Chapter Fifteen Scarlett #3
“It was so lovely to meet you, Scarlett,” Marie says, and she surprises me by trapping me into a tight hug.
My face is smushed into her chest as she holds me tighter, and Evan gives me a goofy thumbs-up from where he stands beside me.
She squeezes me again before pulling away. “Thank you for listening to me.”
“Anytime, Aunt Marie.”
We all exchange goodbyes and Evan and I start back down the path through the woods. We’re quiet for a while, listening to the stillness of the night and the occasional chirp from the trees. Evan’s already a few steps ahead, not bothering to wait for me to catch up.
“Why are you walking so fast?” I ask, already out of breath as I try to keep up with him. He doesn’t answer. I bump my shoulder into his arm. “Are you seriously that scared, Branson?”
“No, I just want to get home before dark,” he says, biting out the words.
“I don’t know if you can see without your glasses, but it’s already dark.”
He shoves his hands into his pockets, shrugging. “Still.”
“Are you going to turn into a pumpkin if you’re not home before midnight?” I say, fake-gasping. Evan turns slowly, giving me one of those looks. The kind that says, ‘don’t push me,’ and it only makes me want to push him even more.
He turns back, returning to his angry speed-walking thing.
I press my lips together, holding in my laugh.
Seeing him like this is way too entertaining to not have a bit of fun with him.
There’s enough light for us to see where we’re going thanks to the fairy lights, and the car can’t be too far away now.
I quickly swipe a twig from the ground, doing a pathetic job of throwing it behind me, satisfied when it drops with a snap.
I stop in my tracks, my eyes widening. “Did you hear that?”
Evan spins around immediately, his eyes flickering across the trees. “Scarlett—”
“I heard something. It sounded like some sort of animal,” I murmur, doing my best to seem scared.
I’m too busy disguising my laughter with a terrified whimper to notice that Evan has grabbed my hand.
He pulls me along with him. His hand is a solid comfort in mine, steady and sure, even though I can feel both of our pulses racing.
We sprint through the woods in the direction of the car, not stopping or turning back.
Cold, snappy wind pushes through my clothes and against my cheeks, and I feel alive.
My skin sizzles with both heat and ice, and the mix of the two has my blood pumping even faster through my veins.
I forget about the prank, and I revel in the feeling of his hand covering mine like we really are being chased by something.
Evan is unrelenting, running as fast as he can with no regard to how I’m struggling to keep up with him.
“I . . . Wait . . . I need to . . . catch my breath,” I wheeze, stopping so I can lean over and drop my hands to my knees. Evan stops immediately, turning around as he catches his own breath. I lean against the nearest tree, not caring that my hair is probably tangled up in leaves and twigs by now.
“This . . . is actually . . . insane,” I breathe out, pushing my hair out of my face.
Evan stands in front of me, his nose and cheeks red, blond hair a chaotic mess as his chest heaves. “Insane is an understatement.”
I grin, looking at how far we’ve run in such a short amount of time. “You really didn’t want those animals to come to life and kill us, did you?”
“Neither did you. I’m assuming that’s the fastest you’ve run in your life.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t leave you alone to die in there.”
“Wow, so you really do care about me?”
I roll my eyes. “It would have been really bad press for me if something did happen to you.”
“Mmhm. Right.” Evan laughs quietly, dropping his eyes to his feet. “Jesus, my heart is fucking racing.”
I place my freezing hand over the top of his sweater, pressing down firmly until I can feel his heart beating against my palm. His eyes shoot back up to mine and I almost forget how to breathe. Heat shoots up my neck in a strange, perfect way, just like it did the other night.
Evan’s head dips down just slightly and we’re so close like this that I can see the beads of sweat gathering on his forehead and upper lip. He must know what I’m staring at because he licks his lips. Once. Slowly. Dangerously. My breath catches in my throat.
“You’re right,” I whisper.
Before I can remove my hand from his chest, he surprises me by covering my hand with his. Strong fingers close around mine and he holds my hand there like he doesn’t want to let go. Like he can’t.
He tips his head to the side just slightly. “What was that?”
“Nothing.”
“Huh. It almost sounded like you said, ‘You were right.’ ”
I wet my bottom lip. “Must’ve been the wind.”
“You sure?”
“Very.”
He squeezes my hand once. Then twice. A third time. And before he can do it again, I lean forward slightly, and I press my lips to his.
Evan gasps into my mouth and I surprise myself too when I realize what I’m doing.
I want to taste him, see if he tastes as good as I’ve been imagining since games night.
He lets go of my hand and my palms travel over his collarbones until I get to his face, holding him gently, delicately, as I pull his face toward mine.
He kisses me back earnestly, and I feel like I’m floating. His mouth tastes like strawberries and salt, soft, perfect lips moving against mine in a slow, tortuous rhythm. I curl my fingers in his hair and a deep rumble comes from the back of his throat. I swallow the sound.
And then his hips are on mine, pinning me to the tree, his hands on my face, tilting my head back like he can’t get enough. His tongue slips into my mouth, and I moan, needy for more and more and more.
He pulls away, dragging a finger over my lips to rest on my chin. “Scarlett.”
He says my name like a prayer. Just one word. Nothing else.
He drags that same finger down the middle of my throat, following a path downward to my chest, and then to my stomach, where he pauses at the button of my jeans.
He’s looking too carefully at what he’s doing, and I just want his mouth on me again.
I lean up to get what I want, but he nudges his knee between my legs, his hand on my stomach forcing me back against the tree.
Fingers slip into the waistband of my jeans.
Cold fingers against smooth, warm skin. He brushes them against my waist, and they move up my back and I arch into his touch, desperate.
Evan buries his face in my neck, inhaling and kissing and biting until I’m whimpering.
He must have some sort of spell on me. I have never felt this undone over anyone before.
I feel like I could fall apart in his hand just at the idea that he might put me back together again with the same delicacy.
“Say something,” he murmurs into my skin.
My vision blurs. “I-I . . .”
“Are you speechless right now?” He laughs and the sound vibrates through my entire body.
I lift my face to his, looking into his wild eyes.
I don’t say anything as I catch his bottom lip between my teeth, biting hard until he winces, and I smooth it out with a kiss.
It’s probably proving his point that I am, in fact, speechless but I don’t care because his lips are on mine again and he’s kissing me.
This isn’t what I thought kissing Evan would feel like.
I thought it’d be rough and demanding and fighting.
But this . . . This isn’t that. This is playful and sweet and teasing.
It’s fingers splayed across my spine and my hands in his hair.
It’s tiny gasps leaving his mouth, and the knee wedged between my thighs. It’s perfect and endless.
A branch snaps in the distance, for real this time, and we both freeze, still intertwined.
We’re quiet for a long time, nothing but the sound of our heavy breathing filling the air. When we don’t hear anything else, I look up at him, my vision finally clearing. Evan’s lips are slightly red now, his hair even messier than before.
I clear my throat. “We should . . .”
“Head back to the car,” he finishes, his voice hoarse as he detangles himself from me.
“Yeah.”
I take off in the direction of the car first and I don’t think I look at him for the rest of the night.