Page 84 of Chasing Hope
He stops suddenly, a teasing lilt to his voice as he sing-songs, “If you wish.”
Before I can register what’s happening, we’re falling, tumbling through air. A scream rips from my chest as I’m suddenly looking at the blue cloudless sky and not the forest floor. I only have a split second to take a deep breath before icy water encases my body.
Matteo takes me with him as he dives, holding me as my body locks up. He’s dragging me to the surface before I even have the right sense to begin kicking my legs.
Sputtering as we breach the water, my wide eyes locking with his teasing ones, I push him off me.
“What the fuck?”
Matteo just shrugs. “You asked to be put down, so I put you down.”
“I didn’t mean in the water!”
His voice lowers, deepening to the point goosebumps break out along my arms. “Should have been more specific.”
Every ounce of frustration that has been bubbling beneath my skin explodes as I lunge for him. I place my hands on his shoulders and push with all my might. His head drops beneath the surface, except his hands quickly wrap around my waist and pull me down with him.
Submerging beneath the water, my hands still on Matteo’s shoulder, he slides his hands from my waist until they rest along my lower hips, holding me to his body. Everything disappears for a moment and all I’m left with is him and me. Just the two of us, away from the consequences of the world above.
The tether that is always alive and burning tugs.
Matteo pulls me even closer, flushing our bodies together until I don’t know where he ends and I begin. I shiver nevertheless, my body igniting in a way it never has.
Nothing has ever felt so perfect.
For a second, just a moment in time, my thoughts drift to where they used to when I was younger, when I was a hormone-filled teenager desperately seeking any time I could with my brother’s best friend. When all I ever dreamed of was Matteo turning around and kissing me. Back then, I thought of what I can’t help but think in this moment. Are we made for each other? Do we fit so perfectly and move like water because we’re the missing half to each other’s soul?
Are we destined in the stars?
Perhaps the stars don’t want me to know the answer because Matteo drags us both to the surface, popping our perfect, quiet bubble. As I come up gasping, blinking furiously at him, Matteo’s eyes seem to melt as he keeps my body flush with his.
My breathing remains labored, slow and deep as I try to force my heart to calm.
For the first time in my life, I take a play from my ex’s book and lie.
I tell myself that Matteo isn’t staring into my eyes with something akin to love because he wants to kiss me, that his hands on my waist don’t feel like heaven, that his eyes aren’t hooding andhis lips certainly aren’t parting, that I’m notcravingto be touched for once.
But that doesn’t happen.
None of it does.
Because my body isn’t listening.
My lips mirror his and part. My breath hitches and, despite screaming at myself to stop, I lean forward, my breasts firmly pushed against his chest. My hands, still on his wet shoulders, snake upward, slowly trailing along the length of his neck. The second my thumb brushes his jawline, he sucks in a hiss of air, his eyes closing as a low sound leaves him.
The warmth of his breath brushes across my parted lips. My head tilts, his lowering. We’re an inch apart and all I want ishim.
Always him.
“Dove,” he breathes.
“Yes?”
“Are you?—”
A snap of a branch behind me has Matteo’s eyes widening. He suddenly spins me behind him, placing me at his back as he whispers, “Don’t make a sound.”
It doesn’t take me long to realize why he’s now standing as tall as he can, why his hand is quivering as he holds me in a death grip. He doesn’t mean it but his grasp begins to hurt my wrist, but I don’t say anything. I can’t, not as I spot the bear across the creek, ambling along with three cubs.
