Page 31 of The Saint

And the heart she single-handedly tore from my chest started galloping inside the steel cage I kept it locked behind.

This smirk tugged at her lips as she looked me over. A look I’d seen so many times before. It spoke of her amusement, screamed of her courage and strength and determination, all while whispering of the vulnerabilities she never allowed anyone to see. And when she pulled to a stop on the path in front of me, time reversed and I was left stripped down, feeling like the boy who spent every free minute of his day wanting to be around this girl.

She tipped her head up, eyes gleaming, that smirk riding free. And I said the only thing I could say, the same thing we’d told each other over a hundred times in the past.

“Depends on where you’re going.”

That smirk, it faltered. Flashed into a secret smile. And all that bravado seemed to drain straight from her lungs as she huffed out a breath. Her hand tightened and she raised her fist, tapping it to my chest.

“I was just going for a walk,” she said, following our old script. In my head, I heard our childhood voices, our laughter and our joy, free from the pain of growing up.

“Funny, I was doing the same.”

The cage around my heart shook and shuddered, but it didn’t stop me from playing along. I lifted my own hand, cupping my palm over her shoulder. But the words that came next stuck to my tongue.

Then let me do it with you.

Let me do it with you.

Were they her words? Were they mine? It’d been too long, I couldn’t remember, even though I remembered every word she’d ever said. All I knew was those words screamed inside my head, so loud, I wasn’t sure if one of us had spoken them or if it was five years' worth of pain clawing its way out of my chest.

Let me do it with you.

With you.

Those mossy eyes drifted closed, her head tilted toward my hand. And there it was again, my body doing whatever the hell it wanted while my heart rattled the bars that held it in. My fingers drifted over the short hairs on the side of her head—shorter than they’d been a week ago. The weight of her head pressed against me the way the solid ground pressed against my feet.

Gravity.

A force that couldn’t be denied.

Tilting me on my axis, turning me upside down. Noticeable only when it was gone, because it felt so right that it was here, holding me stable while the entire world spun around me.

But the world was spinning, continuing on, tearing us apart. Catcalls lapped at my consciousness while my mind begged me to bury myself in her. It wasn’t until she lifted her eyes back to mine, those jade orbs so full of concern and raging questions, that I was finally able to blink this dream away.

“Woohoo! Player’s got game!”

“You holding out on us, Rolly? Don’t tell me your pussy-ass finally got laid.”

“Hey, mamacita, why don’t you come—” Jael’s head whipped to the fence where my friends were lined up, watching us, and the glare she sent their way stopped Jermaine mid-sentence. Wide-eyed, he withered, slinking back from the fence, tugging Dion from his side and holding the guy in front of him like a shield.

I grabbed Jael’s arm, stopping her from storming across to the courts. There was no telling what she’d do if she caught a man who thought he could talk to any woman that way.

“What the fuck?” Jael spit, whirling back to me.

Pulling her closer, I lowered my voice. “Those are my friends.”

Her eyes narrowed, the scowl on her face not letting up. “You surround yourself with assholes like that?”

I winced, casting my eyes toward the court. The guys had grown quiet, but it didn’t stop them from staring our way. “They’re not a—”

“I’m going to tear him a new—”

“Jael.” I tugged her arm again, and before I knew it, my hand was back at the side of her head. Playing with those short hairs as if it was the one thing I was born to do. It was the leash to this bulldog. The hand of Poseidon calming the sea.

My gravity.

For a moment, there was nothing but her. No inferno boiling inside her, no guys at the court, no people in the park. It was her and me, the way it’d always been. She stared up at me, edges softening, lips parting. And I was a fool, because that’s exactly where my eyes went. To the dip between her lips, to the tip of her tongue hidden just behind her teeth. And my mind wandered, wondering if she tasted the same way she had the first time we kissed.