Page 86 of The Time It Takes
THE SUN ROSE and our kiss broke.
Hours passed before our lips parted. It felt impossible to stop.
Now I was lying in his bed, resting my head on his pillow with raw lips. We were staring at each other like two threads that had snapped in place; like all was finally right. I could still feel his mouth on mine—the taste of him fresh on my tongue. It was a sensation I’d never forget. It was magic, that kiss. He ruined me. I was ruined.
We were both wide awake now. I didn’t think I’d ever been more alert in my entire life. This was everything. This was one of those moments I felt like I’d been waiting my entire life for and now that it was looking right at me, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of being lost in oblivion. I didn’t know where we went from here exactly. I’d never felt like this for anyone. I’d never felt like this at all. Only when I was with him. Only ever him.
All I was certain about was that I wanted him to do it again every day until we were both nothing but stardust.
Finally, he blinked those emerald, green eyes.
I blinked my brown ones.
He grinned boyishly.
I grinned back.
Oliver rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands with a stretch. My stomach was doing somersaults. I didn’t know if I was supposed to say something or if he was—or if after kissing both participants share a moment of silence.
It deserved one. It was one hell of a kiss.
Best. First. Kiss. Ever.
I wanted him to be the only person I kissed for the rest of my life. I trusted him with everything I had. I trusted him wholeheartedly with my mind, body, and soul. If what I read about in romance novels were true, this sort of love was rare. It was the kind that made your vision clear, your worries ease, and your soul erupt in a beautiful chaos of needingmore more more.
All my life, I’d slowly been falling in love with my best friend. Now I knew he’d been falling in love with me too.
My heart clenched as he lifted his hand and placed it on my jaw. His thumb ran over my cheek softly. I bit my bottom lip to refrain from smiling like a giddy child who just discovered sugar.
I needed it to be real. This had to be real. It had to be forever.
“Ollie?” I whispered.
He hummed absently, studying every part of my face like he was seeing it for the first time. His fingers trailed softly down my jaw, my ear, my nose, my lips.
“Are you freaking out?” I asked him.
He shook his head, but a pained expression on his face formed and I couldn’t see past it. “Are you?” he asked.
Oh.
I shook my head. If that was what he was worried about, he could just throw that thought right in the garbage disposal. I’d never been so certain in my life. There was no weight on my chest. His love was featherlight on my bones.
His thumb pressed into my lips. “You know…” he trailed off as he leaned over me. I rolled onto my back, looking up at him. “For someone who’s never been kissed, you sure know how to make a man go weak in the knees with this mouth.”
My heart was beating a mile a second. I was certain that if he looked down at my chest, he’d see it protruding through my skin. I tried to give him a small smile. It was my best attempt at not thinking about his thumb dragging over my bottom lip. I reached up and ran my finger over the corner of his mouth. He grazed it with his teeth, and I yanked my hand away, laughing lightly under my breath.
He dipped his head and instead of kissing my cheek, he bit it gently. Then those teeth went to my jaw, before scraping down the column of my neck.
My face twisted in amusement as I bit back a moan.
When his head lifted, he was smiling. I got a perfect front view of his dimples. “Oh yeah, Damsel, there’s more where that came from.”
He came for me with his mouth open and an alarmed laugh ran through me as I tried to squirm away.
“I think I may need to reconsider.”
“Oh no. Too late now,” he said, his voice rough. One at a time, he kissed every spot his teeth just were, and I melted all over again.
