Chapter Seven Fireworks #3
My eyes close, and I sigh happily. I’ve never felt so snug and secure. Gordon can’t seem to help himself, curling his arm around me tighter, breathing out my name with a contented whisper.
“Andrea. Sweet, wonderful Andrea.”
“Wonderful, heroic Gordon.” I stroke my thumb over his knuckles and enjoy the feel of his chest rising and falling. “This is nice.”
“This is the best.”
The up-do that holds my hair is starting to kink my neck as I rest on his broad chest, so I reach up and undo it. Gordon’s free hand starts to softly smooth it out, making a fan over his muscles. “You have the softest hair. And the softest skin,” he praises.
“I like yours.” I hesitate, then roll over so I can look into his face and massage the thick mass of dark hair that hangs over his brow.
“I think you’re a kind person. You see the best in people.”
I shrug, realizing how close my face is to his. “Is that a bad thing?” I whisper.
“What if you blinked one day, and you saw me like I see myself? Ugly. Not worth loving.” Gordon’s eyes don’t blink. His voice doesn’t shake. He asks this question with perfect seriousness, with the absolute calm of someone who has to convey important information.
“What if one day you blinked, and saw yourself like I see you?” I challenge, my hand hesitantly stroking up his wide jaw, and over his smooth cheeks. “Handsome. Incredibly worthy of liking. Maybe loving?” I whisper, my lips hovering far too close to his.
“It’ll never happen. Can’t,” he breathes out.
“Calling me a liar? Or just stupid?” My hand stays still on the side of his face, refusing to blink as long as he doesn’t.
“No! No. Just... You don’t know me that well.”
“Oh? My dad said the quiet ones all end up being kinky, sex-crazed serial killers. Should I start screaming?” Even as I say it, one eyebrow arching, I’m completely relaxed on Gordon’s chest, with one of his arms dangling across my waist, my leg idly swinging and tapping against his.
“Andrea, I would never hurt you. In any capacity. I might scare you, though.” His eyes close and he sighs.
“Are you... Was there a fire? Do you have burn scars? Or any kind of scars?” I ask, willing myself not to pull back. It’s not that I’m afraid of them; I just suddenly wonder if I’m hurting him. I wonder if that’s why he calls himself ugly, why he believes I won’t be able to love him—one day.
“No, my skin doesn’t scar. Much.”
“So, I see this sexy, handsome guy who loves piano, cats, and is a total good guy. He tells me he’s not planning to put me on the next episode of ‘horrible crimes that happen to single women’ or whatever.
I’m not even in a hurry. We have all summer together.
Well, at least another month or so. I might be able to prove you very wrong about all those things you’re worried about. ”
Gordon shakes his head. “I don’t think so.” He sighs and looks beyond me. “You’re missing all the fireworks.”
I shrug. “I saw fireworks a hundred times growing up. I only met Gordon Rockland a little while ago. I prefer this sight to any other.”
Gordon sits up suddenly, which makes me squeak, and I fall into a heap in his lap. When I right myself and brush my hair out of my face, he’s looking at me with burning eyes and thinned lips.
“I have secrets that I can’t tell—things you can’t see until you’re ready.
It could be tomorrow or ten years from now.
I want you more than I have words for—and I don’t have many words to begin with.
But you don’t deserve to have to wait for things to happen that will...
That will make things easy for me to show you how I feel and know that it’ll truly be okay with you. That I’ll be what you want.”
That was the most I’ve ever heard Gordon speak, and every word seemed to cost him. He’s panting and gripping my arms harder, a look of such anguish on his face, in his eyes.
Wait for things to happen.
Show you how I feel.
That I’ll be what you want.
I want you more than I have words for.
The words from his lips flit into my brain, stir around inside of me, and come out in a tangled order that only has one response. “Can I show you how much I want you?” I blurt.
Startled, he nods back. “But—”
Whatever he was going to say is erased when my lips crash into his, my arms tight around his neck as I kneel in his lap.
For a second, there’s startled stillness.
And then a ragged groan, and the fireworks are happening in my chest and above my head.
Gordon grabs my hands, practically crushing them in his oversized ones, holding them between our bodies as his mouth devours mine, clumsy at first, too wide and somehow bumping my jaw wrong, but then it all smooths out.
I free my hands to cup his face in mine, and moan into a kiss that feels like nothing I’ve ever felt. Too raw. Too big.
And I’m instantly addicted.
A shower of gold and green hearts explodes over our heads, a salute to Pine Ridge.
Crack. Boom! Swish. Zoom! Br-aboom!
I finally force myself away from his mouth so we can catch a breath.
“Andrea?” Gordon gasps.
“Boom,” I whisper, and smile.