“Just past four o’clock.”
“In the afternoon.” I looked at him in shock. Had we been sitting here that long?
He let out a soft laugh before replying, “It’s certainly not four in the morning.”
I let him pull on my hand to help lift me from the ground. “Wait, didn’t you have some place you had to be?”
“Yeah,” he tugged me to him, and wrapped his arms tightly around me. “Right here.” He said.
The scent of him was all around me. It was like a blanket that I never wanted to let go of. He smelled so good. I wrapped my arms around his waist and fisted my hands in his shirt. I rested my head against his lower chest and breathed him in. It felt safe, so safe that I didn’t want to let go of him. Not ever. I was the girl who felt unfamiliar in a hug, not the girl who enjoyed one, but he was different.
“Grace.” He spoke softly.
I lifted my head up but kept my body close to him.
He slowly moved his head down to towards me. My body trembled beneath him. My lips were shaking and my heart was racing. This was it. He was going to kiss me. Could I breathe? I wasn’t sure. My world stopped. Every inch closer that he moved made my heart skip a beat. His eyes shifted from my eyes down to my lips, and then back up again. I wanted that kiss so bad.
Please kiss me Jackson. I repeated inside my head.
The heat between us was intense. It was breathtaking. He stopped just short of my lips and looked at me deeply. I thought maybe he was waiting for me to say that it was okay, so I smiled just barely. He closed the gap in an instant, pressing his soft, warm lips to mine.
I don’t know where my heart went but it felt like it was taking flight from my chest. So soft and gentle, he moved his lips slowly over mine. It was so much better than I expected. A hundred times better.
The electric current flowing through my body was unlike any feeling I’d ever had before. It consumed me. I kissed him back harder because I couldn’t get enough of him. I wanted to stay like that forever. I figured the deeper that I pressed into him, the more real it would feel. Wrong. It made me feel like I was floating on a cloud and that every part of my body was under a hot, steady, stream of water.
I felt the tip of his tongue press against my lips.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
That was when I realized that I was supposed to open my mouth. When I did, he slipped his tongue gently inside of mine. Forget what I said earlier. This was the moment that my heart took flight in my chest. The tingles were all the way to my toes. It didn’t get better than that. It couldn’t. I never knew that it could feel that way, and that I’d want to be this close to someone.
A sound came from him that made me weak in the knees. He loved it too. It triggered something deep inside me. I clenched the back of his shirt and pulled myself to him with all the force I had. I kissed him back as if he were the last person in the world. I kissed him as if I needed him to breathe.
My breath was gone. My heart was gone, every plausible thought in my mind, gone.
When ours lips shifted apart, he held me up. I needed that. My knees were weak and my legs unsteady. If I tried to stand there on my own, I’d be a goner. I’d fall straight to the ground.
There was a bright smile on his face.
“That was amazing.” He said.
“The best first kiss ever.” I admitted. It just slipped out, but I didn’t care.
“First kiss?” His head dropped to the side. “That was your first kiss? I was your first kiss?”
I could feel the heat in my face. Embarrassing moments were my thing. “Well, technically it was my second kiss. If you count the one you gave me on my cheek.”
“That’s hot.” He brushed his lips against mine for a second, than pulled back a little. “Damn that’s hot.”
I giggled into his chest.
“Let’s go get food.” I said.
“Let’s go.” He took me by the hand and walked me back to my car.
I wasn’t sure what had changed. He was acting so different. I didn’t know what had gotten into him, but I couldn’t escape the feelings that were taking over inside me. They were strong. I didn’t know Jackson that well, but I couldn’t deny what was happening. Something was happening, and it made me happy. It made me forget all of the worries that were waiting for me at home.
I read about these kinds of feelings before in century old tales and stories. When you have no television, books become your best friend. Well, books and radio. But reading about it, and feeling it were two completely different things. My parents weren’t like that. They didn’t show their feelings, so this was all so new to me.
I could get used to those lips on mine.
Seriously, I could.
18
Jackson
I didn’t want to leave Grace at her Aunt’s house after what had happened earlier, but I had to get to weight training. She told me it was okay. Her father wasn’t there. So I left her, but not without a goodbye kiss. I was sinking myself in deeper and deeper with her, to the point that it scared me.
I’d never been kissed like that. There was so much feeling and she was the most delicate girl I’d ever touched. She was like a piece of forbidden fruit. Then when she admitted that it was her first kiss, I almost lost it. It was the hottest thing ever, but at the same time it brought me back to the thoughts of her innocence. How the two of us were worlds apart? She was good, like goodie two shoes good. I decided that at weight training I would feel out the guys about her. Just see what they thought and if any of them could see past her differences.
It was a bad idea all around, because the moment I mentioned her they started with the jokes. They made fun of her. They called her plain Jane, even made jokes about how she was as pure as holy water. Hell, I even laughed at that one.
My thoughts were all over the place. I couldn’t figure out one side from the next, and with basketball about to start full swing I just couldn’t afford the distractions. Not from anyone.
Even Holly.
Fourteen new texts today, and all of them were from her. She was becoming unbearable, and I couldn’t take it.
As soon as training was over, and I’d gotten back to my car I called her. Of course she answered on the first ring.
“Where have you been all day? I tried to call you several times.” She nagged. It took her two point five seconds to start in on me.
“We need to talk.”
“About what?” She asked. “About how you never call me back, or how you don’t answer a single one of my texts.”
I growled and slammed my hand down on the steering wheel. I was going to ask to go over to her house and talk, but fuck that shit. I couldn’t handle her whining and her bitching and complaining.
“I want to break up.” I said. Just like that. I was over it.
“You are not serious Jackson. Quit acting like this, I’m the best thing that has ever happened to you.” She yapped in the highest voice possible.
I wanted to scream back at her, but I didn’t. I just bit my tongue and let her rant and rave for five minutes.
“Are you done? I have to get home, and I am not arguing with you. I told you I want to break up and I’m serious. I can barely keep up with school and basketball. I don’t have time for a relationship.” I admitted, and that was the truth. Well, part of the truth.
“You’ll regret this.”
Ha, that wasn’t happening. “I don’t think so. Bye Holly.” I hung up the phone and threw it into the seat, but not before putting it on silent. I had a bad feeling that she would keep calling back until I answered and I wasn’t in the mood.
I needed to be all work and no play now. The season was starting and I didn’t have time for the drama. No matter how much Grace was on my mind, I couldn’t let her get me off track either. For some reason I kept finding myself being pulled in her direction. Most of the time I felt completely helpless when my mind would wander to her. It had to stop.
I would just keep telling myself that, even though I knew it was a big fat lie.