Page 124 of Inception

His lips grazed a track along my jawline as his hands weaved their way into the crux of my hair. Grasping the nape of my neck, he guided me to him, pulling me in until our noses touched, until our breath was mixing together in a tonic of heated euphoria. So close and yet I wanted to be closer still.

“Trace...”

His lips brushed against mine in response and I nearly toppled over from the brief contact.

My hands rushed up for support, gripping his arms as I tried to steady myself from the hint of a kiss I was now starving for. A flood of emotions scrolled through his eyes, ensnaring me in their mystery until I could take no more. There was no more denying what I wanted...what I needed.

Kiss me.

His lips crashed down onto mine in a heated rush and I welcomed them, basking in the slow burning charge. My hands moved again, reaching higher this time, wrapping themselves around the back of his neck and clutching. Pulling. Fisting themselves in his hair and then moving down the cambers of his shoulders. A low growl escaped the back of his throat as his kisses grew more urgent, each one stirring me with their velvety caress. Every fiber of my being wanted this—wanted him, and it charged me to know he felt the same way.

His hands slid down over my curves, gripping my waist and pushing me further back onto his bed before his mouth found mine again. We collapsed together, our bodies adhered to each other in a way that would have you believe we were born this way. That we were always meant to be this way. He hovered over me like a dazzling apparition, the manifestation of my past, present, and future all wrapped up in one divinely sculpted Adonis. And I, evermore his willing worshiper.

He deepened the kiss, parting my lips as he touched his tongue to mine. Fireworks ignited all around me, inside me, crackling on the surface of my skin like a live wire. I clutched onto him harder, savoring the sweet taste of his mouth and the feel of his full lips against my own. I never knew lips could feel this good—could taste this good. I couldn’t get enough of them. Of him. I was consumed, hypnotized in every sense of the word.

I could stay like this forever.

“So could I,” he whispered back huskily.

He brushed his lips against mine and pulled back, propping himself up on his elbow above me.

“Why are we stopping?” I asked, still trying to catch my breath as I stared up at his perfectly shaped mouth, voracious for more of its elixir. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he smiled, his dimples igniting on either side as he looked down at me in a novel way—a tender way. “I just want to look at you for a minute,” he murmured, his finger tracing a line over the bridge of my nose and down to my swollen lips.

Even after all this time, I still couldn’t look at him without blushing, yet I couldn’t bring myself to turn away from him either. I was a fiend, addicted to the way he looked at me. To the way he made me feel when he watched me with those glacial eyes. I could spend a lifetime under his spell and it would still never be enough. He was utterly and completely spellbinding.

“You more,” he whispered and then dropped a soft kiss on the tip of my nose.

I couldn’t help but smile at him. At his sweetness.

“I mean it,” he said and then moved his jaw along my cheek, scorching me as he breathed in the scent of my hair. The look on his face was of pure ecstasy and it made me feel good knowing I did that to him. “I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. You make my heart do crazy things.”

The butterflies began waltzing in my belly again, this time to the sweet melody of his words. Words that were meant for me.

I weaved my fingers into his hair and kissed him again, biting and teasing his lips until he gave in and came back down to me. Back to our seismic kisses that moved us through the span of ten thousand perfect lifetimes.

Minutes turned to hours, and hours ceased to exist altogether. It was heaven like this with Trace and I never wanted to come back down.

38. HOLLOW EVE

I woke up the next morning to another dull, overcast sky. A thin veil of fog hovered over the grounds like a ghastly parade of misplaced souls, each one waiting to have their day. Trace was already waiting outside for me by the time I came downstairs which lit up my uncle like the Fourth of July. It was as though he had a vested interest in my friendship with Trace—kind of like the interest Trace’s father had shown. There seemed to be something more to it. Something else going on. Whatever it was, it only further invoked my suspicions about the two of them and their strange meddling ways.

“Are you going to Spring Fling together?” asked my uncle as I laced up my converse sneakers at the front door. The fact that he knew the dance by name even though I hadn’t mentioned it to him was unsettling.

“I don’t think Trace is going.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Tell me about it, I thought. What I’d give to see him all gussied up in a nice suit.

“I take it you’re still attending in spite of his absence?”

“Yeah. I’m going with some friends actually. It’s no big deal.”Please let this be the end of it. I so did not want to have this conversation with my uncle right now. Or ever.

“I see,” he nodded, tucking his newspaper under his arm as he interrogated me with his eyes. “Anyone I know?”

“The usual…Taylor, Carly,Caleb. Like I said, no big deal.” I picked up my bag and smiled. “I better get going, I’m going to be late for school,” I added, tossing my schoolbag over my shoulder and hurrying out the door before he had a chance to ask another question.

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