I kept my gaze firm on my hand, focused on cleaning the wound, but out of the corner of my eye I saw him smile, satisfied by his teasing. But I couldn’t throw it back at him because his scent started rotating around my breathing space, making me tenser than ever.
“Asshole,” I muttered, embarrassed, continuing to medicate his side. It wasn’t the first time I’d done this, but I wasn’t an expert at first aid, and I didn’t know how to assess how deep the wound was or recognize its severity. But when the bleeding stopped and I determined that there weren’t any foreign bodies or glass around it, I let out a sigh of relief.
“The bleeding stopped. Maybe the problem is solved.”
I stood up again to put the supplies back, but my heart almost skipped a beat when James brushed against my wrist. The contact with his warm hand made me jump. He tugged me down, straddling me on top of him.
Our bodies crashed in an inescapable almost violent collision that caused him to let out a moan.
James took the vape pen from his lips and penetrated me with a deep gaze.
“Are you sure it’s solved?” He provoked me.
I was trapped in his gaze. His blue irises became thinner and his pupils dilated impossibly wide. I moistened my dry lips, trying to keep a cool head, something that I was incapable of doing. And that apparent calmness wavered when James brushed every part of my face with the heat of his eyes.
Stay calm, June.
The cotton ball that I was holding had now slipped onto the floor. Slowly, I curved my neck when James grazed my cheeks with his fingertips. In a second, electric shocks permeated me. Feeling him so close to me rekindled weird, uncontrollable, and unclassifiable sensations.
“I don’t know what problem you’re talking about, James.”
With my mind completely clouded, I let the first words that came to mind slip out.
I felt dazed, but I couldn’t do anything. Confusion overflowed inside of me and grew when I saw James lift the corner of his mouth to smile at me in his soppy way.
“Do you mean to tell me that you don’t feel like there’s still a problem, princess?” Oh my god, we’d never even kissed, why did he have to make me think these things? While one hand caressed my cheek, the other landed on my bare leg.
“Who do you think you’re talking to?” I challenged him, feigning nonexistent control. As if the cold of his metal rings touching the heat of my skin didn’t make me shiver.
“Maybe I want to show you that you’re no different from any of the others.”
“You’re such an asshole.”
James didn’t seem to get angry at the insult. Maybe continuously insulting me amused him. Slowly, he tasted his lower lip with the tip of his tongue, enchanting my eyes with the forbidden but arousing image of his full, reddened lips.
No, June, don’t even think about it.Because it was easy to think that. I was thinking about it so much that if he didn’t kiss me now, I might almost go crazy. I don’t know why I did it, but I let both palms of my hands stick to his bare, sculpted chest.
He smiled, pleased at the move, as if he knew I’d been wanting to do it for a long time.
His breath became slow and measured under my indecisive hands. With his gaze, James followed the trajectory of my fingers as they moved slowly on his perfect, smooth skin, like they were becoming familiar with a mysterious creature. All it took was for me to look up to meet his cheeks, flushed from alcohol, and his hair tousled by who knew how many girls. I felt unstable without a way out. He focused on my hands as they continued to explore his chest before descending to sculpt his hard, compact abs. My fingertips slid along his raised veins and tense muscles until I stopped at the edge of his tracksuit pants.
“Aren’t we brave.” He smiled at me, setting off furious palpitations in my stomach.
He was just messing with me. I repeated it to myself a few times before deciding to run away from this dangerous situation. But when I tried to get up, James held me back. He put both hands on my hips, forcing them to stay exactly where he wanted them. A moan escaped my lips but my attempts to move failed. I just ended up rubbing against his body even more. And if my breath wavered, James didn’t seem in the least embarrassed by how his erection was swelling between my thighs.
Overcome by this excruciating tension, I shut my eyes.
“Oh my god, you’re drunk, James.”
I tried to recover a bit of oxygen, but now what I was sensing under me was so obvious that my cheeks throbbed with embarrassment.
“And you’re beautiful.”
His sentence went so far, whispered in such a warm, deep voice, that I was assailed by doubt. Was I imagining things, or did he really say that? James took his time, as if he was waiting for a signal from me, and in a moment his fingers squeezed my shirt, barely lifting it on my hips, and he started drawing small circles with his thumbs on my sensitive skin.
His eyes darted quickly between my legs, and I thought about that morning again, when his touch didn’t seem to be for its own sake, when he seemed to be looking for something. How’d he figure it out?
I looked down, but James lifted my chin to make our eyes meet again.
