Page 82 of That Secret Something

My heart squeezed, all of my senses lighting on fire. I heard the words leave Rebecca’s lips, but I still couldn’t quite believe them.

“Lily’s told me many times to keep away from you.” That sentence sobered me, and she took another step forward. “But my heart wouldn’t listen. I can understand why she wanted to keep you all for herself. I mean, you’re incredible, Jess. Even if you can’t see that yourself sometimes. You’re smart, and kind, and oh so very sexy, in a way that you don’t even realise.” She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t open with you about this. I didn’t want you to doubt what we have. You’re the only person that’s ever seen me, Jess. Everyone else just thinks I’m a fuck-up.” She paused, her eyebrows knotting together. “The last person I ever want to think I’m a fuck-up is you.”

“I’d never think you were a fuck-up, Rebecca.”

“Really? Even now?”

“Yes. Even now. But that doesn’t mean I’m not mad about what happened. I want us to be able to talk, to trust each other.”

Rebecca tentatively reached out to hold my cheek. She smiled when I didn’t pull away. “I want that too. I want to do things right. Like I said earlier, there are a lot of things I wish I could change. Like having the confidence to tell you from the start just how into you I was, so you’d never doubt my feelings, and the confidence to not keep you a secret, because you don’t deserve that. I want to stop focusing on the things that don’t matter, and focus on the things that do.” She paused, chewing on her lip. “I almost lost the game on Sunday because of this vision in my head. But then the moment was gone, anyway.” Her gaze drifted over my face, making me nervous. She was so close I could count the freckles on her nose. “I think I had this wall up because I always knew you had the power to change my life. You…see me, Jess. You go beyond all the things most people would want to see. You see the bad bits. The pieces of me I try to hide.” She swallowed, and I caught the movement. “That’s fucking scary.”

“You scare me,” I managed, looking into those enchanting eyes.

“Well, you’re truly terrifying.” She grinned, the dimple forming in her left cheek.

“Charming.”

We both let out a soft laugh, and Rebecca brushed a hand through my hair, resting it behind my neck. My pulse quickened at the touch.

“I don’t want to hide things from you,” she said. “I want to be open, to be honest, to be soppy with you. I want to be the one you come home to. I want to kiss you in the street and not worry about who’s watching. I want to listen to you talk about your favourite books, and I want to make you watch Pulp Fiction because how have you not seen it yet?” She gave me a soft dimpled smile and exhaled. “I want to forget all the rules. To burn them and tear them to shreds. I just want us. Me and you. All of it.”

Tears pricked my eyes, but Rebecca looked deep into them, unafraid. She closed the distance between us and captured my lips with hers.

I melted into the kiss, my hands finding her lower back. She pulled me closer, and heat flashed up my spine, until she stopped suddenly to look at me, both of us breathless.

“I fucking love you, Jess.”

My heart swelled, seeing the universe in her eyes. “I fucking love you too.”

She grinned, pulling me back to her and kissing my face all over. I giggled but didn’t push her off. Her lips found the favourite spot on my neck, and I groaned, the mood shifting instantly.

“Let’s never fall out again,” I murmured, lost in the feeling of her hands on my waist.

“But then we’ll be missing out,” she whispered in my ear, that low raspy register that made my knees weak.

“On what?”

“Make-up sex.”

I let out a laugh. “Is that so?”

“I hear it’s all the rage.”

“Yeah, right. Just kiss me, you fool.”

I caught her smile before her soft lips found mine with a new sense of urgency. My stomach rolled. I shrugged her out of her shirt and pushed her down on the bed so I could straddle her.

I was about to kiss her when my back snapped straight, and I eyed my now-clean bedside table. “Did you…did you clean up in here?”

Rebecca looked up at me, her eyes hooded and her perfect pink mouth open. She gave a small shrug. “It did smell pretty bad. I had no idea my absence would result in such a bombsite.”

“You’re the worst.” I hit her with a pillow, and she laughed.

“Uh-huh. I’ll be whatever you want, as long as you don’t stop kissing me.”

Twenty-Seven

There was a soft plucking of strings, then the white double doors to the veranda opened, followed by the rest of the band joining in a smooth symphony.

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