Page 50 of The Moment Promised

I laugh so hard, begging him to stop but I can’t get the words out, so I do the only thing I can. I bite his neck.

Finn’s laughter immediately stills, silence drowns the air. I am suddenly very aware that my action could’ve come across as sexual.

“That was not meant to turn you on!” I blurt out. I shake my head immediately, stomach sinking. “I mean, not that youareturned on.” I keep on rambling, not knowing when to shut up, “Or that I could turn you on in the first place, I mean?—”

My tangent is interrupted by Finn’s palm covering my mouth. “Adeline.” He slowly takes his hand off my mouth. He pulls the seat up into the normal sitting position. I adjust myself in the only way I know how. I must be fifty shades of red as I straddle him.

“It’s cute that you get embarrassed so easily, you know that? Help me clean this up, love.” He picks up a gummy and plops it into his mouth, while I resist the pull behind my eyes begging to watch the way his dimple appears as he chews.

I lift myself up to climb back to my own seat, but Finn grabs my hips, pushing me back to where I was.

My eyes widen. I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear to seem at ease with our seating arrangement. I nonchalantly plop gummies into my mouth and shift my body so I no longer straddle Finn, and face forward like a child sitting in their parent’s lap.

I open Netflix on my phone and pick out a romance movie, resting it on the dashboard.

When Finn starts to protest, I connect the Bluetooth and put the volume all the way up. Instead of fighting me on my movie choice, he wraps two arms around my waist and rests his chin on my shoulder.

The way he holds me shocks my system.

I try to focus on the movie, I really do. But instead, I sit in Finn’s lap, hyper fixating on the circles he rubs into my side. His body is warmer than mine, his inhale and exhale breathe life into the insect swarm in my stomach.

I shouldn’t feel this way, not anymore. I thought I cut the line to my feelings for Finn at the beginning of this trip, but we aren’t back home. We’re someplace far away. Everything that tells me this shouldn’t happen melts away. This place is like an alternate dimension where nothing that occurs truly exists anywhere else.

Maybe what I’ve been craving is allowed here, hidden away in the forest.

My breaths become heavy. Instinctually I push my bottom against his pelvis. It’s a micromovement. Finn could’ve easily brushed it off as an accident. I consider doing it again, weighing the pros and cons, dreaming of what could be, when rain drops suddenly pound at the car. It picks up quickly, falling so loud I can hardly hear the movie anymore.

“That came out of nowhere.” Finn’s breath trickles against my ear, sending a chill down my neck.

So much restless energy buzzes within me. “There’s no good in wasting perfectly clean water,” I say, loud enough so he can hear me.

I turn around to grab my bag from the back seat. Finn’s face is so close to mine, I can smell the gummies on his breath. His features reflect his confusion.

I dig through my bag until I find what I am searching for and push open the door.

I gasp as the rainfall chills my skin and steals my breath. Despite there being about a million trees in the campsite, rain still manages to soak my clothes. I let out a laugh, each droplet cleansing me further.

“What in God’s name are you doing?” I hear Finn call from the car as I walk further from it.

I blink away the water that gathers on my eyelashes, turning my head to peer beneath them to see Finn. He has the expression of someone who’s witnessed a friend losing their mind. I smirk at him before turning my attention back in front of me.

I pull my shirt over my head, throwing it at the car. I can’t look at him anymore. My insecurities draw pictures in my head of his face scrunched up in disgust.

I kick off my shoes and peel off my leggings.

I’m left bare, with only my dark purple bra and underwear covering the intimate parts of me. I say a mental thank you to the Adeline twelve hours ago who put on a matching set, as opposed to the beige granny panties I packed. I bend down to grab the bottle of soap. I peek up when I hear the car door being slammed shut.

With the rain dripping down his forehead and the storm surrounding him, he’s unbelievably desirable. He walks with purpose until he reaches me, taking no time when he lifts me over his shoulder. His hand rests on my bottom to support me, making me ache for him.

The world is upside down as he walks back toward the car.

I pound at his back. “What are you doing? I didn’t get to wash my hair!” The blood rushes to my face.

“I don’t want some sick fucks watching you like this.”

I suddenly picture all my deepest insecurities. “Like what?”

He sighs, stopping in his tracks. “With water dripping down your half naked body, Adeline. It’s every guy’s fucking dream.”

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