Page 31 of Space Junk: Houston, We Have a Hottie
Instead of being annoyed, or worse, laughing at me, Flynn smiles softly, his eyes gentle. Then he makes me giggle when he rubs the end of his nose against mine. I love Eskimo kisses.
“Want to try that again, darling?”
With his playful kisses and kind words, some of the tension drops from my shoulders and my nerves float away. I want this. I wanthim. I somehow need to show him how very much I want him, even if my kissing technique is unpracticed.
Keeping my eyes on his, I drop my keys, the metal clanging on the concrete. Slowly, but firmly, I drag my hands up his arms, along his neck and up into his hair, my fingers lightly digging across his scalp, angling his head lower.
“Yes,” I whisper before I press my mouth to his. My touch probably lacks finesse, but Flynn doesn’t seem to mind. And when his tongue slides across the seam of my mouth, something breaks inside me and I moan.
Suddenly my hands are everywhere. Gripping his shoulders, dragging down and up under his T-shirt. My God, the feel of his skin, it’s indescribable. I don’t have long nails, and I’m thinking that is a good thing for Flynn, otherwise he’d have claw marks all over his torso by now.
Flynn brings one hand to my ass and hauls me against him. This time the moan rips from his throat. My glasses are skewed when Flynn finally draws back from our kiss. Gently, using the tips of his fingers, he rights them before once again touching his nose to mine.
“Never thought a genius could kiss like that.”
All good feelings vanish. Suddenly I’m transported back to college, overhearing the boys outside of my class asking my new boyfriend if the nerd he was banging was any good. How he’d laughed and said, “Not yet, but she will be when I’m done with her.” There hadn’t been any question about who they were talking about. Who the nerd was. I’m always the nerd. The genius. The odd one.
I look down at the toes of my Chucks, peeking out from the hem of my khaki pants. “I see.” My voice is stilted, my body back to being rigid.
Sensing the change, Flynn frowns, ducking down to try and meet my eyes.
I don’t let him. Instead I squat down, swipe my keys up from the floor and pop up in one quick move.
“Now that you’ve satisfied your curiosity, I’m sure you have more important things to do than kiss the nerd.” I unlock my door, thankful I get the correct key on the first try. I step inside and turn back, the vision of Flynn burned into my mind right before I slam the door.
Stalking into my bedroom, I sit on the edge of my bed, listening to him knock on my door and call my name a few times, mumbling about this not being over. Thankfully, I soon hear his boots stomp away from the apartment.
At that moment all I can think of is that I really should move as the doors don’t seem very secure if you can hear so well through them.
But later, when I’m in bed, running through the whole date, looking for the signs I may have missed about Flynn being disingenuous, I find nothing. Instead, I see his face, right before I slammed my feeble front door on it.
He hadn’t looked smug or satisfied. He’d look confused and upset.
And I have a horrible, sinking feeling that I’m not as smart as I think I am.
Eight
Power Cycle
Jackie
“Houston, we have a problem.”
I sigh. Tom Hanks’ voice from one of my favorite movies, which I’d turned into my text notification, is quickly becoming the most annoying sound in the universe. This is the second day since we kissed that Flynn has blown up my phone. I haven’t gotten any work done today. Flynn, it seems, does not know when to quit. And still I don’t know what to make of our kiss.
The text messages started out innocuous enough.What’d I do?andI’m sorry.
When I didn’t answer, the texts changed.Earth is the largest planet, right? Elon Musk should run NASA.
It’s getting harder not to respond.
Flynn:What’s your favorite planet? Mine’s Pluto.
He has to be joking. Tom Hanks speaks again.
Flynn:It was named after my favorite Disney character.
Okay. That’s too much.
