He’s messed it up good and proper.
I turned it over and over and held it up to the light, when I sat up suddenly. I pulled the lampshade closer and squinted at some small, black markings on some of the squares.
What the …?
I turned the cube around and around. Seemingly random black lines were marked all over the cube.
I started twisting, seeing if it would become clearer. The markings appeared to only affect the red blocks but until I unravelled the grid I couldn’t make out what they meant. My heart raced looking closely at the lines. Were they letters or numbers? Some of them were horizontal, others diagonal, this one a squiggle; what the hell were these lines? After a while, I forgot about the markings and intently worked on unscrambling the mismatched pieces, manipulating it back into its original state. My heart was pounding. Shit! I couldn’t get it. I kept over-rotating or making mistakes.
“God damn it!” I threw the cube across the room, running my hand over my brow. I got up and paced, glaring at the cube where it had landed in the corner.
I sighed. “Suck it up, Princess. You can do this.”
I bent down to try again and took in a deep breath. My eyes flicked over the cube as my hands started working and twisting in a methodical fashion. I counted the turns in my mind, and eventually the cube began unravelling in my hands. With a final twist I all but laughed in relief. It sat in my hand, completed. Triumphant, I turned the cube in my hand to ensure that all was as it should be, but as I held it up to the light and exposed the red side, my smile fell away.
There, written in Sean’s unmistakable penmanship, my fingers traced the permanent marker scrawled across the squares.
‘I want you.’
And before the words had even sunk in, I heard the handle to my bedroom door twist.
Chapter Fifty-Five
With barely enough time to close the door behind him, Sean caught the look on my face and stilled.
“Amy, what’s wro—” His eyes flicked to the Rubik’s Cube.
In one fluid motion, I threw the cube onto my bed and closed the distance between us, violently pushing him against the door before drawing him closer and pressing my mouth against his.
Any moment of surprise Sean may have felt instantly melted into need as his hands fisted in my top and yanked me up against his body. His hands moved to my hair as his hot, silken tongue pushed deeper against my uneven gasps.
‘I want you.’ It was all I needed to know. Like the multi-coloured, messed-up cube that only he and I could understand the meaning of. The weight behind Sean’s words was more than I could ever have hoped for. I didn’t need any ‘I like you’s’ or
‘I love you’s.’ Above everything else, the simple fact was that he wanted me.
I broke away from the kiss, hovering so close to his lips, his shallow breaths heating my face.
“I want you, too,” I whispered.
Realisation dawned across Sean’s face, his eyes brightening as his lush mouth tilted in approval.
“Clever girl!” He laughed softly before pressing his lips to mine again.
Grabbing for the fabric of my shirt, he peeled it upwards and off in one clean swipe, throwing it across my room. My hands grabbed frantically at Sean’s belt, flicking and looping it to access the button on his jeans. His hands covered mine to make faster work of it. My impatient, shaking fingers failed me as they moved up to work at the buttons of his shirt. I couldn’t do it fast enough. In a maddening sense of urgency I pulled his shirt apart, a shower of buttons littering the floor.
I bit my lip, stifling my smile. “Sorry about that,” I said, peeling his shirt back over his broad shoulders.
“Fuck the shirt,” Sean muttered against my mouth as he edged me backward onto my bed.
Sean stood before me, breathing hard. He slowly pulled his white singlet over his head, exposing his bare skin in the lamplight. I lay, transfixed by how utterly beautiful he was. An immense, explosive pleasure rippled through me with the knowledge that we were equally desperate for one another. I read it in the heat of his eyes. My own swept over him in a long, lingering caress, as if I was committing every angle, every line to memory. Reluctantly tearing my eyes away, I rolled over to turn the lamp off near my bedside, but Sean grabbed for my ankle and dragged me towards him.
I squealed at the unexpectedness of it as his hands skimmed up my thighs and pulled me closer to him.
“Shhh … You’ll wake up your parents.”
I sat up on the edge of the bed, his lips finding mine. Sean kneeled beside the bed, forcing my legs around his hips. I gasped as his beautiful, clever hands dug into my thighs and pulled me closer to him.
“Wait a minute, I have to turn the light off.” I panted against his mouth.