Page 87 of Break Your Fall

She bites at the corner of her lip as she looks back down at the box, her hands squeezing her waist. I want to take them in my own and relax her fingers with mine, relaxher, touch her.

So I do.

Kind of.

I run my knuckle over the back of the hand closest to me, and her grip loosens as her eyes move to my touch. Her smooth skin feels cold and I slip my fingers through hers, pull her hand in between my palms as she shifts her body to mine, her eyes still watching our hands as I take her other one, attempting to rub them warm. But my fingers have an idea of their own as they slip back through hers, and now our locked hands are just suspended in the air between us.

Reyna smiles first, then I’m breathing a laugh, disentangling our fingers and releasing her hands, mentally calling myself an idiot as I rub the back of my neck.

She wants you to fight,my inner voice reminds me.She didn’t pull away. You did.

“I wanted to touch you,” I say lamely.

“And you did,” she points out in a way that tells me shewantsme to act on my thoughts, and all I can think about next is finally kissing her.

And I feel myself acting on it. Because how can I not now?

I move closer to her, closing so much distance that my pulse starts racing throughout my entire body. My heart suspects what my head is telling me to do, and it’s about to beat right out of my chest.

My advance is slow. Not slow enough for me to chicken out, but slow enough to gauge her, to give her time to move back, to realize it’sme, just Tommy, and come to her senses.

“You remember in the lighthouse when I asked you what was happening to me?” she asks, low, as her eyes fall to my mouth. I’m close enough now to feel her shaky breaths, and I pause my advance as her gaze lifts back up to mine, the rest of her words released on exhales. “You’re happening to me. You’ve kept me grounded, while at the same time helping me fly. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

There’s the slightest hint of that fear in her voice, and I say right away, “You won’t have to find out. We’re forever, Reyna.”

Her eyes flutter as she mouths the word, and this is the moment I start thinking too hard, questioning myself too much, my old friend doubt playing with my head.It’s me. Just Tommy.

I’m not sure how long I juststareat her, but Reyna’s studying gaze suddenly drops and she manages a smile as she shifts away from me.

I missed.

She picks up the box. “Goodnight, Tommy.”

“Goodnight,” my voice says, my feet starting me toward the door.

But then I stop as a chicken named Camille taunts out to me.

Bawk, bawk.

Of all the times for that text to haunt me.

I’m thanking the timing as my head protests aNo. I must say it out loud, because when I turn back to Reyna and close the distance again, she’s no longer holding the box, already facing me with expectant eyes, and I never want to fail her expectations.

My hands graze along her jaw, my fingers slip into her hair, and the moment my lips connect with hers, my whole world opens up, my head clears, and everything I’ve ever wanted feels more than possible. To actively love this girl, to always know the feel of her skin, the taste of her mouth, the weight and movement of her body from having her wrapped in my arms every day of my life, even when she’s not. To live inside her heart the way she lives inside of mine.

One of her hands grips the neck of my shirt, while the other fists the back of my hair, and when my tongue touches hers, she releases the slightest whimper that makes me fight with everything in me to not move her to the bed and kiss her until the sun comes up.

I don’t want this to end, but I can’t push. She has to know I’m fighting for us, and this is my only intention tonight.

I pull back on a heavy exhale, my eyes still closed and my forehead resting against hers, our unsteady breaths meeting in the space as I try like hell to contain this complete high I’m feeling.

I open my eyes to find hers still closed, her dampened lips still parted. When I run my thumbs along her jaw, she opens her eyes and pulls her bottom lip into her mouth, her gaze shining and her cheeks flushed. She loosens her hold on my hair, then my shirt, and I want it all back. God, I want it all back.

But I whisper, “Now goodnight,” and leave her with that before I do try to take this further than I should tonight.

When I’m out the door, I look back through the glass to see Reyna smiling to herself, her fingers pressed to her lips.

I’m grinning like an idiot as I descend the yard, jumping with my fist in the air as my feet hit the driveway, riding this high all the way home.

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