I glance up at him, my breath fogging his glasses—he’s so close. “In a perfect world, yes. But look at the world I’ve been thrust into. It’s miserable and haunting. Knowledge has murdered my dreams. How could I bring a child into this world knowing what I know? I’m terrified.”
He pauses, looking out across the water. When he doesn’t say anything for a while, I panic. Does he think I’m ungrateful forplucking me out of EV? That I find his house and him miserable because that’s not what I meant.
“I can’t swim,” he says after a while.
I blink once, twice. My thoughts scatter as I try to understand. “But you live on a lake.”
He nods. “I’m terrified of water. Almost drowned after a horrible prank in middle school went awry.”
“But you live on a lake.”
He nods, mouth twitching with the ghost of a smile. “What better way to conquer your fears than to build your life on top of it and dare it to sink you.”
“Is this one of those nuggets of wisdom?”
He laughs, and it sends tingles zinging to my toes. “Being terrified doesn’t always mean we shouldn’t.”
“You know … it’s kind of like when Bruce Wayne builds his super-secret lair in the bat cave where he’s afraid.”
He grins and leans forward to nip at my nose. “Careful, Thea. You may just end up a nerd like me.”
“Well, we already have an Alfred and a secret cave, we just need to save Gotham. Maybe we can do it together. Batman doesn’t need to do it alone.”
He stares at me.Westare at each other.
“Shit, Thea. I need to kiss you. I can’tnotkiss you.”
I barely move my head to nod, and his lips crash into mine. I sigh when they open, his tongue seeking. The kiss steals the breath from my lungs as I tilt my head to get closer to him. Slade’s hand slides up my arm, dragging a slow soft touch over my tattoo, like he’s appreciating the meaning as much as I do now. His hand moves to grip my waist, and he hauls me over to straddle his lap. My breath catches, and our kiss runs rampant with need and tension with every drag of his lips against mine.
A cold drop lands on my shoulder, but his hand tangles in my hair and he brushes it away. Our teeth clash, and he hisses. Hisone hand comes underneath my shirt, skimming up my ribs as his kiss becomes rough.
An ache coils inside me, demanding to be quenched.More, more, more, my body hums.
Another droplet dots the gray of his shirt, and when our mouths break for air, the water speckles his glasses.
“We should go inside,” I pant.
Murmurs of thunder sound somewhere in the distance, but it only pulls me deeper. The sky darkens, and more droplets collect in his hair and roll down his cheek and lips. He licks them away. “I’m not moving.”
His hand reaches for the side of my face to bring our lips back together, and he uses the pad of his thumb to tilt my chin. Lips to my neck, I lean back without hesitation. The rain dots my face, but I look up at the saturated clouds through my fluttering lashes. I moan as his tongue slides along my collarbone.
“I missed you,” he says.
Through my ragged breaths I say, “I missed you, too.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
SLADE
If I thought working in D.C. was difficult, working here while knowing Thea is back at our lake house is even more so. I cancel as many meetings as Elliot will allow, so I’m home to spend time with her, but it’s still not enough. It’s been a week, and I’ve only made it home to eat dinner with her twice. The other times she’s been curled up in my bed waiting for me.
She’ll wake and ask about my day, but we don’t seem to move forward.
Not today, though. It’s Thursday, and I’ve already told Elliot I’m not coming tomorrow. I have plans with Thea. I just need to make it through this final meeting.
There’s a knock on my door, and Elliot lets himself in. “Ready for that meeting, Congressman?”
I toss my phone down, pick up my notepad, and nod, ready to head down to a conference room. This meeting I’m actually looking forward to. The State Department of Education’s literacy coordinators are coming into the office today at my request. Thea’s joking words about saving Gotham stuck with me. I’ve mulled it over, and if I’m asking her to face her fears, then I need to face mine. How my grandfather might react to my time andenergy focused on something aside from furthering EV’s agenda is one.
