Page 99 of Between the Blue
Ben finally turns his gaze back on me, and my eyelids flutter without my permission. He stares down at me for several moments, and I can see the indecision in his eyes. The battle heseems to be losing. He raises his hand once again, so slowly that it makes my heart feel like it’s going at the speed of a freight train.
His hand reaches my face, and he pauses, dragging his thumb across my lower lip.
I shudder. He winces. And then, somehow even more slowly, he lets his hand brush down my face until it settles on my neck. He wraps his fingers around it, squeezing just tightly enough to feel my pulse spiking.
“Cherry,” he falters.
“Why do you want to know?”
He shakes his head, blinking like he’s trying to come back to reality. “I should go,” he whispers.
“Why?”
“Why do you think, Cherry?”
“Because you can’t stand to be around me?”
He nods slowly. “Right.”
Ben closes his eyes for a moment, and I wait for him to open them again.
“Because you can’t control yourself when you’re around me,” I breathe.
“I didn’t say that.”
“But it’s true.”
Ben rolls his lips into his mouth. But he doesn’t deny it.
“I’m not drunk,” I breathe.
He tilts his head. “You don’t feel anything?”
I swallow hard. And then I tell him the truth.
“I feel brave enough to let you kiss me right now. But not enough to admit it means anything to me.”
Ben starts walking, the two of us moving in sync with my arms around his neck and his hand around my throat. He moves slowly, step by step, until my back comes flush with the brick wall behind me.
“Good,” he breathes, his mouth inches from mine. “Because this can’t mean anything. It doesn’t.”
I nod.
Of course it can’t. We’re coworkers.
“Nothing,” Ben whispers again.
“Nothing,” I agree.
And then his lips crash down on mine.
A gasp escapes me, and I swear one escapes Ben too. Almost like he surprised himself.
Almost like he’s equally as shocked by what’s happening right now as I am.
But, judging by the way we both immediately pull each other closer, it’s evident neither of us wants to stop.
In fact, it feels like we’re each in our own race against time, our lips moving against each other’s so messily and perfectly out of sync and us clinging to one another like the other person might disappear at any moment.
