Chapter Thirty-Four
Sophie
As the wind blows around us, I feel Damian watching me. I don’t dare meet his eyes because I know that he will quickly turn away. And I don’t want him to turn away. I want him to continue watching me and…what, exactly? I’m not sure. But I just want him to continue.
“Sophie?” he finally says.
I turn my head to him.
“This may sound sappy, but…”
“You know I’m the queen of sap with how much I love romance books.”
He chuckles softly. “Right. I just wanted to say…” He shifts in his seat. “It’s not so easy for me to open up like this.”
“That’s okay. Take your time. We have the whole day ahead of us. I’m not leaving here until curfew. The place is just too stunning.”
“I’m glad you like it.” He runs his hand through his hair. “I’m just really thankful for what you’ve done for me, Sophie. You have no idea how much you’ve impacted my life. It might be cliché for me to say this, but…well, you’ve changed my life.” He hangs his head. “Okay, that sounded really lame.”
“Why do you have to ruin the moment, Mr.?” I gently grab him by the chin and raise his face so his eyes meet mine. “Forget about sappiness and cheesiness and lameness. Just speak from your heart, Damian.”
“Okay.” He takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out.
“You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met.
Everyone else at this school wrote me off as trouble and had no interest in making friends with me.
Heck, they all preferred to pretend I didn’t exist. But you didn’t care about rumors or the way I looked.
You made an effort to get to know me. You saw me in a way no one else did. That means a lot to me.”
“Because you’re a good person, Damian.”
“I never saw myself that way,” he admits. “I thought I was damaged beyond repair.”
“You’re not,” I insist. “You’re…” My cheeks grow hot.
I don’t know if I want to admit this to him or not, but…
you know? What the heck. “You’ve come to mean so much to me.
Since the moment you offered to take me to the bookstore and pay for my books, I knew there was more to you than you made it seem.
I knew you had a good heart. What guy would sacrifice so much for a stranger? A good person.”
“You were right about everything,” he continues.
“You claimed I’m not allowing myself to move on and be happy.
You’re one hundred percent right. I didn’t think I had the right to be happy when my dad’s dead, but he wouldn’t want me to mourn him for the rest of my life.
He wouldn’t want me to deny myself happiness or a good future.
He wouldn’t want me not to get…close to people.
” His eyes search mine before they drop to my lips.
“Of course,” I whisper, finding myself moving closer to him. He’s moving closer to me, too. My eyes dip to his lips as my heart starts beating rapidly in my chest.
“You’re so special, Sophie,” he murmurs as his hand strokes my hair. “I never imagined I would be so happy after my dad died. But I wake up in the morning in a good mood. I go to sleep in a good mood. All because of you.”
“You’re the first person I think about when I wake up,” I tell him. “And you’re the last person I think about before I go to sleep.”
His brows rise in surprise. “Really?”
I nod.
“The same with me. In fact, I was up all night just thinking about you.”
We’re now sitting so close to each other, mere centimeters between us. My heart is pounding so fast I think it might catapult out of my chest. It’s a good thing we’re sitting because I doubt my legs would support my body. His chest rises and falls heavily.
“Sophie,” he whispers as he moves his face closer to mine.
“Dami—” I don’t have a chance to finish my words because they’re swallowed by his lips as they gently press into mine.
I startle for a second because I’ve never been kissed before, but then I melt into him, locking my hands around his neck and shifting even closer to him, until our bodies are practically fused into one.
Damian takes his time moving his lips slowly against mine, as though he’s savoring every second of it.
My fingers play with the hair at the nape of his neck as I take my time, too.
The real world disappears and it’s just the two of us in our own bubble, where everything is perfect.
His hands settle on my waist and gently squeeze me as his lips move against mine a little more fervently. My fingers continue twirling in the strands of his hair as these amazing feelings burst all over my body. I swear I can hear an orchestra playing a beautiful symphony in the background.
I feel so many emotions in the way he kisses me.
There is so much hope in his heart, so much he wants to look forward to.
But there’s still the pain that will most likely never go away.
I hope I’m telling him with my lips that he doesn’t have to worry about anything.
I’m here and I’ll do whatever it takes to chase away the pain in his heart, or absorb it and share in his pain.
He doesn’t have to go through anything alone anymore.
When our lips break apart, we smile and press our foreheads together. “Wow,” I gasp.
He chuckles softly. “Wow, indeed.”
“I never imagined it would feel like that,” I mutter.
“Neither did I.”
“But you’ve kissed girls before.”
“It never felt like this.”
I smile before bending close and kissing him again. “You know something? I thought I didn’t need your romance, but I see now that I do.”
His eyebrows lift. “So I won the challenge?”
I grab the front of his shirt and pull him close, my lips hovering over his. “You won the challenge.”
***
It’s kind of hard to leave the school parking lot because we keep sneaking in more kisses. But anyone can see us out here, so we reluctantly pull away from each other and head to the girls’ dorm, our hands interlocked and never letting go.
I’ve felt close to people before, but it’s a different kind of closeness with Damian. It feels like I’m dancing on the moon.
“I don’t want to part from you,” I say with a frown.
“Me either. But I don’t want you to be late for curfew. I’ll call you later?”
“You’d better,” I joke.
He smiles and looks to his right and left before planting a quick, sweet kiss on my lips. “Good night, beautiful.”
“Good night.”
He waits until I’m inside the dorm before walking away. I whip out my phone and tell Carly and Addie to meet in my room because I have some very important news to share. Since it’s almost curfew, we only have a few minutes.
As soon as I walk in, all three of my friends jump to their feet. “What happened? You were out with Damian for so long,” Carly says.
Leaning back on the door, I smile and let out a happy sigh.
“I know that look!” Addie squeals. “And I know that sigh. Sophie, did you and Damian…?”
I nod with my own squeal. “We kissed!”
“Oh my gosh!” They rush over to me and demand to know every detail.
After I fulfill their request, Carly takes my hands and jumps up and down. “I knew it!”
“I knew it,” Addie corrects. “I called it from the beginning.”
“Okay, I admit you were right,” I tell her. “Sorry I told you not to get involved in my love life.”
She waves her hand. “It’s okay. Not your fault people don’t always see my awesomeness right away.”
I playfully roll my eyes, and then the four of us burst out laughing.
“We only have like fifteen minutes, but we need more details.” Carly grabs my hand and pulls me to my bed, where we all gather around.
“Don’t leave anything out,” Raven adds.
I spend the full fifteen minutes enlightening my friends on the amazing evening I had. And then I go to sleep thinking about nothing but Damian and how it felt to have his warm lips moving over mine.