I’ve gone and swallowed my tongue. This must be the reason why I can’t talk, why I can’t answer properly.
“Not...not them. I swear. We’re just friends. We’ve never... that’s never happened. Ever.” Could I sound any dumber? Kissing Hunter has damaged my IQ.
Hunter frowns, staring down at my mouth again.
I have to ask, even though it curdles the beer in my belly, and builds that awful pain in my throat before tears start coming.
“So... the verdict?” I stop breathing.
His fingers dig into my hips again, urging me forward on his lap. My knees hit the back of the couch, and I settle more closely on him, like I was before we stopped. His eyes roam my face. Shit, he’s trying to find the nicest way possible to let me down easy.
“It’s fine. Let me get up, Hunt. Just... let me get up, would ya?” My hands hit his chest, and push, but he won’t let me go. Frak a duck, my eyes are burning. No, no, no.
“Sera, stop. Stop for a second.”
I stop and wait, head down, looking at where our bodies meet. Two different pairs of sweats, his t-shirt and mine; his plain, mine nerdy, two very different people. The line has been drawn, and I was never meant to cross it, only look from afar and covet.
“By the power of Grayskull, let me go!” The tears fall on my cheeks. “Please, just let me go. I want you to leave.”
“And here goes thinking you were perfect.”
I freeze, ice coating my insides. “Are you high? What the fuck are you smoking?”
His thumbs gently swipe along my cheekbones, palms on either side of my face. I’m cradled again – he’s not just holding my face. Damn it all to hell.
“I wasn’t complaining. Nor will I ever complain. You can use that mouth on me anytime you like.”
Maybe I have been transported to another dimension.
“How is that even possible?” The words pop out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“That I want to kiss you again?” His eyebrows have jumped high on his forehead, and he has the sweetest grin on his face. A grin I want to spend hours and hours kissing.
I stare at Hunter out of the corner of my eye. He appears to be human.
“I plan on doing a lot of it. For long periods of time. In different places along your body.” I’m sure I’ve swallowed a volcano, there’s so much heat building inside of me. Hunter gets closer so our bellies touch and we share the same air.
“I plan on making those sweet little noises come out of your mouth while I kiss you. I plan on touching you when I do it. Everywhere you’ll let me.”
“So I didn’t win the Guinness world record for sucking at kissing?” I ask, blood pounding in my ears.
He laughs, tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and kisses me, the lightest touch of lips.
“Frak no.”
My heart melts. “You said frak,” I whisper, and watch him grin. Jack Sparrow’s grin when he steals the Interceptor from the under the Commodore’s nose has nothing on Hunter’s.
“Matty’s started saying it, too.”
I smile, the warmth in my chest set to explode. “Yeah? I read it in a book once, and then I started watching the show,” I explain.
“Yeah,” Hunter smiles, the skin at the sides of his eyes crinkling. Because I can, I kiss him there, on both sides and pull away when his hands cup my shoulders.
“I better go. You’re going to watch another movie?” He asks, moving me so I’m sitting on the couch and he’s now standing.
“I’ll probably re-read Ender’s Game, and I don’t know why ‘cause I have like a million books on my TBR list.” I wiggle in my seat.
Hunter looks down at me with a look of confusing affection. I’ve gone and spoken another language again, and he’s lost in translation.
“Forget it,” I say, standing to walk him to the door.
“I can’t believe I landed myself a nerd,” his smile is sweet, and my heart wants to explode with happiness. “I’m liking it a lot.”
My nose starts to sting. “Thank you,” I manage, hoping he hears what he said means a lot to me. Walking to the door, I keep my head down.
Hunter grunts, and turns me into the door before I can get my hand on the doorknob. My back against it, I look up in his face while he stares at me.
“What did I say? What put that look on your face, baby?” he asks, plastering his body to mine. My hands go to his pecs, and I feel his piercings hit the center of my palms.
I swallow past the pain in my throat. “It’s nice to be liked, you know?”
Hunter stares at me a long time, caging me in with an arm on either side of my head, as he leans down, closer and closer. He nods.