Chapter 9 Leif #3
Malena wipes her hands on the dish rag. “Okay,” she replies, drying her hands on her shorts.
She walks around the island and stands in front of me.
I don’t care about being subtle, so I lean over and kiss her lips once, full and deep.
I can tell she thinks about pulling away, but the attraction is too strong, so she doesn’t.
Eva clears her throat. Celia laughs. And I just took my weakness from their hands and owned it for myself.
When I break the kiss, Malena brings her fingers up to her lips and looks to my sisters. They’re busy, but both are wearing devious smirks.
“It’s done. Don’t question anything else. Got it?” I ask.
Eva sighs, and Celia chimes in. “Is this like the time you took that girl to prom and you made a big deal of making Mom buy that corsage that matched her dress? Like you were so serious about the dance and the girl, but then you left her at the dance to party with your buddies and drink beer in the woods? Then the cops made you jog in front of their cop car all the way back home?”
It’s a story they will never let me live down. I hate them. But I also love them because while I like to think Malena knows me, at least she’s getting another side of me. No secrets, my sisters will make sure of that.
I sigh. “You guys really are unbearable. No, it’s not like that at all. My date was in on it the whole time. She knew I wasn’t actually going to the dance.” Partly true. I took photos with her so she had something to show her parents, and then I bolted. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Celia shrugs. “Just making sure.” She winks at Malena. “He’s a real catch. Promise.”
“Seems that way, doesn’t it?” Malena replies, shaking her head. Eva makes an annoyed noise while looking at Celia’s phone. “Mom and Dad already have plans for dinner, so they can’t make it tonight. Though I’m sure she’s utterly devastated she can’t talk Dad into coming here instead.”
“I am a good catch,” I say, snaking an arm around Malena’s waist. I pull Malena down the hall to my bedroom.
She pauses, trying to look at the random awards I have lining my hallway, but I have her hand in mine.
By my age, most have hallways lined with photos of their children’s school photos.
Memories from happy vacations. Wedding days.
None of those things belong to me. My career accomplishments adorn the walls in my house.
They are things I’m proud of, but I can’t be sure they mean the same thing to me as family photos mean to others.
That’s the best thing about not knowing. You can’t miss what you’ve never had.
“These are really awesome, Leif,” Malena whispers as she reads the small inscription on a plaque. She goes on her tiptoes to read the one on the wall next to my bedroom door. She laughs at the funny poem my teammates wrote for me when I left the command.
“Were you not impressed with me before?” I tease.
“My sisters will make sure you’re never impressed with me in any way.
I can tell them to go away. I do it all the time.
Just let me know. I’m never expecting them.
This is kind of an introduction by fire, but it’s also a very accurate portrayal of me.
Of what I came from. Of why I am the way I am. ”
We enter my bedroom, and she looks around. “Are they the real reason why you don’t want children?” she asks, meeting my gaze once her appraisal is over. “Because they are…so much,” she whispers.
I tilt my head back and forth. “You could be on to something. I never really thought of it that way. Could be,” I admit.
Malena nods, walking toward my four-poster bed that’s far too large for this space, her delicate fingers dragging against the dark wood. “It’s just we went from never meeting family to having a full-on reunion. You were quite the bachelor, it seems.”
Shaking my head, I approach her, wrapping my hands around her rib cage.
She’s so small, so perfectly made to fit into my hands.
“Not a bachelor in the sense you’re thinking.
I’ve never met someone worth breaking rules for.
There’s a difference. I didn’t give the women from my past time because they weren’t worthy of it. ”
“I’m worth it?”
I grin. “More than worth it. Anytime I’m not with you, I’m wishing I was.” That’s never happened before. I have never dreamed I’d want to be anywhere as much as I want to be next to Malena. Inside her.
“Don’t send them home. I want to hear more stories about you.”
“They won’t cloud your good judgment?” I ask. “Send you running to the hills?”
She shakes her head. “They only add to your appeal.” Her eyes dart to the side, and she gets a far-off look in her eye. “A shame I don’t have any siblings to appeal on my behalf, huh?”
“Nah, they’d probably be hot older sisters, and I’d go after them instead.”
Malena laughs, a soft smile pulling up one corner of her mouth. “That’s not funny.”
With one finger under her chin, I tilt her face up. The setting sun blazes through the house and into my bedroom through the open door like a fiery reminder of what this woman is doing to my life. Setting everything on fire. Bringing me to life by singeing me from the inside out.
Leaning into me, she kisses me, allowing her tongue to twine against mine.
A battle. A duel. My wits. Her kiss. Malena is in my space, a place no other woman has been.
I want to scream it from the rooftops and also bury it like a skeleton.
When you become attached to things, they become weaknesses—a guise of security.
I’ve seen it before, with friends, with enemies. A lump forms in my throat as I pull her closer, wrapping her in my arms. She’s safe. The kiss finishes slowly, our chests pressed together.
As she catches her breath, her forehead against mine, I suck in air.
I breathe in love. I exhale pain.