Page 23 of Quietly Falling
The desperation in my voice is almost a cry and I can’t do this. I can’t just sit here while he’s battling the things I can’t see.
“Don’t hate me,” I whisper as I climb over the console, my knees slipping on the leather and my boots catching on the water bottle in the cup holder.
But I don’t stop; I can’t.
The space is small, but I manage to straddle his lap and shake him, my hands cupping his face when he fails to open his eyes.
When he fails to move.
“Bodhi, please?—”
His jaw clenched and pulse hammering in his throat, I don’t know what else to do.
I don’t know if there’s anything else Icando.
On my next breath, I slant my mouth over his, lips warm and soft and unyielding. I grip his face harder and push myself tighter against his body, sinking my teeth into his bottom lip and tracing it with my tongue.
Please work.
A lifetime passes in the space between us, seconds and hours all in a single beat of my heart.
Like angels singing, he gasps, his chest heaving against mine as he draws in breath after breath and tears leak from my eyes.
Oh, thank God.
The bone-deep relief that he’s okay is fleeting, replaced almost instantly by the realization that I hurled myself across the car and climbed into his lap.
And I kissed Bodhi Maxwell.
To save him.
And now…
Now I’m still straddling him, my front pressed against his as his eyelids slowly open.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” I whisper, the words an explanation and apology as I try to move back, to somehow get back in the driver’s seat without making a fool of myself.
Hand on the center console, I look away, my cheeks heating as I try to pull myself up.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I ask as his arm bands around my back and holds me to him, his other hand tangling in my hair.
“Don’t go.”
12
BODHI
Imust be out of my damn mind saying the words, but none of that seems to matter because the second that my gaze drops to her pretty pink lips, they part.
Like an invitation.
And I take it.
Bringing her face down to meet mine, I kiss her slow and deep and without hesitation.
Without apology.
