Page 93 of The Prospect

“It’s you, Green. What don’t you understand?” I clutch a hold of his wrist. “It’ll always be you because regardless of what you might think, it never wasn’t…”

My shaky breath is the last thing that stands in the way of saying these final words to him. “It’s not too late,” I confess. “It will never be too late.”

And after years of him leaning in first to kiss me, this time, I kiss him, reclaiming what's mine.

What’s always beenmine.

Instantaneous.

Within an instant, Green achingly pulls me in, wasting no time planting his lips right back into the one place I know they’ve always belonged.

I lose myself as I melt into his embrace. All the while, his strong arms lift me into the air as I willingly wrap my legs around his waist.

We stay put for a moment, basking in this symphony as our lips learn their ways around one another, until eventually, hewalks us toward the brick along the edge of the bridge and places me down gently.

“Fuck,” he groans into my neck, planting sloppy kisses up and down before he murmurs into my ear. “I feel like I’ve been starving until now…”

The cold beneath my thighs is nothing in contrast to the heat I feel in between them. The way his lips trail down my neck and into my collarbone, it’s a euphoric feeling. A foreign feeling, yet somehow familiar.

It’s complicated, but I love it. Things don’t need to make sense right now, just like the following few words don’t as they escape my lips, “make love to me.”

Green’s eyes widen, and his head juts back. Or is it the opposite way around? I can’t tell.

All I know is that temptation has spoken and now that it has, it doesn’t matter what I say or what I do. There’s no turning back from this.

“Wha…what?” Green’s just as confused as I am, if not more. “Here…now?”

“You’ve been my first for everything, Green,” I confess as the anxiety pulsates through my veins. “Please,” I beg, never more certain of anything in my life. “I don’t care where we are. I want this,” I admit. “I—I want you to bemyfirst.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

G R E E N

Her first.

The thought propels through my mind, drives me up the wall, and then does it all over again as I clutch a hold of her satin-lined hips.

“You…” I gulp down my reservations. My hesitations.“You’ve never been with anyone before?” I ask, though the look in Hazel’s eyes tells me everything I need to know.

She’s telling me the truth.

She hasn’t, and with a simple shake of her head, she confirms it once more.

“I guess I just wanted to wait until the timing was right,” she confesses, yet there's an ulterior motive to her words. “Until thepersonwas right.”

There it is.

“Haze.” I rest my forehead against hers, trying to combat the fear in my mind.

I’ve never taken someone’s virginity before. The concept alone always felt too fragile. The girl who took mine in Year Eleven had already slept with a handful of guys by then, not to mention the fact that I’d told her I was just as experienced.

Needless to say, it didn’t take her long to uncover my truth and to tell me that had she known, she would’ve never gone ahead with it.

I suppose now I know why she said what she said. Taking someone’s virginity is a big deal, especially when you aren’t one. There’s a fear associated with it, not inwardly, but outwardly. You want the moment to be perfect for them. You want them to feel safe, protected, like they’re in capable hands.

I know I can be all of these things and more for Hazel, but still, something holds me back.

“I—are you sure?” The hastiness behind her words doesn’t ease me at all. “It’s so soon, so sudden, I—I don’t want to hurt you, Hazel.”

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