Page 61 of Our Secret Moments

“Who’s the possessive one now, huh?” I murmur against her lips. Her eyes flash when she presses herself into me again, feeling the hardness in my jeans.

“Feels like it’s still you,” she whispers before kissing me so hard I almost lose my balance.

I give her everything with my kiss. I tug on her bottom lip with my teeth, desperate and needy for more. It feels branding — as she says, possessive.It was absolute torture watching her in a relationship with somebody else and now that I finally have her, I want to show her exactly what it’s like to be mine. To be worshipped. To be cared for and looked after.

It feels like we’ve been making out in the corridor for hours, neither of us stepping apart to take a breath until someone walks past clearing their throat. We break apart and I drop her back to her feet. Her deep brown lips are swollen, her pupils dilated as she raises a shaky hand to touch her lips.

“When am I going to see you again?” I ask when we finally start walking back to Wes. I hope the poor guy hasn’t passed out again.

Her eyebrows scrunch as she turns to me. “Coach says I have to come with you to the away game, anyway. So, I’ll see you then.”

“That’s in a week, Cat. I need to see you before then,” I groan, sounding like a child. She stops, crossing her arms against her chest, challenging me with her eyes. “Just me and you,” I add.

“I need to study,” she mutters. Right. College. Work. Things that exist outside mine and Cat’s relationship.

“Then let me study with you,” I suggest, “I’m a good study buddy.”

She chews on her lip for a minute, glancing down at the floor and then back up at me. I know how hard she works. She’s always put in one hundred and ten percent into everything that she does and college work is no different. I used to think that all she did was study until a few years ago when she started to let loose – courtesy of my sister and Elle.

“Okay, fine. Meet me at Grand, tomorrow, at six,” she says, sticking a finger in my face. I grasp her small hand between mine, pulling it to my lips and kissing it. She rolls her eyes at me. “Don’t be late.”

TWENTY-THREE

CONNOR

GRAND LIBRARY

“Are you crying right now?”

Wes turns to me, crumbs of popcorn falling down his chin. His face is completely red after rolling around for the last god knows how long as he pauses the credits to the fifth movie we’ve watched.I put one on as a treat since I managed to get through some more questions that Cat sent for me and I am strangely obsessed.

Since Wes’s advice with Cat last time somehow managed to work, I’ve decided to give him another chance. Which means sitting through a bunch of rom-coms back to back with a selection of candy, a blanket and popcorn spread around us. By the time the second movie finished, I couldn’t help it anymore and I told him everything from the night in the Manifestation Chamber to the day in the gym. As much as he’s a pain in my ass, he’s my best friend and if I kept our secret any longer, I think I would burst into flames.

I swipe my face with the back of my sweater. “We just watched one of the greatest movies to ever exist. Whyaren’tyou crying?”

Wes glances over at me, grinning ear to ear. “You’re a big baby, Connie boy. All this for Catherine Fables,” he says, gesturing to the mess we’ve made. He shakes his head with a disbelieving chuckle. “She’s one lucky girl.”

“I think I’d do anything for her,” I murmur, resting my head back against the couch. I don’t think I fully register the weight of my words until they’re out of my mouth. All I know is that it’s true. So true that it scares me a little how one person can take up every thought in my brain, make every song somehow feel like her and have my days jumbled because I feel like I exist solely for the purpose of waiting for her.

“Yeah?” Wes asks, pushing himself up against the couch next to me.

“I’d give her anything she wants. Every part of me. If she asked me to move the fucking world, I’d do it,” I say, my chest aching just at the thought.

“Are you drunk?” I try to search for the joke in his question, but he sounds so serious.Tooserious.

I shake my head. “Of course I’m not.”

“You’re that whipped, huh?”

“I’m fucking obsessed, Wes. Something’s wrong with me, I swear,” I admit, rubbing my hands across my face. If watching rom-coms back to back all day with your best friend just to impress a girl doesn’t show how down I am for her, I don’t know what will.

They say that when you know, you know. I think I’ve always known how much I cared for Catherine from the second I laid my eyes on her. There’s never been anyone else for me. Even if it took her fucking years to notice me too, it’s all worth it. If I just get to hold her, to listen to her, to talk to her even for a minute, I’ll be the happiest man on the planet.

“The crazy thing is,” Wes says. Just from the tone of his voice, I know he’s about to talk shit. “You haven’t even slept togetherand she’s already got you this fucked up. I bet your wrist is sore, though.”

I elbow him in the ribs. “You’re disgusting,” I mutter before reaching over to grab my phone. I’ve kept it silent whilst we watched the movie so I wouldn’t get distracted. Retaining information hasn’t exactly been my forte, but I’m trying.

When my eyes focus on my phone screen, I see over twenty texts for Cat and my heart drops straight through my ribs.

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