His copper eyes hook mine. “You know, I think we can find something that we both agree on.” His voice is like the wind rustling the branches of the trees overhead.
My heart flutters like the leaves on the branches.
Connor brushes his hand along my jaw.
My pulse races and my cheeks flush as it starts to rain, but neither of us moves from this spot.
29
CONNOR
Alight breeze ruffles Cateline’s hair as a delicate rain shower starts. “And what’s that?” Cateline asks after my pronouncement that I’ve found something we both agree on.
My lips twitch with a knowing smile. “I want to kiss you and you want to kiss me.”
She nods. “I do want to kiss you.”
Like in the firefly field, but this time in the rain, our mouths crash together.
The world goes fuzzy. Yes, we’re alone in the woods, but we may as well be the only two people left in existence.
There are her lips and mine. My body and hers. Her breath and my inhale-exhale.
My hand curls around the back of her neck.
Her hand fists my shirt, pulling me closer.
My pulse drags deeply, as though dredging the river.
Hers rises to meet it like a wave.
I kiss Cateline like it’s the only thing that matters. She kisses like she cares profoundly. I do. I care so much.
Love swells in my chest. I’ve never felt anything quite like it as the kiss deepens. It goes to new places I’ve never been, depths I’ve never plumbed, and I never, ever want to leave.
Then, eventually, drenched, I trace a trail of kisses along her jawline to her collarbone to her hand before pulling her into a hug that’s so tight, so absolute, I want it to tell her that I’ll never let her go.
She cranes her head to meet my eyes. Emotion flickers there. It’s an answer to a silent question about us, our future. I think it’syes.
I find a suitable camp for the night and make a fire. We eat dinner and swap stories.
After another long day, Cateline soon falls asleep, curled up on the bedroll. She insisted I join her in the sleeping bag, but fell asleep before I could protest. Lying on the ground beside her, I figure the cold will only strengthen me. Eventually, though, I give in because I don’t want her to get chilly.
I haven’t broken the playbook rules per se. We’ve kissed, but it’s different because I want another. A hundred more kisses with Cateline. I’ve never felt that way about a woman before. Usually, I’d already have checked out, bye-bye. Not inclined to see her again. But I want to see her every day for the rest of my life.
The outline of a future for us begins to take a hazy shape.
Her cheering me on at games.
Me treating her like royalty because she practically is.
I want to give Cat everything in life—take away her worry, make her smile and laugh, and listen to the rise and fall of her accent even when she prompts me to mind my manners.
The night is still and the sky is clear as I lie, looking up at the stars. I’d give Cateline every single one if I could. I glance over at her in awe. The smooth slope of her nose, her thick eyelashes, the fullness of her lips. She tamed the wild in me, yet that makesme want to howl. But I’d wake her up and that’s not a very polite thing to do, so I let myself drift to sleep.
Sometime later, someone shakes me softly at first. I imagine it’s Cain. My name floats to me through a dream. The shaking increases and the voice rises in panic.
“Connor, please. Please wake up.” It’s a French accent, smoky, familiar.
