Chapter 29
Astrid
My eyes widened at the sudden, unexpected intrusion.
His lips were soft, like chocolate left too long in the sun, but his kiss was rough, burning like a shot of whiskey down my throat—
My thoughts shattered when his fingertips brushed my temple, hooking a finger under the frame of my glasses. “These,” he murmured against my parting lips, sliding my glasses off, “are in my way.”
He tossed them aside. I barely heard the sound of them landing, not when his mouth came back crashing onto mine like a starved man.
His one hand wrapped around my waist, fingertips pressing at the small of my back, while his other hand found the curve of my neck, tilting my mouth perfectly under him.
I closed my eyes, giving in, and he took it as an invitation, pulling me close enough that I could feel his erratic heartbeat matching mine. Liar. He wasn’t in as control as he was pretending. His hands told one story, his heartbeat a completely different one.
My vision blurred, and for once, it had nothing to do with the glasses he’d tossed aside. It was partly from the kiss, and partly from the way the Ferris wheel kept dipping and lifting us.
A small moan escaped, totally out of my control, when he squeezed my waist. That tiny sound must have lit a match to the gasoline. He groaned and bit my bottom lip, just enough to send sparks through my bloodstream.
“Aer...n,” I managed, pulling back. “I can’t…I can’t…breat—”
When I opened my eyes, I was met with his hungry eyes. He didn’t wait. His mouth was back on mine again.
He squeezed my waist, and when my lips parted on another gasp, he slid his tongue past my lips, tasting every inch of my tongue.
Oddly, he tasted like coffee, mint, and entirely too much impatience for someone I'd mistaken as the king of patience.
I was lost in the kiss, lost in Aeron. Something cool brushed my cheek. Another drop tapped my forehead. More droplets spilled from the sky, soaking us completely.
Three whole days without rain. Three days of couples riding the Ferris wheel, hoping for that legend— if you kiss at the top of Ferris wheel and it rains, you're bound forever. But the skies had never opened.
And now, with the Ferris wheel closed for the year, everyone else gone, and Aeron kissing me like he had no intention of stopping, the rain finally arrived, as if it had been saving itself for this moment.
And because I was me and Aeron was Aeron, and because he had this impossible way of turning me into a hopeful kind of fool, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe the universe was picking sides—and we were its favorite kids.
I kissed him back, clumsily, eagerly, our noses bumping, rain mixing on our mouths. He made this sound, somewhere between groan and desperation, and my stomach was free falling. Physics had lied to me—gravity wasn't holding me down anymore.
He pulled back only when I, desperate for some oxygen, started hitting his chest,. He gave me a second, just long enough to catch two breaths, and his mouth was on mine again and he was pulling me into his lap.
The kiss wasn't gentle like before. It was demanding. His tongue stroked slowly against mine, teeth tugging at my bottom lip, not quite a bite, not quite a kiss as though he was punishing me for something I’d done wrong.
When we finally pulled apart, he rested his forehead gently against mine, both of us breathing unevenly.
“Now do you get it?” he whispered, his thumb softly brushing my jaw, leaving a trail of fire.
“Hmm?” My voice was barely a whisper, my mind still lost in the kiss. I blinked, realizing the Ferris wheel had stopped sometime ago. Even the rain had softened into a lazy drizzle, and somehow, I hadn't even noticed.
My phone rang, startling me. I had absolutely no clue when, or where, I'd lost track of it. I reached blindly, fumbling to find it, but Aeron caught my wrist. He didn’t speak a word, but the grip on his fingers spoke loudly: That phone call wasn’t getting picked up.
“You get it now?” he repeated.
“Maybe?” I mumbled, finding my shoes incredibly interesting all at once.
He tilted my face up, his skin still damp, wet hair dark and clinging to his forehead. “Still at maybe?” he asked, that softness in his eyes shifting back into that slightly irritated territory I knew far too well. “Let me prove it again.”
Prove it? Pretty sure that kiss had already done permanent, irreparable damage. Still, the devil sitting on my shoulder said one more round sounded like an excellent idea.
He leaned toward me, lips dangerously close to mine, but I pushed him back.
“You’ll have to try harder than that.” He chuckled.
“I’m not pushing you away. I’m reminding you.” His soaked shirt clung to him, outlining every tempting muscle. My fingers itched to sneak a touch, just to see if whatever inside matched my shameless imagination.
“Of what?”
“It rained.” I waved a hand at the soaked ground, just in case he had been too… distracted to notice.
“So?” He leaned in, pressing a soft kiss against my left cheek. My heart did that stupid fluttery thing again. Of course, he noticed because Aeron never missed a single embarrassing detail about me. A smile curved his lips as he moved to my right cheek, pressing a kiss there too.
“It rained when we kissed,” I reminded him again stubbornly, but this idiot clearly wasn’t listening. He was too busy brushing the wet strands of hair away from my face.
“Aeron.”
“Hmmm….”
I cupped his face, forcing his gaze back to mine. “Are you even listening?”
“You said it rained when we kissed,” he repeated.
“And?” I looked at him hopefully.
“It doesn’t matter.”
My heart sank. Didn’t matter? It wasn’t about him believing in some legend. It was that he didn’t seem even the tiniest bit excited about us, about whatever this was becoming. Was this, was I. was I the only one building castles on our kiss and he had already forget—
He pressed a thumb between my eyebrows, smoothing out a worry line. “Your imagination really should come with an off switch.”
I swatted his hand away, refusing to fall for whatever charm he was trying to use, even if my heart was melting into a puddle. “I am being serious.”
“I’m serious enough for the both of us, Astrid.
” That teasing smile slipped away. “Ferris wheels or rains or legends, none of them decide what I feel about you. If it hadn't rained today, I would’ve kiss you next year. And if it didn't rain then, I'd kiss you the year after that, and the year after that, hell, I’d kiss you until the universe admitted you’ve been mine—always.”
God! This man!
Could he stop melting my insides for two whole seconds?
“Why?” I whispered, desperately needing answers. Why was I special to him? Aeron was very stingy with his words. He treasured them like precious coins. Yet around me, he threw them out freely as if he had been saving them just for me.
“You’ve got a pretty wild imagination. Figure it out.”
“Figure it out?” I shook my head, half-laughing, half-frustrated. “I’m still figuring out why you pulled Kaia’s tail.”
“Want to hear the truth?” His voice dipped low.
I nodded, breathless and waiting.
“Because”—his gaze intense enough to ignite the air between us—”I couldn’t stand Allen being the one putting that smile on your face instead of me.”
Allen? I didn't even see him that way, not even close, and I was pretty sure he didn’t either. He would be mortified if he knew he was trapped in Aeron’s rivalry fantasies.
“So you took it on Kaia.” I laughed, wrapping my arms around his neck. “You're so jealous, you know that?”
“Jealous?” He chuckled. “You haven’t yet seen me jealous.”
“Oh really?” I teased.
“When I’m jealous, everyone will know, especially you,” he promised.
A sudden memory flashed in my mind. Aeron kneeling at my feet, undoing and redoing my shoelace while Aunt Dee and her minions watched. I’d brushed it off back then, convinced he was above petty jealousy. I’d been wildly mistaken.
My phone rang. Kelly. He didn’t let me answer again. She might soon launch a search party if I didn’t.
“We need to get down.” Hopefully the operator had left to watch fireworks by now, instead of wondering whether we'd fallen asleep, or worse, died up here.
“No.” He pressed his face into my neck, his nose tracing the dip of my collarbone.
“Aeron—” I tried, but my protest died in my throat.
His only reply was to tighten his arms around me, as if he planned on staying there until the Ferris wheel rusted under us.
“My butt hurts sitting in this position.” I put on my best suffering face.
That finally made him loosen his grip, though he muttered a string of curses under his breath. I moved to stand, but he immediately tugged me back down.
“What now?” His clinginess was contagious.
He leaned down, searching for something under the seat. A moment later, he straightened up, holding my glasses, which I’d genuinely forgotten existed. A first time for me, honestly.
He slipped them onto my face. “Glasses on, sweetheart.” His thumb brushed the apple of my cheek.
Sweetheart .
That name curled in my chest like a purring cat settling in for a nap.
Dizzytrid had some sweet company.