Page 109 of Love in Riverbend
“What?” I ask.
“I don’t know. You’re undeniably beautiful. Not a crazy partier and look young. Yet you’re deep.”
“Is that bad?”
“None of it is bad. It’s a combination I’d like to get to know.” He smiles a sexy grin. “In person. Not online.”
His grin fades as the intensity of his stare grows. With each passing second, the pace of my heart rate picks up, my breaths come faster, and there’s a twisting inside me like I’ve never known. His gaze moves to my lips, wordlessly pulling me to him as he leans toward me.
“That kiss?” he questions in a husky timbre.
Words fail me as I nod only seconds before his lips meet mine.
In that time and space, I’m too lost to realize I’m kissing Justin Sheers. Correction, I’m being kissed by Justin Sheers, kissed like I’ve never been kissed before. The energy radiates from him to me, a lightning bolt that sends detonations through my circulation. My skin heats from within. The longer it goes on, the slacker my body becomes.
I meld against him, hungry for his taste. It’s desire, passionate and possessive with a hint of beer. I’m not certain when his hand came to the back of my neck, or when our faces turned, and moans escaped my lips. I don’t even know when I fell back, my head on Justin’s jacket as his tongue joins mine.
In twenty-two years, I never realized that a kiss could be so much. I’d read stories of fireworks and thought they were only that, fiction. As my breasts heave beneath Justin’s strong chest, I am convinced, converted, a believer. My touch moves over his shoulders and to his head, raking my fingers through his hair as the sensation of his beard growth on my face and neck adds to my out-of-body experience.
Palming his scruffy cheeks, I pull back, panting for air.
Our noses were only millimeters away from one another.
“I think I got carried away,” he says.
I’m not sure if it was meant as an apology, but none is necessary.
“I’ve never been kissed like that,” I finally say. “I liked it.”
“Me too.” He sits up and offers me his hand.
I watch the way his fingers envelop mine. Everything about Justin is bigger than life. Sitting up, I readjust the large sweatshirt and look out to the pond. In the time since I slipped away from the party, the moon has risen above the trees, appearing smaller than it had yet no less bright.
“Do you see it?” he asks.
“What?”
“The man in the moon.”
Smiling, I nod. “I do. I didn’t when I was younger, and my brother helped me see him. It’s not really a man but a face.”
“Mystery woman has a brother.”
Looking down, I sigh.
Jesus, Ricky would be furious at me and at Justin.
I start to stand.
Justin reaches for my hand. “I would like your number. No name if you don’t want me to see your silly pictures on Instagram.”
Together we stand as he reaches for his jacket.
“Who said I have silly pictures?”
“When did you graduate?” he asks, looking down at the sweatshirt. “From Purdue. I’ve been out for nearly ten years.” He chuckles. “That sounds like college was prison. It wasn’t.”
Ten years.
