27. Finn
twenty-seven
Finn
A surprised sound leaves my mouth, and Vivian chases after it with her tongue.
It’s impossible not to react, not to flip her against the building and put all my weight into deepening the kiss.
This is nothing like the first time. There’s a fervor to this kiss, an impatience.
It’s dangerously explosive, burning through my soul with a ferocity that leaves me stunned.
Vivian’s fingers knock my hat off to dive into my hair, and a groan vibrates up my chest. Then realization hits, and I’m turned inside out.
Vivian is kissing me .
She’s not practicing for some eventual kiss with another man. She’s kissing me. She wants me . I’m dizzy with relief until a nasty voice reminds me that Vivian doesn’t know the real me.
Not yet.
There’s time to change that.
Yesterday had been monumental, telling her such a significant piece of my history.
The way she’d accepted it—accepted me—and held me afterward makes me think that I could try again.
I could let her in piece by piece and hope that when she’s holding my heart in her nimble fingers, she’ll treat it as delicately as the fabrics she adores.
I pull back slightly. “Vivian—”
“Talk later,” she tells me before surging forward, nipping at my lower lip.
Okay, then.
Spreading my fingers wide, I memorize the curves of Vivian’s waist. I don’t even care that we’re both soaked in sweat.
If anything, it heightens the sensations against my fingertips.
I’m two seconds from slipping my hands beneath her shirt and curling them at the small of her back when Vivian pulls away slightly.
“Maybe you shouldn’t— You might not like—” When she bites her lip, I release one hand to soothe it with my thumb.
Her shoulders slump, her gaze dropping to my collarbones. “It’s just— I’m not good at not eating food.”
“Vivian.” I give her hips a reassuring pat before sliding my hands to possessively grip her waist. “Do you think I want to hold onto a flat, cement slab while I’m kissing?” My tongue touches my top lip as I let my gaze sweep down her. “I’ve dreamt about what it would be like to hold you like this.”
A truth. A very insistent one.
Vivian’s mouth opens and closes twice. “You have?”
“Yes.” I set a gentle kiss on her temple before bringing my lips to the shell of her ear. “You, Vivian Hutchinson, are perfect in my book.”
I’m not sure what I expected her response to be.
A timid smile, perhaps? A breathy “Oh?” I certainly didn’t expect all five foot five of Vivian to flip us until she’s pressing me against the building.
An amused sound resonates in my throat before Vivian’s kiss knocks all logic out of my brain.
I burrow my fingers into her sweaty curls and pour myself into her.
When Vivian sighs against my lips, a zip of electricity burns backward through my body, fundamentally changing my cellular structure until there’s only one thing I’m absolutely certain of.
I can’t give this up. I can’t give her up.
I need to find a way to incorporate Vivian into my plans and hope to all that is good in the world that when she finally gets under all my layers, she’ll like what she sees.
“Dang, Vivian,” a voice calls out, tone mirthful. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
We separate enough to see two firefighters in station uniforms—Jonas and Carson, I think?—walking out of the open bay doors of the fire station. They’re both carrying folding beach chairs and energy drinks.
Carson slugs Jonas in the shoulder. “Never mind him,” he calls over the distance before saying to Jonas, “We should have just sat out front.”
“Naw. The bay view is the best perk of being at this station.” Jonas drops into his chair, stretching his legs out toward the water.
We disentangle from each other, my pulse thick in my throat when Vivian frowns at the two men.
I should have thought of how we were in the eyeline of anyone outside of the fire station or, really, anyone on the road if they’d been looking between the two buildings.
Heck, a fellow class attendee could have wandered out while I was distracted by the soft noises Vivian makes when my lips tug at hers.
“This is going to be all over town tomorrow,” I tell her.
I don’t love the idea of creating another secret when, for the first time in my life, I’m trying to be authentic, but if Vivian needs me to, I’ll do it. I’m beginning to think I’ll do anything when it comes to her.
“I don’t care. This is my life, and I am finally— finally —taking control of it.” She lets out a punchy exhale with a nod, but then, those gorgeous green eyes snap to mine, and the uncertainty in them slices me open. “I mean, unless…unless you—”
“ No. ” My tone could cut through granite, but my thumbs are gentle over her freckled cheeks as I frame her face. “Let them talk.”
A bubble of a laugh leaves her lips open. “Tell me how you really feel about it.”
“Don’t tempt me, gorgeous.” My head tilts as I give her a seductive smile.
Vivian’s eyes go wide as she sucks in a stuttered breath. It’s not until this moment that I realize I’ve never unleashed my full flirtatious power on Vivian. What fun it would be to watch her squirm under the attention. I hover my lips an inch from hers, teasingly, when a loud whistle sounds.
Jonas takes two fingers out of his mouth. “Maybe pack it in? A lot of people walk the road in the evenings.”
Vivian drops her forehead onto my shoulder with a giggle. The sound is oddly addicting. I not only want to hear it again, I want to be its source .
“It’s not that we’re not happy for you both, but you know…” Carson points east toward the rest of town.
I nod at the two men, raising an open palm to them before setting it at the base of Vivian’s spine to steer her back to class.
Tomorrow, there will likely be some sort of small-town social payment for getting caught up in the moment, but I don’t give a single care.
Vivian makes everything better by just breathing.
Whatever is coming our way, I’ll handle it.
I’ve already weathered this town’s cold shoulder. Let’s see them do their worst.