Page 29 of The Sky Between Us

“So, about our date,” I brought it up casually, as I joined her for our morning rush hour preparation.

Hazel moved the milk steamer away, her hand brushing my arm. This tiny contact made my crotch twitch in my pants and I was thankful the apron provided me coverage. My body’s reaction to her was more humiliating than my first kiss incident. I wished I could find a way to get her out of my system. But wherever I looked, it seemed this was going to be a long and bumpy ride. Unfortunately, not that one I planned on the first time I laid eyes on her.

“What about it?” she asked back innocently, not sparing me a glance.

Studying her face, I discovered a faint blush painting her cheeks, and teeth marks on her lower lips. Her body language and face were well trained to hide emotions, but she couldn’t make the small clues disappear.

“Are you already backing out? Where did your desire to kiss me go?” I mocked her, waiting to get a rise out of her.

Hazel snapped the mug down and turned to face me. Her ponytail swung from the sudden movement and her eyes threw daggers.

“Chill,” I caught her lifted hand and gave it a squeeze. I got her to look at me, but I didn’t need her impulse pushing her to the other end which would result in her saying something she would end up regretting. Keeping this in balance was a challenge. “I just wanted you to look at me with your pretty little eyes.”

Her eyes narrowed, before she rolled them. “My eyes are boring; you don’t need to compliment me. I’ll still go out with you, despite not being able to name one good reason I should go.”

A chuckle escaped me as her flush grew a deeper color. With my free hand I reached out, cupping her face, I ran a thumb over her heated cheeks. Her eyelashes batted, bringing my attention to her eyes. I wasn’t lying, they were pretty. “No, you have hazel eyes. Green, brown ones, that change color depending on your mood. But when you are happy, they seem gold. It’s amazing, one can easily get lost in them.”

Her throat bobbed as her tongue peeked out between her lips and she wet them. “When I was born, my dad was the first to hold me. And when my mom asked him how I was, all he could say was ‘Hazel’, my eye color. He said they mesmerized them. That’s how they came up with my name. Originally, they wanted to call me Emma. Imagine that tragedy.”

This time I let out a short laughter. It was incredible to see her mask fall and hear her share such an intimate detail of her life. It meant a lot to me and my conflicted feeling. After all, my goal was to get down to the bottom of her.

“It turned out well as your hair is brown too,” I pointed out, keeping her focused on the topic.

“Yeah, you know my hairdresser always wanted to give my hair an undertone to bring my eye color out more. But I don’t want to dye my hair, I like it as it is, original.”

Most girls I knew were dying to get the first approval from their parents so they could try out all the crazy colors. But this one in front of me wanted to keep it real.

Unease swirled in me, like every other time when I tried a bit too hard to understand her.

If she was all natural and such a lovely person, why be a bitch in the first place? Something must have happened, something she was hiding. And that was what I was looking for. I needed to keep reminding myself of my ultimate goal before I drifted too deep in this, whateverthiswas.

Yet, I had a strange feeling, it was indeed already too late for me.

“You are zoned out,” Hazel poked me out of the blue. “Rush hour is starting in fifteen minutes, and you still didn’t tell me when you want to take me out on that date, remember?”

A half smile stretched across my face. “You seem quite eager to go.”

She replied with a smirk as she used my temporary stillness to get out of my hold. “I just want to get it over with. You know one date and then we part our ways,” she shot back, but this time her voice was missing the usual coldness and mean edge, instead it was laced with humor.

“Hazel McCarthy are you trying to be funny?” I stepped up behind her, my chest pressed up to her back. “You think you are so irresistible that I’m going crazy, while you are left unshaken?” I muttered into her ear.

I didn’t need her to reply with words, her body gave her away. Tiny hairs rose on her arm, shivers ran through her entire body and the flush on her cheeks turned burning pink. She might have tried to play it cool, but deep down she was just as doomed as I was.

“I didn’t think so, baby girl.”

“Don’t call me that,” she spit angrily, but the edge was once again lost from her words. Who could have thought that I could melt even the coldest hearts of all? Certainly not me.

“I think you will soon realize I can call you whatever I want,” I continued teasing her, my breath hitting her neck, tickling it with every spoken word.

Hazel took a deep breath. Her chest rose then fell before turning her head to look at me. The green of her eyes seemed to be the burning flame, representing the one eating her body alive. She was still fighting it, I could see how she tried her best to control her body, but it disobeyed her. Her eyes fell on my lips, before locking again with my gaze.

“And what is it you want to call me?” she challenged me, newfound courage painting her voice.

A grin stretched across my face and I closed the distance between us. My lips brushed her, as I whispered. “Mine.”

Our lips locked in a short, but explosive kiss. I tasted the mint from her chewing gum on them, mixed with the vanilla coffee she probably drank when she came in. One of my arms came to circle her waist while the other landed on the back of her head, holding it in place. I felt her body shaking against mine, hidden desire fighting to break free. But this time I wanted to be the one in control, so I pulled back. An unexpected whimper left her mouth as I stepped back giving her space to process her deepest, darkest needs that I awoke.

“Give it a thought,” I winked before turning on my heels, hiding a satisfied smile. “And I’ll pick you up on Wednesday at 8pm?”

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