Oh no. Did I say something wrong? Why does he suddenly look so serious?
Fast like a cat, he yanks me into him. Hard. Landing on top of his solid body, I feel every ripple of muscle. When he tightens his arms around my stiff body, the feeling of his hard abs on my tummy makes me squeak.
“That’s the best compliment anyone has ever said to me.”
With my head squashed between his biceps and neck—which smells like citrus and issocomforting—he starts rocking me back and forth in happiness.
I stay as still as a statue, not sure if he realizes the intimate position we are currently in, butmyheart has flown out of my chest and into the clouds.
“Are you dead?” he says breathlessly.
I nod, feeling his chuckle on my cheek.
He starts drumming his fingers on my arms. “Do you think my sexy singing voice would wake you up from the dead?”
I lift my torso, balancing myself on my arms on his chest to see his face, and his mouth pops open.
“I would rather be dead.”
“You don’t mean that,” he whispers, lost in a trance.
When I lean closer to his face, my lips almost graze his.
“I do.” My whisper ignites a shiver down his body. “I’d rather hear your brother.”
Elijah’s head jerks back. “Take that back.”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
A bump on the road makes our bodies jerk and collide, and his eyes close like he’s in pain.
“Take it back,” he rasps.
“No—”
As best as he can, given the space, he flips us, hovering over my trembling body. A gasp escapes my mouth when his forearms cage me on either side of my head, his hands in fists.His breath fans my face, warm and intense. His wavy hair, which looks like he just rolled out of bed, hides most of his face, and he looks dangerous.
Am I ovulating?
“Take it back.” He says each word slowly, taunting me.
Younger me would be fangirling right now, with her childhood crush looming over her, looking hot and bothered. She would also be screaming at me to do something …anything. Yet I’m stuck in pause, baffled at the current position we are in. It’s not like I’m a virgin; I have been with guys, but no one has ever been remotely close tohim.
His pupils dilate, and a sheen covers his lips when he licks them. A hardness pokes my lower stomach when the bus jolts from another bump. I gasp as my eyes widen when he groans.
Like it physically pains him to get off, he rolls and falls on his back. “I hate you. I forgot how annoying you are.”
“Doesn’t seem like it.” I nod to the tent in his sweatpants.
A deep sigh leaves his plump lips.
TWENTY-THREE
ELIJAH
I shouldn’t be here, alone with Lily, on her small bunk with the curtain pulled shut, engulfing us in darkness. When my head was telling me not to open her curtain and to just leave her alone, I should have listened.
Now I’m lying beside her with a hard-on, panting like a little boy who’s never been close to a girl before.
