Page 14 of The Hate We Breathe
“Maybe you should’ve started on the beginner walls,” I suggest.
“Pft.” He waves a hand my way and glares at the rocky wall in front of us with its various curves and jutting parts. It’s actually built to resemble what I imagine would be a real cliffside save for the obvious colorful handholds on the gray surface.
“Do you want to book another session?” the man who’s been acting as Gio’s anchor the whole time asks.
“Nah,” Gio says with a shake of his head. “Besides…” He rubs his stomach and looks to me. “I’m hungry as fuck.” The employee nods and then starts loosening the ropes and reins of Gio’s harness from the floor hook and himself.
Once we’re all checked out, Gio takes my hand and presses a kiss to the back of it as he leads me out into the parking lot and the evening that has fallen since we came in. He stares ahead as we walk side by side, but my attention is locked on him.
“Today was… nice,” I murmur.
His lips curl up and the hand in mine squeezes tight. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
“But do you think we should really be doing stuff like this?” I ask, pausing as we reach the car.
Gio stops too and looks down at me. “Did you have fun?” he asks.
“Of course,” I say. In fact, I think the last two hours were some of the first where I didn’t think about all of the bullshit going on even once in weeks if not months.
“Then it was worth it,” he answers, gaze holding mine. “We’ve been dealing with this shit for months—you even longer. If we wait until it’s all over to have fun, tolive—then we might as well wait until we die.”
My lips part in surprise and he shocks me again by swooping in and landing his mouth on mine. Gio kisses me with a heady expertise that has me sagging against his chest and creeping my hands into the longer strands at the top of his head. His tongue invades my mouth, curling around mine. When we part, he nips my lip, sending tingles down my spine and into my pussy.
“But—why rock climbing?” I ask. “Was it just because it was out of town?”
Gio shakes his head and then pops the passenger door of the Firebird open before nudging me inside. He doesn’t answer until he gets back in the car.
“Rock climbing is fun, and yeah, okay, maybe I chose it because there was a good place away from Silverwood to do it,” he begins. Gio places one hand on my headrest as he turns and looks over his shoulder and back out of the parking spot. “What did you think about when you were climbing?”
“Uh…” I grimace. “Honestly, not much of anything save for where I was going to put my hand or foot next.”
He nods as if that was expected. “Exactly,” he says.
“Exactly what?” I ask.
“That was the whole point, Prep Girl.” He steers the Firebird onto the road, the headlights washing across the mural. “You weren’t supposed to think about anything else. Just focus on moving forward.”
I blink at him.Is he fucking serious?From Nolan, I could expect that level of deep thinking, sure. But Gio? Playboy, fuck around and find out, Gio?
“Rock climbing builds your muscles and makes you think strategically,” he continues. “Next time, I’m going to take you to Cory’s for a few roundsafterwe’ve gone rock climbing instead of before.”
Strategy.I narrow my eyes on him. “This was training?” I clarify.
His lips twitch and he looks my way before returning his attention to the road. “Sure was,” he says. “But it was also fun. Don’t forget the fun bit—it’s pretty important.”
He says that, but the fact that he’s already planning on bringing me back and then taking me to Cory’s afterwards tells me he’s got a lot of things on his mind. He’s got plans that none of us—well, at least,I—have no awareness of. I never would have guessed.
With my eyes so focused on the man next to me, I see the change come over him in an instant. His shoulders stiffen. His knuckles whiten as he grips the steering wheel a bit tighter, and his expression sobers.
“Morpheus might be gone, but the person who killed him is out there,” he says, voice low. “We never fully confirmed why Morpheus had you kidnapped or was going to kill you—it doesn’t really make sense if you think about it. You were kidnapped and the kidnappers admitted that they’d been told to kill you, but then Morpheus blackmails you into moving in with him?” He shakes his head.
Cold ice invades my veins. “We don’t have time for this,” I mutter. His reminder of what’s happened is nothing short of proof that playing around is not a priority for me right now and it shouldn’t be.
He sighs. “You deserve to have fun, Jules. Maybe you forget—hell, I know we all do—but we’re still just teenagers. Sometimes… sometimes it’s good to stop thinking about the rest of the world for a little while. Sometimes it’s just about having a good time, not survival.”
Survival. It’s the only thing I’ve been concerned with for so long that I’d forgotten the truth of his words. When was the last time I actually felt like I was just a teenager?
Relaxing into the seat as Gio drives the two of us back towards Silverwood, I find myself turning his words over and over in my mind. At the end of the day, though, no matter what I do—moments like these are going to feel stolen. Little pieces of hope and light in the dark.
