Page 80 of Estranged Heart
Silas: Stop texting me and get here already.
My chest feeling lighter, I set the phone down and exit the small parking lot. Picturing Silas falling and laughing gets me through the drive to his mom’s house. He’s waiting for me on the front steps when I arrive and jumps to his feet when his gaze lands on me, wearing a big smile on his face. I don’t want to be left with only photos in order to see those lips spreading wide and eyes lighting up. That’s why I showed up. I have the ability to see him this way in person anytime I want and I no longer want to take that for granted.
Lifting his skates off the ground, he hurries my way and slides into the car, setting them by his feet. “Hey. You’re five minutes late.”
“Yeah, well, I would have been on time if someone hadn’t kept sending me diary entries of his skating endeavors.”
He stifles a laugh, tangling his fingers in mine, and more tension in my body breaks. “Everything okay?” He studies me carefully.
“It will be, I think. Just one of those hard days, you know?” I’m not ready to tell him about what really happened to Landon. It’s not the right place or time, and I’d rather not sour our moments by bringing up what I tried to leave at the station. Uneasiness doesn’t fully let up inside me, though, lurking at the edges when we reach our destination and after we have our skates on.
Once Silas drags me onto the rink, rolling forward way faster than he should, the discomfort wanes as we smash into each other and fall to the ground. With laughter rolling between us, we try to stand but just land back on our asses. Leaning on the wall, I manage to pull myself to my feet, and once I’m steady enough I reach for Silas’s hand, helping him off the floor.
“Easy now. Let’s start off slow this time, Speedy Gonzalez.”
“Sorry. I trusted my newly learned skills more than I should have.”
Looping my arm around his, I press a kiss to his cheek. “Sometimes it does feel better to dive in head first.”
“It has worked out for me pretty well lately, so I guess I decided to keep going with it.” His lips turn up into a smirk.
“Maybe let’s not do it when we both have skates on,” I mock, poking his side and he squirms. Slowly moving one foot in front of the other, I roll him with me, and after two loops around with minimal crashes, we find our stride. By the end of the hour, Silas is skating in zigzags and circling around me.
“Want to see if you can catch me or are you going to keep being Mr. Play-it-Safe?” he says in a teasing tone.
I’ve been playing it safe most of my life, and Silas smiling and fake reeling me in with those magical hands of his makes me want to do the opposite and get caught in the throes of danger and bad decisions.
“You better hope you’re as fast as you think you are,” I challenge him, skating fast his way, and he loops around, gliding further away from me. Laughter falls behind him as he speeds up, swerving between other people, and right as I’m close enough to reach his arm, I lose my balance a little. Arms flailing, I steady myself on my feet and speed after him again. I lunge forward, shoving him into the wall and we both crash to the ground, rolling on the floor.
A tangle of arms and legs, we grab on to anywhere we can to pull ourselves up, laughing harder when Silas falls back in my lap. Wrapping my arms around him, I kiss the nape of his neck and slide him to the ground beside me.
“How about I sit here and you use me to stand up?” I offer him my hand and he takes it, his eyes shining.
“I guess we can try that.” Gripping my hand tighter, he rolls to his knees and presses one foot to the floor at a time, slowly straightening his stance until he’s standing all the way up, looking down at me.
Hand pressed to the wall, he helps pull me to my feet, and grabs on to me when I start to roll in the wrong direction. My chest crashes against his, pinning him to the wall, and his eyes fix on mine, his warm breath ghosting my lips.
“Looks like we caught each other,” he says, voice hoarse.
“Looks like it,” I say back lamely, my fast heart rate slowing down my breathing. And this is why I keep taking all these risks. To land me back here, caught in those deep blue eyes and at the other end of that easy smile.
Lips tilting, he rolls back a little, dragging me back to the center and I come willingly, being pulled by more than his hands. We roll around the rink for another hour, sharing more laughs and talking about whatever comes to mind. Then, legs tired and stomachs growling, we grab burgers from the food court.
“This wasn’t so bad, was it?” Silas shoves a fry in his mouth, locking legs with me under the table.
I glance down at our tangled limbs, smiling around my straw, and shake my head. “Not at all. At least not after the fifth time hitting the ground with my ass.”
He chuckles, gathering his trash. “Don’t worry. I’ll rub it for you later.” His eyes grow dark with seduction as he sips on his drink. His tongue swirls around his straw, his mouth sliding up and down.
My cock twitches and fire roars in the pit of my stomach. He inserts the straw further into his mouth, adding a little suction. He’s torturing me and is very well aware of the fact with his shit-eating grin. Did Stacey see this side of him? Jealousy knots in my stomach and then I remind myself where I am. Here in front of him, experiencing everything she now gets to miss.
“You’re playing a dangerous game right now, Sunshine.”
“Am I?” He lifts his head, his eyes glinting.
“Very. You might want to lay off that straw and rest that mouth for later. With all that teasing you’re doing, it’s going to be very hard to give you any breaks.”
His breath hitches, and his tongue darts in and out of his mouth. “I think I’m ready to go back to your place and watch those movies now.”
