The tip of his thumb breached my lips and my tongue darted out to take a lick.
He groaned. “I know that you bite your bottom lip when you’re worried . . . and that your mouth pulls thin when you’re angry.”
My fingers encircled his hand and I sucked his thumb into my mouth. His eyes flared as he whispered, “And when you’ve been kissing me senseless, your lips are wet and plump and I want to keep them looking like that all night long.”
“Oh God,” I mumbled as my head fell back against the wall.
“It’s true I haven’t used my tongue on many girls.” He trailed his lips along my jaw. “But now I only want to use it on you.”
I was so stunned and amazed and turned on that I could barely think straight.
“I’m trying to figure myself out, my family out, every damn thing out.” His heavy breaths were now mixing with mine. “But everything inside of me aches for you.”
I held the gasp inside my throat and slid my hand around his waist. “I ache for you, too.”
His eyes closed momentarily as if reveling in my words.
“I have a lot going on right now and I’m afraid to drag you into it,” he said, gathering my face in his hands. “I . . . can’t keep you from seeing other . . . guys. But I know that I only want to be with you.”
“Then be with me,” I said, simply. “Ask me to only be with you.”
But I could tell from the storm brewing behind his eyes that it wasn’t that simple for him.
“I don’t want to blow this, Jessie.”
His phone rang from his pocket but he ignored it as he pulled back to look at me. He was still afraid—I could see it plain as day in his eyes.
So I needed him to say the words. To give whatever this was between us a chance.
His phone rang again and he huffed. “It could be my mom.”
I nodded as he pulled out his cell and then quickly answered. “Luke?”
I straightened from the wall, quickly snapping out of our spell.
“Fuck.” As he listened further, his face became stricken. “What hospital?”
When he hung up, I didn’t even ask, I just followed. I knew it had to do with his mom and that something serious had happened. We charged out the back exit and I hopped in the passenger side of his fancy car.
When he slid in the driver’s seat, he said, “Jess, you don’t have to—”
“Just drive,” I hissed.
We drove in near silence to the university hospital. Nate was concentrating on driving and wrestling with his thoughts and emotions.
“Luke and Anna walked in on my dad pounding my mom,” he said, as he pulled into the lot. “When he got involved, my dad clocked him good. Anna called the police.”
“Oh my God,” I said. I was so shocked I couldn’t even form the words to match the questions racing through my head. How badly had his mom been hurt? Where was his dad now?
Nate gave his mom’s name at the front desk of the emergency room. We were led inside the automatic doors to a separate waiting area. Upon seeing us, Luke jerked to a stand at his seat. A purple shiner was beginning to form beneath his eye.
Beside him, Anna looked disheveled. Her hair wasn’t perfectly styled like it had been at the football game, her makeup was streaked from crying, and her hands were trembling.
When Luke’s gaze darted between us, Nate reached for my hand and grasped it tightly, either for support or to make it clear to his brother that we were together.
“Dad was taken to the station,” Luke said in a low voice. “He asked me to call his attorney as he was being placed in the backseat of the squad car.”
Nate gritted his teeth. “Have you called him?”
“No,” he said, his jaw tight. “Let him sit there.”
Nate nodded and his eyes darted outside the room. “Where’s Mom?”
“We were asked to step out during her examination.” He looked back at Anna briefly, as she sat wringing her hands. “He . . . he was choking her. She was unconscious. But the paramedics were able to revive her.”
“Fuck!” Nate trembled beside me. He squeezed his eyes shut as if imagining what might’ve happened had Luke not arrived.
I attempted to hold in my reaction. I could just imagine the scene and what they had walked into. No wonder Anna looked so shaken.
“Nate,” Luke said and Nate snapped his eyes to him. “I . . . I’m sorry, man.”
Nate tipped his chin. “Does this mean I have my brother back?”
Luke gave a curt nod, sat down, and swung his arm around Anna to pull her closer. It was a comforting and protective gesture and pretty evident how much he cared about her.
“You okay, baby?” he whispered to Anna loud enough for us to overhear.