Page 54 of The Consequence of Loving Me

“No, ask Lily. She and I took the thumb bite promise very seriously,” I insist.

Veronica shakes her head at me, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Where do you want to take me?”

The question comes from her, and it takes me a little off guard. I wasn’t expecting her to agree so easily.

“It’s a surprise,” I tell her.

“I don’t do surprises.”

“Well, the only thing I pinky promised not to discuss was how the way you kissed me has me all kinds of fucked up. I promised not to talk about how I’m unsure whether you paint or kiss better.”

“Maverick!” she shrieks, slapping me right on the bicep.

“What? We aren’t talking about it.” I smirk at her, dramatically rubbing the spot she just hit.

Veronica narrows her eyes at me before walking past me and climbing the steps. “You’re exhausting,” she says at the same time she pushes the door open at the top of the stairs.

I race up after her, stepping out into the hallway and then following her into the kitchen.

I keep a careful gaze on her as she rifles around in the refrigerator, clearly looking for something.

“Oh my god, I might kill him,” she mutters, half her body inside the refrigerator.

“Aspen?” I ask, propping my elbows up against the counter next to the fridge.

“I was looking forward to eating that protein bar and it’s gone.” She slams the door shut, letting out a large sigh with the motion.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll get food on our way.”

“Are you going to tell me where we’ll be on our way to?”

“Nope,” I say, standing up from the counter to my full height.

We’re standing close to each other, closer than I anticipated. I’m caught in the moment, staring at the indentation above her top lip. When I look up from her lips, I find her eyes on me—watching intently. I can hear her soft intake of breath. My ears don’t miss how she exhales it slowly.

My hand reaches out on its own accord. I don’t know where I want to touch first, my eyes taking in all of my options. I reach a finger out and trace over her shoulder blade, deftly moving her hair so it falls down her back. I slowly trace the slope of her shoulder blade then dip down. The skin of her collarbone is warm underneath my fingertip as I commit the hollow above her collarbone to muscle memory.

My index finger follows a small line of freckles all the way down to the ink permanently etched on her skin. I have the urge to trace the slopes and planes of the cursive font with my mouth, dipping and curving with every stroke. I don’t give into the urge, but I do follow every stroke of the handwriting with the tip of my finger.

Veronica’s hand flies up and tightly wraps around my forearm, her long nails biting into my skin.

Is it fucked up of me to want her nails to leave a mark on my skin? A reminder that some part of her is feeling a fraction of what I’m feeling?

Her blue eyes face off in a silent conversation with my own. Neither one of us uses words, but somehow, we manage to say everything.

I know I promised not to talk about what’s happening between the two of us, but I’m slowly starting to come to terms with the fact that something about Veronica is making me fall back on every single promise I’ve ever made.

27

Veronica

“Okay, I’ve really tried to not say anything, but where the hell are you taking me?” I look over at Maverick in the driver’s seat, trying for the hundredth time to get him to spill on where we’re going.

He’s as tight lipped as ever, though, because all he does is give me that panty-dropping smirk. His fingers flex around the steering wheel, his lips silently moving along to the song on the radio.

We’ve been in Maverick’s SUV for thirty minutes now and I have no idea where we are. We left the suburban town of our campus and went straight to BFE. No matter what direction I look in, all the eye can see is fields of wheat. Maybe a few cows. A house every so often. But mostly, it’s fields.

I guess that’s what I get for choosing a state in the middle of the country to go to college. I just didn’t want to be anywhere near an ocean.

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