19 #2
“No,” I refused. I wriggled out of his grip and grabbed his wrist instead. “I want you to laugh. I’ll make you laugh.”
And then I jumped on top of him. I have no idea why I did it, but yeah, I did it. It came so out of the blue that Adrik fell backward. I was straddling him on the ground. I then started tickling him.
“Come on, laugh! I want to make sure you aren’t dead!” I exclaimed, while tickling his belly, under his arms, his neck . . .
“Jude . . . no . . . What are you doing?” he said, trying to fight me off.
Since he still wasn’t laughing, I started tickling him even more.
You should’ve seen my face. It was like my entire life depended on making Adrik smile, even just for a minute. I had to do it! I was set on getting even the tiniest smile out of him, anything at all, so I fought off his hands, which were trying to hold me back.
Until I managed it.
It got to the point where Adrik couldn’t take it any longer.
He burst out laughing, even though he was trying not to.
He broke into a wide smile, revealing his perfectly even white teeth.
I’d never seen him properly smile before.
It wasn’t a perfect smile, but it softened the usual depressed expression on his face, making him look happy for once.
He was so hot even with that indifferent, serious demeanor, but when he smiled, he was . . . Fuck, when he smiled, he was even hotter.
“That’s enough,” he said all of a sudden. He lunged forward with a strength that matched his size, grabbed my wrists, and then we ended up sitting face-to-face. “Happy now?”
His gray eyes had a glint in them. Now he wasn’t so serious. I’d messed up his hair, giving him a wild look.
“Let’s call the Tagus newspaper,” I declared loudly, still buzzing after getting him to laugh. “Adrik Cash has a soul! Adrik Cash knows how to laugh!”
“Tell them you’re three times as annoying when you’re high.”
“I’m three times as annoying, but I can do this!” I said.
I started moving my arms, head, and torso from the inside out in a strange attempt at dancing. I threw in some strange humming too. I then started puckering my lips like a duck.
Adrik looked at me, frowning.
“What the hell are you doing?” he said, chuckling a bit.
“A dance,” I replied, as I moved about and pulled strange faces. “I’ve got my own moves, didn’t you know?”
“Stop it,” he ordered me.
But as I could see he was laughing slightly, I started taking things up a notch. I enjoyed it because my hair was all over my face, and my head felt like a light, inflated balloon. My entire existence seemed light. I wanted to laugh and shout crazy things, all at the same time.
“Stop it now, Jude,” he insisted again.
He tried to grab my hands, but I kept them moving, flailing wildly with no rhyme or reason. We got into a kind of mini hand-and-arm struggle until he grabbed my forearms so tightly that I had no choice but to stop.
“Now stop moving, fuck!” he said angrily.
I froze, breathing heavily, strands of hair falling across my face, feeling Adrik’s strong hands gripping my forearms like claws. I blinked like an idiot, wondering why he wanted me to stop if we were supposed to be having fun, until it suddenly hit me what I’d been ignoring the whole time.
I was on top of him.
And by on top of him, I mean, on his . . .
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, swallowing. “I’m going to . . . get up.”
I tried but he didn’t let go of me. I’ve asked myself countless times why Adrik didn’t let go of me, or why I didn’t slap him and get up but, deep down, it was because I didn’t want to.
“No,” he said, in a sharp, commanding tone. “Don’t you want to know if I’m alive?”
Still holding my arms, he thrust his hips upward and, in one fell swoop, my body adjusted perfectly to his.
All around us colors swirled and wild shapes hung in the air, but they slowly faded away as I focused on him.
I was aware of his presence now more than ever: his enticing scent, his size compared to mine, and how dangerously close we were.
“Do you think I am?” he asked me in a hoarse whisper.
So, I’m not sure who made the first move, but we kissed. Well, I like to think it was him, but we were both up for it and didn’t shy away.
You read that right: Adrik Cash kissed me.
For a minute, our faces parted, and the next, they were together again. He let go of one of my arms and brushed a hand across my cheek, moving my hair out of the way. He cupped my face and drew me toward him. His lips effortlessly met mine.
I sobered up from my silly incense high on the spot. The only thing that mattered was that Adrik’s lips moved with a commanding rhythm, and I was more than happy to follow his lead.
How could I refuse? Fuck me, did he know how to kiss.
There wasn’t a flaw to be found in the way his tongue met mine, or in the gentle, teasing nips he gave my lower lip, and certainly not in how his hand worked its way down from my face to my neck, eventually getting caught in my hair.
Even his breath was delicious and fresh.
His lips were soft, his breathing deep, his skin warm . . .
He slid his hands down to my waist before shifting me to sit more firmly against him.
His fingers were nimble; he knew exactly where to place his hands to keep me entranced as we started kissing even more passionately.
Out of habit, I wrapped my arms around his neck, my fingers tangling in his hair.
He pressed against me more, getting us racing even more.