“Hey,” I say.
“You’re cute too, obviously.Not that you want to be, right?”she replies.
“Depends.”
“On what?”She’s the devil, and she’s slowly running her hand from my chest to my belly.Below the belly button, things get critical.I have to stop myself taking her hand and leading it lower.Until I feel her around me, so that she can squeeze and whisper “darling” until I explode.
“Are you hungry?”she asks.
Yeah, for you.I’d love to say that.But of course, she really means, do I feel low and need to eat?Since that whole hospital incident, I can feel her concern, and I hate that.
“No, you?”
Olive gives a tiny shake of her head.“God, I’m tired.”
“Try to get some sleep,” I say in a hoarse voice that betrays how much I want her.But she’s too sleepy to notice, so I force myself to get a grip.
“Babe,” she whispers, imitating my accent.She giggles quietly to herself.
“Shut it, darling.”
She grins, and then I see the smile slowly fade from her face as she falls asleep.
37
Olive
It feels like we were in New York for way longer than a week when we leave the plane in Edinburgh.It’s early morning, Dad’s picking us up, and Colin’s not entirely with it.If I hadn’t known before, the weight that fell from his shoulders after his confession and conversation with his sister became clear when he fell asleep beside me within half an hour of takeoff and didn’t come around until our landing in Edinburgh.Colin still seems knackered, but relieved too.
We didn’t go to his mum’s gala, which created a fuss, obviously, but his dad pointed out that Colin is an adult now and can make his own decisions.Although I somehow doubt that he was including speaking to the police in that.On the other hand, he didn’t tell him off when we finally saw him on my third day in New York.He seems much nicer than Ava Fantino, but that doesn’t change the fact that he also seems to live entirely for work and isn’t there for Cleo, or Colin.The day before our flight back, Colin had a chat with his parents about the idea of Cleo comingto Dunbridge too.To his surprise, it doesn’t seem to have been a total disaster, but they haven’t made up their minds yet.
I didn’t wake Colin during the flight to remind him to check his blood sugar because I know the PIN to his phone, so I did it for him.I still can’t shake off the images of Colin and the paramedics in my room, which is possibly making me paranoid—after all, he wakes up by himself if he gets low and his body lets him know that he needs to eat.Better safe than sorry, though, in my opinion—I never want to go through a thing like that again.
Sometimes the fact that he’s easily six foot two makes it hard to believe that anything could ever harm him.As he heaves our suitcases easily off the luggage carousel and lugs them up the stairs in the east wing when we get back to school, I really can’t imagine it.Obviously, I insisted I could carry my own stuff, but he just ignored me and walked off with both cases.
After a week of spending every night in the same bed, it seems positively silly to go our separate ways once we get to my floor.
It’s less than half an hour before there’s a knock on my door and Colin comes in.His hair is damp so, like me, he’s had a shower, and as he pulls me close and kisses me, he smells like heaven.
“How is it possible to create so much chaos in only thirty minutes?”he asks in disbelief as we step over the clothes and shoes covering the floor.
“AndI had a shower too,” I point out, tapping the towel turban on my head.“I bet you didn’t achieve half as much in the time.”I’m very good at showering quickly.A remnant of my time as a swimmer.Which reminds me that I promised to help Ms.Cox out with training again from tomorrow.I’ve had lots of conversationswith Ms.Vail about that.It’s still painful that I can’t swim yet, but it’s doing me good to be in my familiar surroundings and to help the others improve.It’s possible that I’m even looking forward to tomorrow’s session.And as soon as it’s been six months since the skin graft and I don’t have to avoid chlorinated water anymore, I’ll get back into swimming.To be honest, I can hardly wait.
Colin tugs at the towel, which makes it come loose and slip off my head.“Yeah, I can’t compete with you there.”He catches the towel and strokes the wet hair back from my face.
“Want me to trash your room too?”I offer, batting my eyelashes at him.
“If you want to face Sinclair afterward, be my guest.”
I roll my eyes as he hangs the damp towel neatly over the back of the chair.“Ah, come on, he’s total carnage.”
“Not compared to you, babe.”
Warmth floods my body because he’s called me that again.I can’t let on how much I like it, no way am I letting him know, but it’s hard not to give the game away.Everything’s hard when Colin is standing there.My breathing, for example, and a heavy heat fills my belly as he kisses me again.Possessive and urgent, with his tongue, which is driving me out of my mind.
“Is he back?”I gasp.
“Who?”Colin sounds kind of distracted.I love that.
