S E V E N T E E N
- Lucy -
I kept thinking I was about to wake up. Like this couldn’t really be happening. I mean, Aiden was a dream come true without all this.
But how could I say no?
Especially when there were so many reasons to say yes. Like the reason standing right in front of me, dangling a single key in my face.
“It’ll just be you and me against the world,” he said. “Like it’s always been.”
Every part of me wanted to take the key from his hand, but I was still hesitant, still convinced I was imagining the whole thing.
“Well?” he asked.
I looked back and forth between his eyes and the key. “If I say yes, won’t it kind of complicate our friendship?”
He lowered the key and cocked his head. “That’s not really an issue.”
“Why not?”
“Cause I don’t want to be friends with you anymore.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” he said. “I don’t want to be friends.”
I swallowed.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “I’m embarrassed about how long it took me to realize it.”
“Realize what?”
“How do I say this?”
I felt my breath catch in my throat.
“Look, Lucy, I don’t know shit about soul mates and all that stuff.”
“Yeah.”
“But I know you’re my best mate, and you always have been.”
I nodded.
“And that’s what I need more than anything else.”
“What?”
“You,” he said, resting his hand along one side of my face. “I need you.”
My lips fell apart.
“All to myself.”
I fell against his lips like there was nowhere else to go, opening my mouth to him so he could steal my breath. I wanted to thank him with words, but all the ones I could think of seemed grossly inadequate under the circumstances so I decided the best I could do was try and make him feel what I felt.
Which was happy. A sort of over the moon will I ever come down kind of happy, and a sense of gratitude that made my heavy boots feel like ice skates. I slid my hands around his thick chest and pulled his back towards me until the heat of his body mixed with mine, kissing him as enthusiastically as ever, craving him as I always had.