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I wanted to point out it was only a tradition if it was something that occurred yearly, unless she meant in general, but I was frozen to the hardwood. My sock clad feet were rooted in place. The attention on us now, the eyes boring into us, were relentless and insistent. They wanted a kiss, and nothing was going to change their minds, not even the fact that Darius was scowling at them in a way that would have made me immediately reconsider all my life choices.
“Just do it!” Lavena shouted.
A muscle jumped in Darius’s jaw. I only noticed because I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Maybe it was the paralyzing fear, or my already highly aroused brain soaked in desperation and need, but I was all too aware of how sharp and rugged his features were, how dark and intense his eyes were beneath impossibly long lashes, how beautiful and perfect his mouth was. Kissing him was all I wanted, all I could ask for but not like this, not surrounded by everyone in our lives watching. What if I slipped and jumped him? What if I lost control and begged him to fuck me right there?
I was on the verge between running and staying when he turned to me. My heart kicked in my chest in panic. I no longer had any idea whether or not I was breathing. The shouts and sounds around us faded to a dull roar in the background. The others vanished. It was just him, me, and the screaming voices in my head.
The man didn’t move right away. He could have swung in, slapped a sloppy kiss to my lips and run off, but he simply stood there, magnetic gaze watching me back, something hot and primal swirling in their dark depths. The hunger dried my mouth. It muddled my thoughts. I wasn’t thinking when I flicked the tip of my tongue over my bottom lip. It was a natural reflex, yet I was aware if nothing more when that simple gesture captured his attention. He followed the motion the way we both knew he shouldn’t. He must have realized it too because a muscle bunched in his cheek. His eyes were hard and focused when they moved up to mine again.
“Hurry up!” someone yelled.
Neither of us noticed. The spell surrounding us was too strong, too potent. I was mesmerized by the wall of heat rising off him, the intensity pulling me in. That close, he was a looming force towering over me, drowning me in the rich scent of musk and leather. My lips parted to say something. Fuck if I knew what. Literally anything to get him to kiss me already. Darius’s nostrils flared with his sharp inhale as if already knowing.
“Don’t speak,” he warned.
Dizzy, I forced a hard swallow and a weak, “Darius…” that had fire leaping in his eyes.
His head dropped, closing all the space between us so rapidly I actually moaned.
The sound prompted something out of him I would vaguely call a growl before his hot breath was on my cheek, inches from my tingling lips.
“What did I fucking say, kitten?”
The hiss was followed by a hard, warm kiss to the spot before he yanked away.
“That’s not a kiss!” his mom booed.
“That’s all you vultures are getting,” he shot back, and I was the only one who heard the tightness in his words, the slight breathlessness.
I buzzed as if livewires had been imbedded under my skin. The rest of the night had me on the edge of what felt like sanity. Every sensitive spot on my body tingled with relentless need for release. I could hardly wait to leave, to return to my apartment, to strip down to nothing and bring myself over.
When my dad rose to finally leave, I jumped up with him.
“I thought we were hanging out,” Lavena protested.
“We are. I’m just going to see my dad out and I have to check on something at my apartment.”
“Like what?” Lavena pressed.
I could feel the eyes watching me, waiting for an answer I didn’t have.
“None of your business, brat.” Darius pushed to his own feet. “I’m heading out, too.”
There was no reason for it, but my heart all but exploded in my chest. It thumped with an aggressive force that made my bones rattle. I tried to tell myself he was headed to his own apartment, and this was not a sly way of sneaking into mine but, holy, my brain jumped to all the conclusions.
Every nerve ending was aware of him and me and my dad packed in the elevator. My dad made small talk and thanked Darius for letting him join the Medlock family for the holidays.
“I’m sorry Cecily couldn’t come.”
“She’s going to try next time,” Dad promised as he always did.
Darius nodded. “Tell her I look forward to it and that she was missed.”
“I will and thank you for the card. She really enjoys them,” Dad said, holding up a thick, white envelope I knew was the Medlock yearly gift to my mom.
Darius had never met my mother. Not once. None of the Medlocks had except Lavena. But every year, the whole family sent her a card with a gift card to get herself something online so she wouldn’t feel alone or left out. I had no idea what the amount on it was, but Mom always ended up having a shiny, new appliance of some sort when I went to visit. That level of understanding and kindness was why I loved that family so much.
Mom hadenochlophobia. It was something that seemed to get worse over time. Growing up, I was that child who didn’t have either her parents at events. When I graduated high school, only my dad was in the stands. It never bothered me because it had always been that way and I understood. She couldn’t do it and I wasn’t going to make her feel bad for something she couldn’t control. Plus, my dad made up for it. He attended every sport, every school outing, evert event. He took a million pictures and videos and he’d watch them with my mom at home who I knew felt horrible for not being able to be there; I’d heard her tell my dad a hundred times through sobs she wished she wasn’t like that. I couldn’t be angry with her.
