Page 62 of Risking it All

Anywhere with him. “Sure, but only if we stay at five-star hotels.”

“Only the best all the way.” Then his smile waned. “I plan on getting me, Lyra, and Camila as far from here as I can. My neighborhood is dangerous, and we have to leave to survive.”

My smile fell, too, as that sounded a lot like leaving me. “Can you move to a different part of the city?”

Relic shook his head. “That type of trouble knows how to cross streets.”

Feeling stupid for the sadness, I glanced down at my toes. Didn’t Relic and I promise each other no attachments? Wasn’t I the one who first claimed I didn’t want a relationship?

“But I’ll have a working car then, Mazie Hutchinson,” he added. “And I plan on coming back here as often as I can to see you.”

Happiness blossomed within me, and I met his beautiful blue eyes that looked at me as if he desired to stare at me forever. But there was a ton a fear inside me, mountains of doubt. I thought I’d be okay not knowing what we were, but now…I had become attached. “Are we doing a relationship?”

The emotion in his eyes softened my soul. “I lied about waiting for Marsh to pick me up. I’ve been sitting on that curb for the past two hours because I couldn’t stop thinking of you. I don’t claim to understand love or relationships. But I do know that, besides Camila, you’re the first person I think of when I wake in the morning, the last person I think of before bed, and I even dream of you. I’m not looking for you to change your plans and dreams, and I’m sure as shit not pressuring you to put any labels on us, but I like having you in my life. Even if that means I have to drive hundreds of miles to see you.”

My heart exploded with warmth and happiness. “I’d drive hundreds of miles to see you, too.”

Relic graced my lips with a kiss, and it felt more like a promise from his soul to mine. He was mine, I was his, and we were together. Maybe I was falling in love.

He pulled back and tenderly caressed my cheek. “I should leave and let you sleep.”

Panic welled within me because I wasn’t ready for him to leave…not yet. “I’m going to stay up and watch a movie. Would you like to watch one with me?”

Relic slowly raised one eyebrow. “I’m assuming you have parents somewhere in this mammoth house?”

“Yes.”

His other eyebrow raised to join the first as he waited for the answer to his unasked questions. When I said nothing, he added, “As much as you’ve been playing on the lines of wild side, how are you going to feel if we get caught? At the end of the day, Macie Hutchins is the rule follower.”

“Maybe I don’t want to be Macie,” I said slowly as I reached deep for courage. “Maybe I prefer being Mazie.”

Relic’s eyes flashed with something dangerous, something raw, something instinct told me meant he wanted to kiss me.

“My family is used to me coming down to watch movies when insomnia sets in. They won’t bother us, but I understand if you want to leave.”

Relic kept his eyes locked on mine, and his voice had a husky tone as he said, “I don’t want to go.”

Was this why Ariel rebelled and pushed boundaries like she did? Did she feel this exhilarating spark of being alive? “What movie do you want to watch?”

“Whatever you want as I only plan on watching you.”

Electricity built between us, a gravitational pull like none I had felt before. “I lied. I don’t want to watch a movie. I want to kiss you.”

“Couch or bed?”

I wet my suddenly dry lips. “Bed.”

He went to the coffee table, grabbed a remote, turned on the TV and then sat beside me on the bed. He gave me the remote, told me to pick a movie, and then my cheeks heated with excitement and slight embarrassment at what we were about to do as he unlaced his boots and slipped them off. I absently picked one of the first movies on my favorite’s list and my pulsepounded through my entire body as Relic slipped up the bed to settle near the pillows on his side.

I could barely breathe with excitement, with shyness, with all the millions of questions involving my inexperience. Would I make a fool of myself?

“We can watch the movie,” Relic said. “We don’t have to kiss.”

“I want to kiss,” I admitted.

Relic tried to temper a wry smile. “Do you overthink everything?”

“Yes.” With my answer, I found the courage to join him. I lay beside him, resting my head on the pillow as he propped his head on his hand. Relic wrapped an arm around my stomach, inching us together until our bodies touched, and every cell in my body sparked with electricity.

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