CHAPTER NINETEEN #2
“You’re blushing again,” he whispered.
“Shut it,” I grumbled, glancing away.
He laughed. “Willa, I’m going out on a limb here, but this experiment won’t work if you plan to stay wrapped up like that blanket is your personal knight’s armor. We need skin to skin contact.”
No way, the comforter was my armor. I’d never even lain in a bed with Ben before, let alone in a house lacking parental supervision. “My face. It’s not blocked.”
“Are you sure?” Before I could affirm my decision, he rolled, propped himself up, and gazed down at me.
Slowly, deliberately, a single finger trailed along my cheek.
It all but sizzled. “If you wanted to test out the true love’s kiss theory, you could have just asked.
I’d have been more than happy to be your test subject. ”
Oh, my word.
His scent, his proximity, his presence—everything about him consumed me.
My throat trapped my words in a heartbeat, or a dozen heartbeats. That was how fast my heart raced at the look in Manuel’s dark brown eyes. Overtaken as they were by his blown pupils, they glittered like black obsidian jewels. The darkest Ben’s turned was a pure cinnamon—
No! I would not do that to Ben, Manuel, or myself. Comparing the two wasn’t fair to anyone.
I shoved my hand out as a sacrifice and a shield to help push Manuel away if he decided to test boundaries.
He didn’t. He maintained a distance, not even reaching out to take my offer. “Willa, are you okay?”
“Yeah? Yes. I am. It’s just that Ben… Ben.”
Manuel glanced over his shoulder. “He’s here?”
“No, I haven’t seen him since the night I escaped Vedault.”
“Oh, well, if anything could disturb a guy at peace, it’d be…
” Manuel stopped scanning for a ghost he couldn’t see and focused on me.
“Wait, if he isn’t here, then—oh.” He slapped his forehead.
“I’m so stupid. I’m sorry, mouse. This is probably too much or bringing back too many feelings or…
or… Damn, we’re too young to be dealing with this stuff. ”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean like what widows deal with. Don’t think about it.
Do you want to go home? Or go downstairs?
Yeah, we should at least go downstairs. We can sit on the couch—if you want to, that is.
I mean, we don’t have to stop. It’ll still be a good idea to—” He broke off, his eyes widening in horror.
“Wait, I didn’t bring you up here because I thought we’d—oh, but not that I wouldn’t—shit. ”
It was a heartfelt curse.
He ran his hands through his hair and put some distance between us. “Listen.”
As if I could do anything but.
His gaze pleaded with me. “Bringing you up here was habit. I mean, not that I bring a lot of girls up here during the school day, but like, it’s my sanctuary. I wasn’t thinking, and I—I’m going to stop talking now. Please say something.”
If I was being honest with myself, his rambling endeared him to me. I thought I was the only person who vomited words. “Something.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Ah, nothing. It was a lame joke. I wanted to crack the tension. Here.” I reached out and grabbed his hand this time. A slight tug had him easing back down on the bed. A safe space remained between the two of us, one he carefully maintained. “I don’t bite.”
“Shame,” he quipped. His fingers jerked within mine, as if he hadn’t meant to say the tease, but he didn’t offer any apologies this time. He probably deduced it was safer that way. He scrambled for a neutral topic. “So, food helps?”
“Yes.” A large yawn cut into my response. “Because it takes so much energy from me, is my guess.”
He watched me in between my slow blinks. “Do you want a snack now? I can whip something up. I’m not a half bad cook. It came from helping to raise my brothers before Mom landed a better paying job and quit her night shift.”
“Mm, not right now. Can you just stay here?” Consciousness faded fast now.
He might have answered, but I didn’t catch it.
I was out.
“Willa, come on. Open your eyes.”
I twisted, snuggling into the warmth.
“Now, don’t be that way. I let you sleep for hours. My mom will be home soon, and as much as I’d love to introduce you to her, I don’t want you to have to endure the hurricane that is my four younger brothers. Believe me, that is not a force you face when you’re still dead on your feet.”
“Five more minutes,” I mumbled.
The bed shook. “No, not five more minutes.”
“Oh. Ten?”
Again, the mattress trembled, but this time the movement was accompanied by repressed chuckles. “You’re cute when you’re half asleep.”
“Thanks, I think.” I pulled the blanket closer. “Unless that was an insult. Then, no thank you.”
“Come on, Willa. Your phone has been going crazy. I think your guard dogs are worried.”
“Don’t have dogs.”
“I meant the figurative ones who share classes with you and most definitely will have noticed that you aren’t there anymore after they called your name on the intercom.”
Oh.
The guys.
He was talking about the guys.
The morning’s events slammed into me, and I shot up with a gasp.
“The guys!”
Oh, I was so dead.