Obsessed(28)

I blushed at the compliment. “No one believes in me as much as you do.”

“Now you have to start believing in yourself.”

He always had a way of turning it around for me. From being pessimistic and what the hell is the point to life to yeessssssss, I can DO IT!!! I felt pumped up by him. He made me feel like anything was possible.

Comfortable silence followed for a bit. I swiped the frosting on the cake and licked it. It was a bit stale, like it’d been sitting out for a while, but it was still good. You couldn’t knock free cake, right? I felt Aston stare at me as I swiped and sucked on my finger again. When I turned to look at him, he looked away.

“Want some?” I asked him, my voice light.

He shook his head.

“Are you sure? It’s really good,” I said, biting back a smile as I took another chunk on my fingertip and ate it.

His gaze flickered back to my mouth. I felt something tugging deep in my belly at the look on his face. He took a deep, unsteady breath and shook his head no again. He was acting strange, and I didn’t know how to deal with it. I needed to break the moment before the weight of his strangeness suffocated us. I finished the piece on my plate, scooped the last bit of frosting and smeared it on the side of his face.

“Race you back,” I giggled before throwing the paper plate at him and diving into the water.

I heard his laughter behind me and he jumped in after me. We swam, with him on my tail, almost all the way back. My arms were sore by the time I reached the second boardwalk. I grabbed at the column and stopped to catch my breath. I didn’t know how far back he was, and I turned my head to look when I suddenly felt an arm around my stomach just as he surfaced. I screamed and turned around to push him away.

“You scared me!” I scolded him. The water was sitting just under my shoulders. I was panting and he was completely at ease, not one bit out of breath.

“You alright?” he asked, grinning.

I frowned. “Shut up. I haven’t gone swimming in a long time.”

“I can tell.”

I rolled my eyes and then laughed when I looked at him. “You still have frosting on your face. How is that even possible?”

He put a hand to his face and rubbed at the wrong spot. I flicked his hand away, moved a little closer, and rubbed the tiny remainder off his stubbled cheek close to the corner of his mouth. “You need to shave,” I muttered, playfully. “Unless you’re going for the homeless dude look.”

When I didn’t get a cheeky response, I looked back up at him and froze at the look on his face. A shiver wracked my body as he gazed into my eyes, and then along my neck and shoulders, burning a trail in my skin I could feel all the way to my soul. The way he grazed his bottom lip with his front teeth only sealed the deal for me. I zoned in on his mouth and all thought…poof…disappeared.

The light atmosphere was gone again, and it hadn’t even stayed long enough for my heart to calm down. I felt like he’d just wrapped his hands around my neck and sucked every bit of air out of it. He wanted me. I didn’t care if it was an emotional want, or a physical one. I’d take anything from him. I let go of all the hard work of putting up that wall I’d expertly built brick by brick. It collapsed into a heap of rubble and smoke. I exposed myself. Vulnerability in every sense of the word. I stared back at him the way he stared at me, but I gave him more. More need. More desire. More desperation.

Surely he knew. He could see it in my eyes, all the things I wanted to say, all the ways I wanted to show it. This was by far the ballsiest thing I’d ever done. And it would either end in humiliating rejection, or with his body wrapped around mine. Regardless, my world was about to flip upside down.

I waited. Anticipation. Fear. Worry. It was all a swirling twister inside of me, clogging my throat until it was too painful to swallow.

I didn’t know who moved first. Maybe him. Maybe me. Maybe both of us at the same time. But the space between us shrank inch by inch.

My heart stomped in my chest.

My breath lost intensity.

My eyes misted; I couldn’t blink, couldn’t think, couldn’t do a damn thing except stare into his brilliant eyes, at his beautifully sculpted face – too beautiful, it was a damn crime.

“Aston,” I whispered in surrender.

“Why are you looking at me like that, El?” he whispered back, his voice hesitant.

“You know why. You’ve always known.”

He started breathing harder. His chest rose and fell rapidly. His eyes scanned mine, that heat growing within him. I stepped closer to him and in the water my hand found his. I laced my fingers through his and gazed up at him, my hope climbing.