Page 14 of Risking it All

Now it was my turn to talk again, but a wedge of panic inserted itself into my sternum. I didn’t know how to respond. Flirtatious banter wasn’t my thing. To be honest, boys weren’t ever on my radar. I had things to do, a life to build, but now with Relic in front of me, I felt oddly…curious. How exactly did one come off as fun and flirty and sexy and like they wanted to be kissed?

Silence. Silence had gone on for too long between us. Relic had that comfortable look about him, like he could stand there all day in the silence while I felt like my skin was buckling from my bones. I needed to say something witty, something that would make him want to be around me, but I had nothing. Like every day since February, I had no words worth saying.

Screw. Me.

Loud laughter behind me—Gianna’s in fact, and the room felt suddenly small. Like so small everyone else was breathing in all the air and there wasn’t any left for me. So small that everyone’s body heat was combining into an inferno, causing sweat to break out along my armpits and hairline. So small, that my head felt heavy, my eyesight blurred, and my stomach churned.

If I didn’t get out of here, I was going to puke.

“I…um…” Needed to get out of here. “I need air.”

I rushed forward, my arm hitting Relic’s shoulder because I was a Dumpster fire. I tried to weave through the rest of thecrowd to get to the back door, but it honestly was a lot more pushing than gracefully navigating.

There were people in the hallway, people in the kitchen. Here a duck, there a duck, everywhere a duck-duck…

I finally reached the back door, opened it, and I gasped in the fresh air like I had been stuck underwater for four minutes straight. Fighting the little dots in my vision that warned me passing out might still happen, I sat on the stairs of the wooden deck and contemplated how the hell I got here. I was officially not fit for public consumption and should become a nun locked in a room for the rest of my life.

“Mind if I join you?” Relic asked behind me, and I sighed. Apparently round one of me making a spectacle of myself wasn’t enough for him.

I waved my hand around. “By all means.”

Relic sat on the wooden steps two feet from me. Not super close, but closer than I would have imagined anyone would have wanted to sit after that weird reaction inside. He rested his arms on his thighs and watched the flames licking up to the sky in the unattended fire pit. Because yeah, unattended fire was safe. I scanned the backyard, and we were alone. As alone as anyone ever was in suburbia. There had to be a million cameras all pointing in our direction and probably at least three nosy neighbors so upset at a teen house party that they were stalking at their windows, hiding behind curtains.

“You okay?” Relic asked.

“Yep.”Nope.

“That’s a nasty looking welt.”

I glanced at the sleeves of my white crocheted summer sweater, which I must have pushed up during my rabid fleeing of the house, and sure enough, there were my hives on full display. I could push my sleeves back down, but what would be thepoint? Plus, the June night was so muggy that breathing in was the same as inhaling water.

“You need an antihistamine for those welts?” Relic continued. “An EpiPen? An ER run?”

Feeling embarrassed about my entire life, a rush of anger jolted up from my toes and made me snap. “Are you enjoying making fun of me?”

“No,” he said slowly. “Honestly concerned. We’re alone out here—well, sort of. That eighty-year-old woman looking at us through her backdoor is a nice chaperone.”

Relic overly waved at her and called out, “Hello! Nice evening, isn’t it?”

The woman scowled and stalked away from her door. I giggled and my reaction surprised me. Relic studied my face, and his blue eyes softened. “That smile right there? I like it.”

Shocked, I touched my face. I hadn’t smiled in so long I forgot what it felt like.

“As I was saying, we’re relatively alone out here, and I’m forming a game plan for what to do if you stop breathing. Shocking as it might be to you, I haven’t gone to medical school. Though, if needed, I will attempt CPR. I can’t promise it’ll be right or that I’ll save you, but I will attempt it.”

My derisive short laugh made his lips twitch. “You’ll attempt to save me?”

“I’ll do the whole push thing and sing ‘Staying Alive.’”

“It sounds like you’re the expert then. I don’t know why you’re complaining.”

“I’ll let you in on a secret.” Relic leaned toward me, closer than I had allowed most anyone in months, and the vibrations of his deep voice caressed my skin, creating a sensation that I relished. “I didn’t pay very good attention during health class.”

“Sounds like that was a bad choice on your part.” I matched his whispered tone as if his secret was safe with me and met his playful gaze as he pulled back.

“I’m all about bad choices.” His glittering blue eyes focused on my lips like he was considering some very good bad choices with me. A fantastic hot tingling danced in my blood. Was this the lust so many people had described?

Eventually, he tore his gaze from my lips and refocused on my arms. “You didn’t answer about the welts.”

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