Page 27 of The Chemistry of Us

His hair whipped with the wind, slapping against his perfectly sculpted face.

“You’re pretty.”

“So I don’t scare you?”

“You fucking terrify me, but that just means you’re worth it. When you have to earn something, it makes it much better because you know that you might be worthy of it one day.”

“I know life can be heavy, and sometimes those heavy things need to be unloaded.”

“Are you saying I have baggage?”

He didn’t miss a beat. “We all do. Some are heavier than others, but shit happens to us all. The cards you dealt were shitty. I have both parents and still feel alone. Sometimes when I talk to my father, I swear he’s not listening. Nor does he care to. He has the power to make me feel like I don’t matter, and the things that matter to him don’t matter to me. The only thing we have in common is our love for sports. It’s how we bond.”

My heart was in my throat. I didn’t trust people, and I didn’t want to trust him. He seemed too good to be true, but none of it mattered at that moment. Not with the way he was looking and confessing his truths to me. I never had that before. Would I ever have it again?

“Can I ask you something?” he requested.

I narrowed my eyes, smirking. “I think you just did.”

“Alright.” He smiled back. “Can I ask you another thing?”

“What?”

He didn’t waver in questioning, “What would you do if I kissed you right now?”

I surprised myself when I replied, “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

He leaned forward, gripping my neck gently, and brought his lips to mine.

He didn’t invade my space like I thought he would.

He didn’t shove his tongue down my throat like I thought he would.

He didn’t do any of the things I thought he would.

No, he just massaged my lips as if they were the best things he’d ever felt in his entire life.

We stayed like that, embraced. My hands moved to tangle in his hair, and his hands moved to my body. Seconds later, he lifted me against him, and I was lost against his heat.

The way his mouth moved with mine.

The way the waves crashed against the rocks over and over again.

The way…

The way…

The way…

That was us.

Chaos and peace mixed into one.

I slid my tongue past his lower lip, and it was like he needed permission from me first because, after that, we were gone, both of us. He damaged me in a way I knew I would never come back from.

Nobody could come back from a kiss like that.

Where his tongue didn’t fight for dominance, it fought for pleasure. It slid against mine. It deepened. It retreated when it needed to. He never overdid it; he just did what came naturally to him.

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