Page 72 of The Otherworld

She nods, spreading her free hand over my heart. “You.”

Her description of this “strange feeling” is so simple and innocent, but I know exactly what she means. I know exactly what it is.

I feel it burning inside me with the violence of a forest fire. Destroying me.

This butterfly setting off a hurricane.

Have I done the same to her?

I can’t believe it.

All I can do is stare at her, my control slipping.

“I feel that way, too,” I confess at last, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and tracing my fingertips down the curve of her neck.

Orca’s glinting eyes dart back and forth between mine. “Do Otherworlders have a word for it?”

The overwhelming desire for her builds in me like a cresting wave and dwarfs my willpower. I can’t fight it back any longer. All I can do is lean close to her face and whisper, “Yes. We do.”

And I kiss her.

22

Love

ORCA

Time stands still as Adam’s lips part to softly take mine captive. I feel his fingertips brush against my cheek, sliding into my hair and curling at the nape of my neck. His other hand cradles my waist, sending a rush of fever through my whole body.

My lips soften and open for him, and he kisses me so gently, so deeply—I feel like my heart is falling away from me. Everything is falling away from me.

For a moment, we are two stars floating in the infinity of the universe.

Then Adam eases back. I look into his face, searching for a clue as to what comes next. His eyes burn with a thousand unspoken words, but he only leans his forehead against mine and whispers, “We’d better go back inside.”

“Must we?” I rasp, my lips so close to his yet so far away. I want to kiss him again, to move in the same smooth, experienced way he does; to run my fingers through his hair so he knows how good it feels. The longing for him squeezes me so tight inside, I can hardly breathe.

I catch the reflection of that same desire in his eyes, but he steps back, taking his hands off me. Only then do I notice the cold wind blowing off the ocean.

“Yes,” he says. “We must.”

I follow him through the door to the lantern room, snapping the light back on before we descend the stairs into the house. We part ways in the hallway between our respective bedrooms.

“Goodnight, Orca,” Adam says, vanishing into my father’s room.

“Goodnight, Adam.”

I have no idea what just happened, but I loved it. Every part of it.

I love him. Every part of him.

That’s the word he was going to tell me before he kissed me.

Love.

I think about that word as I lie awake in the dark, listening to the crashing surf outside my window.

Love.

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