Page 40 of Shutout
“Yeah.” I lean all the way down and grunt as something in the front pocket stabs at my face. After rearranging it, I say, “Just need a little cat nap.”
She turns her attention back on her textbook and I stare at her for a moment longer. It’s just me, so she gets back to balancing that pen on her lip without a care as to what I might think about it. But I think about it, all right. It sucks my attention to her puckered up lips—lips that I’m now familiar with. If I could, I’d be running my tongue across them right this second. But I stay still, just taking her in.
A section of her hair is tucked behind her ear, and I hadn’tnoticed until now but she has a lot of ear piercings. One, two… five total. Those are new, at least from sometime after the fallout. Like my tattoos. Is her other ear the same?
“I hadn’t noticed these.” I reach up, gently pinching her earlobe between my fingers. Air rushes out of her mouth, which makes her pen drop on the textbook, and I let go. “Sorry, are they new? Did I hurt you?”
“No. Just startled.” Liv clears her throat. “And they’re not new. I’ve had them for a while but I’m using them again now that I don’t have a boyfriend who wants to control my appearance anymore.”
I slide my free hand under the table so she doesn’t see how tight I’m squeezing my fist.
Not wanting to get into the topic of her asshole ex, I ask, “Do you also have five on the other ear?”
“Yes.” Liv nods seriously. “I’m all about symmetry.”
My lips twitch. I try to hold myself back but the words still spill out. “Where else do you have piercings?”
Slowly, Liv turns a mighty glare at me. “Nowhere else, you freaking perv.”
“You should’ve just said it was none of my business and left it to my imagination.”
Her eyes open as wide as saucers. “I don’t want you to imagine anything.”
Too late.
I started imagining things right after we made out.
“Well, would you get more piercings somewhere else?” I wiggle my eyebrows in a way that’s always annoyed her, so she clearly knows I’m not serious.
“More in my ears, maybe. Anywhere else is too impractical.” Liv’s raspy voice turns excessively sweet. “Would you get pierced somewhere not your ears?”
I scrunch up my nose. “Hell no. I’m too sensitive.”
“And yet you got tattoos.” I still as she reaches over to my extended arm, the one I’m using as a pillow over my backpack, and lightly pulls at the sleeve of my sweatshirt until the black lines are visible. “How far do these go?”
“Should I show you?”
She pulls back. “Didn’t you say you were going to take a nap?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have distracted me.”
“Me?” Liv places a hand on her chest delicately. “I’m not the one who started touching my ears.” I tear my eyes off the anime T-shirt that fits maybe a bit too snug across her chest, to the frown on her face.
“Fine, the bling bling distracted me. I’m going to sleep now.” I bring my other arm back up and tuck my hand under my cheek before closing my eyes.
A few quiet minutes go by. The only noises are the low buzz of activity around the library and the occasional scrape of her pen on paper. Her chair creaks and I open my eyes in time to see her rearrange herself. Now, one of her legs is over the seat, her knee bumping into my thigh.
Her eyes find mine. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I drawl.
But it’s not okay. I wish we were so much closer. I need to touch her again. After just one kiss, I’m already addicted to her and it’s resetting all the ways I used to act around her.
Her hair’s fallen from its hold behind her ear and I reach over again. This time, I drag the pads of my fingers deliberately slow across her temple, gathering her hair until I can tuck it back against the shell of her ear. Then, I run my fingers against it, caressing her ear over and around the piercings, some glinting and some solid metal, until I drop my hand.
“Brooklyn.” My name comes out through gritted teeth. “Do that one more time and I’m going to pull at your ear.”
“Oh yeah? Should I do this instead?”
