Page 93 of Don't Let Me Go
“I feel the same.”
Riley looks at me in surprise. “You do?”
“I told you when we first met that I felt like I was living the wrong life. I never knew why until I met you. Then it was obvious.” I slip my hand into his. “Any life I had would feel wrong if you weren’t in it.”
Riley breaks into a smile that I swear must come straight from his soul. The beauty of it—of him—takes my breath away. I wrap my arms around him and pull him into a long, aching kiss. Whatever questions we have about past lives and reincarnation will have to wait. We have more important things to attend to now.
Riley climbs on top of me and devours my mouth with kisses. The hunger of his lips against mine makes me desperate to taste every inch of him. I’m almost feverish with desire.
Thankfully, I’m not so far gone that I don’t hear the very loud and very abrupt knocking on my bedroom door or my aunt’s voice calling, “Jackson, are you up?”
“Shit!” Riley gasps, scrambling off me and diving under the covers.
I’m 90 percent certain I locked the door last night, but just in case I didn’t, I bunch the bedspread over my groin in an effort to conceal my very obvious erection.
“I’m up!” I answer, the irony of that phrase not lost on me.
“I hope I didn’t wake you,” Aunt Rachel apologizes. Her tone is innocent and oblivious, but it isn’t fooling anyone. I can practically hear the smirk on her face. “I just wanted to see what you’d like foryour birthday breakfast. Since we had waffles yesterday, I was thinking omelets?”
“Sounds great,” I reply. “I’ll come to the kitchen in a few minutes, okay?”
“Okay.” My aunt pauses. “Will anyoneelsebe joining us?”
Riley turns so pink he looks sunburned and buries his face in my shoulder.
“Yes, Aunt Rachel, Riley will be joining us.”
“Oh? Riley’s still here? What a nice surprise!” she exclaims, not sounding at all surprised. “Well, breakfast should be on the table in about twenty minutes. I’m also planning to do a load of laundry if your sheets—”
“Oh my God, Aunt Rach, go away!” I shout. As lucky as I am to have a sex-positive aunt, this conversation is about to end me.
“Okay, kiddo, see you in a few minutes.”
Aunt Rachel’s footsteps fade down the hall, and I shake my head in exasperation. Then I turn to Riley, who’s cringing so hard, he looks like he’s about to curl up into a tight little ball of shame.
“That wasmortifying!” He groans into my shoulder.
“It’s fine,” I assure him. “Don’t worry about Aunt Rachel.”
“I’m never going to be able to look her in the face again!”
With a laugh, I wrap Riley in my arms and try to soothe his embarrassment with a few chaste kisses. My aunt’s unsubtle but totally effective bit of cockblocking has definitely killed the mood. But I don’t mind. It feels good to just lie here with Riley in my arms.
Maybe it’s on account of it being my birthday, or maybe it’s on account of knowing I’ll be spending that birthday with someone as incredible as Riley, but right now I feel like I don’t have a care in the world. In fact, in this moment, I’m so ridiculously happy that I can almost forget about our crazy dreams.
Almost.
“Do youreallythink we had past lives?” I ask, my mind still wrestling to understand what happened last night. I can just about swallow the idea that Riley and I are soulmates. But reincarnation? That’s magic. Fantasy. It’s not real life.
“I don’t know,” Riley sighs. “Maybe not? But something weird is definitely going on.”
“Oh, for sure,” I agree. “But there has to be a logical explanation, right?”
Riley doesn’t say anything, and we sink into silence.
It’s wild to think that an hour ago, I woke up shivering on the bedroom floor, dazed and disoriented and half out of my mind with panic. Now I can hear Aunt Rachel banging pans around in the kitchen. I can smell bacon sizzling. Nothing about this moment feels strange or supernatural. If anything, it feels normal. Blissfully and boringly normal.
Then Riley shudders in my arms.
