Page 23 of Come Back to Me

Can I bathe in it?

“I’ve been waiting for the opportune moment to kiss you,” I confess.

Why did I just say that out loud?

Her lips curve into a smirk. “Oh, have you now?”

I nod before I run the pad of my thumb along her bottom lip, parting her mouth open just enough, so I can succumb to what I’ve been thinking about doing to her for the past several months.

Before I kiss her, I ask her an important question. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

A blank expression writes itself all over her face. “I’ve been wanting you to kiss me since we were twelve years old,” she admits.

I knew it.

She was flirting with me earlier. She’s been flirting with me this whole damn time.

My nerves quickly dissipate as I comb my fingers through her disheveled blonde hair. “You know that was only three years ago, right?”

“Whatever, three years is a long time. I mean, it feels likea lifetime ago for me.”

“Okay, now you’re teasing me, Prescott.”

“And what are you going to do about it, Becker?”

My lips make a crash landing onto hers as I cup her face with my hands. We back up into her bedroom door, and slide my hand down to lock it, so nobody can interrupt us. We’re both breathing heavily, and our chests are heaving against each other.

I can’t believe this is happening right now.

“Do you have any special moves, Superhero?”

“I have some moves.”

My heart is racing as I grab her face, my lips capturing hers in a more demanding way this time.

“Hey, Gray?”

“Yeah, Vi?”

“I c-can’t breathe. I n-need to stop.”

Oh no, what did I do?

“Are you okay?”

Violet doesn’t answer me. Her chest is heaving. I wish I had the power to read minds instead of shooting webs out of my hands.

“Did I do something wrong?”

She clears her throat, gasping for air.

I give her all the time she needs to catch her breath. When I see that her breathing has returned to normal, I rub her back in gentle circles until I sit down on her bed.

She meets my gaze. “It’s not you.”

“If you’re giving me the wholeit’s not you, it’s mespeech, please…don’t.”

Looking away from her, I glance around her room. It’s not the same as it was when she was twelve years old. Her walls are covered in posters of Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.