Page 33 of Perfectly Imperfect Us
Ava gasped and I hurried to keep going, needing to tell her exactly how I felt. “The beauty of your skin makes me weak, the way you stand tall in the face of adversity makes me more proud than I’ve ever been of anyone. The shape of your lips when you say something that both slaps me across the face and makes me want you. I’m in love with you, Ava. Just a boy in love with the girl next door. Plain and simple and ordinary.”
The very mouth I wanted to kiss dropped open and Ava sucked in a breath. “You—say it again.”
“Which part? The whole thing? Or just—”
Ava lunged at me, shutting me up by grabbing my shirt and slamming her lips on mine. Quite frankly, I was good with that reaction. I would have preferred she say it back, but this worked just fine too. I’d said what I felt in my heart and she wasn’t running away. I had to give her time to decide how she felt about me.
She nipped at my bottom lip and suddenly I didn’t have any thoughts left to distract me. My hands left her face and trailed down her back, pushing her scantily clad body into mine. She tasted vaguely of chocolate and I couldn’t seem to get enough.
“Say it—” Ava muttered between kisses. “Again.”
Her hands left my shirt and wrapped around my neck, her fingers gripping my hair. When I didn’t immediately respond, too lost in what her lips were doing, she tugged. Pain lit up my scalp and I jerked back, more disappointed to end the kiss than mad about the hair pulling.
“Jeez, woman. No need to get vindictive,” I teased, panting.
Her eyes had lost that glint of hurt. I just saw desire and that ever-present glow of cheekiness that was uniquely Ava.
She kept a firm grip on my hair, but she didn’t tug again. “I have you right where I want you, Ryder Burns. You just said you loved me.”
A smile threatened. “I said a lot of things and that was one of them, yes.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Do not be coy with me right now. I just ate an entire pint of ice cream and all that sugar is racing around in my veins just begging to do some damage. Now. Say it. Again!”
I gripped her hips and pulled her in close, nuzzling her nose. “I love you, Ava.”
Her face transformed into the biggest smile I’d ever seen, her eyes crinkling and nearly shutting. She jumped and suddenly I was holding her as she peppered my entire face with kisses.
This girl was crazy. And she was all mine.
I couldn’t see, what with the assault on my face, but I knew the outside wall of her house had to have been on my right, so I spun in that direction and backed her up until the wall supported us. I needed to have my hands free to take control of this kiss. It wasn’t every day you told a woman you loved her. I’d just fused my lips to hers when she pushed on my chest.
I was getting whiplash from the mixed messages here. If I’d had any delusions of being some sort of suave lady’s man, Ava disabused me of that notion. I wrangled my last bit of self-control and pulled my head back.
Her eyes were wide, either from shock or horror, I couldn’t tell.
“What?” I asked, my nerves from earlier coming back full force.
“Holy Moses,” she muttered, her gaze darting back and forth across my face.
“Ava? What’s wrong?” Whatever it was, I’d fix it. I’d take care of whatever it was that put that look on her face.
She swallowed hard. “I love you too.”
My heart made an attempt to leap out of my chest, turning itself into a grin instead. “Is that what’s got you looking so freaked out?”
She nodded, still wide-eyed, but showing a hint of a smile. “It’s just I didn’t plan for that. Like, at all. Especially with you. No offense,” she added quickly.
I frowned. I hated that phrase. Of course I took offense. If one had to state “don’t take offense,” it meant something offensive was going to be said.
“I just thought I’d one day find someone, probably from around here, and we’d settle down with two-point-five kids and that would be that. I never thought I’d find myself in love with someone the whole world knows, you know? I mean, they think they know you, but the real you is so very different. And I love that different you very much.” Her legs tightened around my waist while I tried to decipher what she was saying.
“So, you’re happy to be in love with me?”
She spread her arms out wide to the side and tipped her head back. “I love you, Ryder Burns!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
The dog next door started barking and a light came on from the back of her house. Ava’s eyes went wide and she released her legs, sliding down my body like guilty teenagers.
She looked around to assess how many people she’d woken up and then burst out laughing and so did I, sharing a moment I’d remember forever. Life would never be boring or predictable with Ava Mendez and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
