Page 61 of XO

Lowering down, I kiss his forehead, his cheek, his nose, and then his lips. Jacob throbs inside me as I move my hips the way he likes, his strong arms wrap protectively around me.

“We can hold on to this forever,” I whisper against his mouth.

“Nothing can ever…”

“… tear us apart.”

16

THEN

It wasn’t the beautiful glow of sunrise that woke me. It wasn’t even the feeling of complete and utter contentment. Nor was it my body sighing in satisfaction. No,it was the feeling of the cold empty space next to me as I reached out to touch Jacob. When I couldn’t feel him, I searched some more only to come up empty.

Bolting upright with a pounding heart, I grip the blanket around my nakedness and look for Jacob.He’s gone, the voice inside my head mocked.Already left after just one night,it continued.

“Jacob?” I call, my voice husky from all the night’s festivities. I look around, the rooftop still fully decked out. Nobody could come up here except for us, he’d said last night, since he was the only one with the fob key after taking back the only hard key from Lenny.

When I don’t hear an answer, I stagger to my feet, wrapping the blanket tighter. Rounding all the decorations, I sigh in relief, seeing Jacob dressed in his tuxedo pants and white collared shirt, sitting on the building’s edge and staring out at the sunrise.

“Jacob,” I call again, but it comes out as a whisper.

He turns, and the feelings of euphoria we both felt last night quickly dissolve.

Something’s wrong.

“Rosie,” he says, turning to jump back onto the roof. There’s something strange written across his face, eyes red-rimmed but full of rage, his touch urgent yet compassionate.

“Jacob, what’s wrong?” I ask fearfully.

He sucks in his lips, nostrils flaring as he takes both my hands in his. “Let’s get out of here.”

“You’re ready to go home?”

“No,” he says, almost yelling. “Let’s leave town and just… get out of…here.”

I laugh at the ridiculous notion. “But why, where would we go?”

“We don’t need to plan, Rosie. We just go, right now. We just leave.”

What the hell has happened to the boy I was with last night?

“I’ve got to tell my parents. My mom was already freaking out that I would be—”

He grunts in annoyance and I take a step back. “They’ll be fine. I promise, we’ll contact them as soon as we make our first stop.”

“Jacob, you’re scaring me.”

Realizing that he is indeed freaking me the fuck out, his tone and expression soften. Cupping my face, he pulls me in and kisses my forehead. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you. But this… this could be our opportunity to go on the adventure we’ve always talked about. And it’s not forever. Just for a couple of days we hit the road, without planning a thing. We stop where we feel like and play by our own rules. What do you think? Feel like being a rebel without a cause for a moment in time?”

Having put me somewhat at ease, I laugh at his enthusiasm. “You had me at rebel,” I say, fighting off his tickles. I walk over to the edge and lean against the concrete barrier while staring at the orange and red hues illuminating the sky. Beneath us, the quiet town still hasn’t woken to start the day.

Can I really just leave?Do I really have it in me to go against my parents’ rules and just do something completely radical? Consequences be damned?

I turn on the spot catching the moment of worry fade from Jacob’s handsome face.

“Okay,” I simply say.

“Okay?” he asks, his smile asking for confirmation.

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