going to.”
I feel her fingers, which are still twisted in my t-shirt, tighten.
“I don’t want to, Lu,” I tell her, my voice husky. “But tonight, I will.”
“Jack,” she repeats and I open my eyes, find hers already open, watching me.
Pulling back a little, I smile at her, brush a thumb across her cheekbone. “Goodnight, Lulu,” I whisper, leaning in to press one last kiss against her lips.
Then I uncurl my arms from her body and before I can question whether this is the right thing to do, I turn and walk down the steps, across the lawn to my place and go inside.
I wake with the sun, my body wired from too little sleep and from everything else that happened yesterday.
I’d thought Lu showing up at my house to take me to lunch was going to be the best part of my day. Had thought the grape war with her and the kids was an added bonus. But fuck me if that kiss last night didn’t blow everything else out of the water.
“God,” I groan, shoving a hand through my hair as I drag myself from bed.
I pull on some running clothes, knowing this is going to be the only way I can work all this excess energy off. I should be exhausted, I barely slept after I came inside, but instead, I’m on edge, my body hyped and unable to stay still.
After a couple of half-arsed stretches, I head out the front door, glancing across to Lu’s place because I can’t stop myself.
It’s quiet and still and I imagine her inside, asleep in her bed. Images of me lying beside her, of waking her and working all this energy off in a very different way flood my brain. Groaning again, I force myself to look away, to get moving and run as hard as I can, pushing my body to exhaustion.
I do eight laps before I finally stop and my legs protest any more movement and I have to give in before I collapse.
When I get back to my house, everything looks the same as when I left, no sign of movement at Lu’s. Reluctantly, I drag myself inside, take a long, barely warm shower before dressing and making some coffee, all the time wondering what’s going to happen when we finally see each other today.
Will things be different between us? How could they not be? After that kiss, everything’s changed.
Everything.
I’ve been in the shed for two hours by the time Oscar wanders in.
“Hey little dude,” I call out, as I empty the last of the crushed juice from the smaller crusher Lu has. “What’s going on?”
Oscar takes us through our complicated handshake routine before taking in what I’m doing. Shooting me a sideways glance, he says, “What’s happening here?”
I grin. “A secret,” I tell him. “So, zip it, alright?” I say, as I drag my fingers across my mouth in the universal action for shut the hell up.
Oscar grins at me, arms crossed over his chest as he rocks on his heels. “Yeah, and what’s in it for me?”
I chuckle, ruffling up his hair as I drag the tank I was filling out to a back room, Oscar following close behind me. He watches wordlessly as I pump the juice into an old oak barrel, checking the acidity and sugar levels before putting a stopper in the top and jamming it in with the mallet.
