Page 25 of Destined To Fall

“Bye, Luke. It was. Nice. Meeting. You.” I struggle to get the words out between sputters of fighting to control the laughter.

Luke smiles again before opening a door next to the stairs I hadn’t noticed and disappears. I turn back to Jeremy, his expression a war of emotions, and pull my numb hand from his.

“Uh, ouch.” I laugh softly, waving some feeling back into the extremity for added effect.“You wanna explain what that was?” I ask, indicating my hand.

“Yeah, sorry,” he mutters.“I didn’t realize.” I raise a brow, and he chuckles, running a hand through his hair.“Luke’s not usually…I don’t know what that was. I think he likes you.”

“I wasn’t talking about Luke. Are you going all caveman on me?” It’s a challenge to keep a straight face.

“No.” His response is instant, his eyes going wide.“I mean…you are my ride.”

I burst out laughing.“You totally got all territorial on my ass.”

He rolls his eyes at me, but a slight pink tinges his cheeks, giving him away. It’s possibly the cutest thing ever, and before I even realize, my hand reaches up of its own accord to brush featherlight fingers across one of his cheeks.

“You’re a terrible liar.” I smile, watching the color deepen.

Jeremy stills beneath my intended simple, quick gesture as it morphs into a caress. My fingers get lost in the feel of his soft cheek and the stubble grazing my palm. My breath catches as my gaze flicks up, locking with Jeremy’s burning blues. There is no denying the yearning in them, the heat radiating from him. It’s a tidal wave of raw emotion threatening to drown me, swallowing me whole with its hypnotizing depth. My own warring reactions keep me in place. I’m unable to move, to think, to breathe. I’m three seconds away from throwing myself at him, fulfilling every fantasy I’ve had since we met, the ones I haven’t fully acknowledged; or I’m seconds away from running out the front door, never to be seen again. It could go either way at this point.

Jeremy breaks the trance first. My gaze falls to his hand, coming up to cup my palm on his cheek, and somehow the distance between us has vanished. His face, so much closer to mine. His warm breath fanning my face, my lips, tempting them into submission. It would be so easy to give in, to lean forward and press my mouth to his. To take…

I shouldn’t.

I can’t.

I lift my gaze up to his eyes, the hues a softer, warmer shade of sapphire. The fire is all but gone—just a shimmer under the surface. What surprises me more than the sudden change in them is the understanding staring back at me. I don’t know how to process that.

He turns his face into my hand, causing a soft tremor to run the length of my body, and I close my eyes for a second at the tender press of his lips to the soft flesh of my palm. There’s no simplicity in the gesture. It’s too intimate, too…much.

I try to pull my appendage free, but Jeremy holds on, pulling his lips away and taking my hand in his, once again intertwining our fingers. I raise my eyes from our hands at the sound of his soft voice breaking the heavy silence.

“I want to show you something before we leave.” He pulls me toward the black-cushioned bench-seat, about the size of a double bed, maybe a little smaller, in the middle of the room.

The comparison makes me raise an eyebrow, and I shoot Jeremy a quizzical look.

“Sit.”

“I’m pretty sure whatever you’re about to show me, I’ve seen before.” I smirk, and Jeremy snorts.

“I can guarantee you haven’t seen this.”

“You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.” I shrug, trying and failing not to picture things I really shouldn’t right about now. My blood is still humming in my veins.

Jeremy tugs on my hand as he sits down, almost pulling me onto his lap. I’m torn on whether I should be relieved or disappointed that he didn’t.

“See? Was that so hard?”

I bite my tongue on that one.“Now what?”

“Look up.”

I frown, doing as I’m told, and then gasp.

I’d been so fixated on the breathtaking art decorating the walls that I hadn’t scanned the full two-story height of them. It’s like stepping into the twilight zone, and I’m falling through space and time. The overwhelming beauty and realism of the universe Luke’s created on the ceiling is ridiculous. Colors come alive in a swirl around the center to create the unmistakable Milky Way in all its dark matter and intergalactic glory. The blue and purple tones glow with the bright, bursting light radiating out of the middle, tingeing the surrounding colors with its iridescence. It seems to shimmer and ripple the longer I stare transfixed, the stars twinkling and sparkling like diamonds, leaving no detail spared.

“It’s amazing,” I eventually gush.

When I’m met with silence, I shift my eyes to Jeremy, once again finding him watching me intently.

---