“Why don’t we open our cookies?” I gestured to them, still closed in the palm of his hand. He smiled slightly and opened his hand to show me.
“So immature. Do you seriously believe this crap?” He handed me one.While ignoring him, I broke it in two and extracted the slip of paper from inside.
“You don’t have to be a buzzkill all the time.” I snorted as he drew closer to me.
“What does it say?” he asked, sounding bored.
“‘May I be reborn in your eyes each time you look at me,’” I read aloud. I looked up, letting his golden gaze merge with mine like the sun’s rays at dawn becoming one with the sea, taking the waves in hand and leading them into the most beautiful of dreams.
Neil was that too: every bit as intense as the sunrise over the sea.
“You should read yours too,” I said, clearing my throat awkwardly. He blinked slowly, then broke his cookie apart with a loud snap, pulling out the paper inside.
“What does it say?” I leaned over his shoulder curiously and smelled him on the tiniest breath of air, barely ruffling my hair.
“‘Kiss me like you love me,’” he read slowly, a confused frown on his face. “‘Read aloud the request written on your fortune and address it to the person to your right,’” he continued reading, his head cocked to one side. He raised his eyebrows at me. “Why did you get an aphorism, and I got a demand?” he grumbled with an amused grimace.
“Because you’re a hot mess and the cookie thought you needed a hand?” I joked, pulling a face. He approached me slowly, all at once growing serious again. I stopped breathing when his hands came to rest around my waist, applying gentle pressure until I was pulled into him.
“So, Tinkerbell…” he said in a sensual whisper while my eyes were fixed on him, spellbound. “Kiss me like you love me…” he added, sounding both amused and seductive. Then he waited to see what I would do.
Oh, God.
“I…don’t… I mean…” I blinked dazedly, looking back and forth between his eyes and his lips, twisted into a lascivious grin.
“Kiss me like…” He drew closer still, lightly ghosting the tip of my nose with his and tilted his face. His disheveled hair tickled my forehead. “…you love me,” he finished, under his breath.
So, with all the boldness I could muster, I grabbed him by the nape of hisneck and yanked him closer to me. I kissed him and let my hands get lost in his hair. I let my lips brush his, slowly, delicately.
He felt soft and hot and—for just a moment—sweet and yearning. Then I gently caught his lower lip between my teeth, and he let out a groan of desire that sent a shiver down my spine.
“Something like that, you mean?” I pulled away slightly and rested my forehead against his. Neil licked his lips and looked at me thoughtfully.
“Did that feel like a kiss to you?” he asked, sounding unsatisfied and sliding one hand up my spine until it was firmly holding the nape of my neck. Without giving me a chance to say anything else, he fisted my hair and pressed his lips to mine urgently, demanding that I open and yield to his tongue.
And in that moment, everything exploded into color.
I felt the earth tremble.
I chased him like a high from some potent drug.
I felt him everywhere and thought no more.
My mind emptied, thoughts draining out only to be replaced with him.
He who was so beautiful and didn’t even know it; he who was the most extreme need I’d ever felt; he who I wanted to clasp close to my heart to keep him from running away again.
It felt like an eclipse, our kiss suspended there in the penumbra created by sun and moon.
His hand clutched the back of my neck more tightly while the other one traveled down to my hip, his pelvis pressing involuntarily against my lower stomach.
Neil carved his desires into me, enveloped my soul in his skillful tongue, and stole my breath.
He gasped, and I gasped with him.
We moaned shamelessly in that shadowy spot under a moody sky that seemed to be enjoying the show just as much as we were, with hungry mouths and greedy tongues.
And hell and heaven alike ceased to exist.
