Page 37 of All That Remains
"Hahacheck this out!" He handed me a photo of a brunette woman with big glasses and a poof of curly hair. "Tell me that's not you, Rafe!"
"It'snot!" I laughed, stuffing the photo away. Then I self-consciously tucked my hair behind my ears. “I’m getting there. It’s weird now, sure, but once it gets past my shoulders the curls will smooth into waves and you’ll see the vision. It’s all about gravity, mate.”
I was at an awkward stage in my hair growth journey, where the only way to tamp my mane down, which fell just past the jawline, was to flatiron it and smooth it with product. I was going for Orlando Bloom, early 2000s, but the result was unfortunately giving Lord Farquaad. Or worse, Anton Chigurh. I was damned if I do, damned if I don’t, because if I didn’t straighten it, my curls could get quite voluminous, bordering on the absurd. Plus, the other boys teased me relentlessly whenever the humidity hit.
Soon he found another photo of my dad at the beach smoking a cigar and called it "G-shit."
"We're gonna be here all night," I despaired.
"The other bois are probably like:'where the hell did they run off to?’" he laughed, the tip of his tongue poking between his teeth. "We forgot to tell 'em, yeah?"
"They'll figure it out soon enough."
"Man, I love it here. I love explorin'."
It was the single most adorable, unguarded thing I’d ever heard. I blushed as he delved deeper into the box, oblivious thatI was doting on his every word. When he glanced back up and looked me in the eye, brow furrowed, a warmth filled my core. I was uneasy being this heartfelt with a mate. He eventually flushed and looked away.
"This place is cool..."
"Think so?" I toyed with the tape on the edge of the box. It reeked of old age and damp.
"Apart from the dust."
"Yeah..." I laughed. "Apart from that."
He looked at me again and we got quiet. His gaze drifted unhurriedly to my lips, and back up again to my eyes. When he did it a second time, I could almost hear what he was thinking. I clocked the languor in his gaze and the pulse of my own heart. I licked my lips to moisten them, just in case he looked down again. I wanted—noneeded—him to like whatever he was seeing. No idea why.
Watching me relentlessly, he reached over and rubbed the back of his forefinger down my cheek, so tenderly I could barely tell he’d touched me at all. Now he stared at me through hazy slits, dragging the back of his finger along the underside of my bottom lip.
I pulled my lip into my mouth, biting it self-consciously. My arms and legs began to tremble with anticipation. Cocking his head with a curious smile, he pulled my lips apart with his thumb and let the fingertip stroke their pillowy warmth. Before I knew it, he was leaning across the box and pressing his mouth to mine, sucking my bottom lip between his.
My stomach dropped. I nearly panicked, listening as he pulled away—our lips separating with a tinysmack. Itwas earth-shattering. It was raw. It was a sound I was only used to hearing with girls.
Roman. Rome. My mate. My older brother.Rome. He’d kissed me. His lips were warm and softer than I imagined.Somehow, I’d claimed the power. I stared at him with unearned confidence. The self-assuredness bestowed when you realized you're desired. That he thought of me inthatway demystified him for the first time since we’d met.
He looked down, fumbling with the box again. I took the time to envision him in a new light. One that made me recognize the luster of his dark hair, the curve of his nose, the sheen of his bottom lip—his gorgeous skin. His fingers were long and unspeakably pretty. The nailbeds smooth and unmarred. They looked rather adept, laying absently on the edges of the box that separated us. I thought of him fingering girls with a lucidity that made my stomach drop.
Remembering the pressure of his kiss from earlier, I became jittery. I wanted it again, but he looked remorseful.
"I can't feel my legs," I muttered, trying to break the ice.
"M'sorry…"
"Don't be," I smiled softly. "Don't worry about it, alright? It wasstrange…but nice."
"Nice?"
"Yeah…and uh, look…things don't have to be weird between uz either. It was just a thing that happened, ok?"
He nodded.
And just like that, the magic was dispelled. Reality set in and we remembered we were sat in the middle of a dusty, bug-infested cellar. I got up when I saw a centipede, and after he killed it, we walked hand in hand back the way we'd come—floaties long forgotten.
***
That night in bed, he was emboldened. He wanted to kiss more and made it known by brushing his bare feet against mine, slowly working his way up my calves in calculated strokes. Hedidn’t speak a word, and neither did I. The silence facilitated all, making us feel blanketed and understood.
The caress of his feet sent shivers up my thighs, straight into my groin. He wasseducingme. I lay facing away from him, watching the walls, but eventually he dragged me backwards, over to his side of the bed, and buried his face in my hair.
