Page 38 of Like First Love, Again

Eyes half-lidded, Mia looked up at her, flushed and breathless. Before Tori could speak, Mia surged up to reclaim Tori’s mouth. She kissed her so hard that Tori was sure that she’d busted her lip, even more sure that she’d bleed for Mia any day.

The way Mia claimed her, possessive and sure, was Tori’s undoing. It was like she was the one pouring years of wanting into their kiss. Mouth searing, Mia urged Tori to take more. To take until there was nothing left.

Mia’s hands slipped under her shirt, nails raking across her lower back, sending a sharp, liquid heat straight to Tori’s core.Her touch was everywhere. Every nerve ending, every inch of Tori’s body was alive with it—with her. With Mia.

“Fuck, Tori,” Mia groaned, nails digging into her and pulling her between her parting thighs.

The sound of her name tumbling from Mia’s mouth and dripping with lust was an avalanche of reality. Tori eased out of the kiss, but Mia locked her legs around her to keep her from leaving.

She looked down at Mia and her kiss-swollen lips and flushed skin and gaze smoldering like all she wanted was more. If Tori’s entire body weren’t humming with enough voltage to take down a Grizzly, she wouldn’t believe her lying eyes.

“What are we doing?” Tori panted because there was no way she was going to make sense of Mia’s kiss on her own.

Mia’s attention was on Tori’s mouth when she said, “What I think we would’ve done a long time ago if you hadn’t kept secrets.”

Twenty

Mia was unprepared for the way Tori kissed. With nothing but her mouth on hers, she’d dismantled her fiber by fiber. Tori made her feel thoroughly ravaged and painfully desperate with the way she used her tongue. Slow and deep and penetrating, she’d set the pace and Mia was helpless to do anything but follow.

When Tori pulled away to talk, it took all of Mia’s self-control not to whine. Not to beg Tori to keep kissing her until there was nothing left of her but an aching hollow of need. To let her bask in the rush.

“This doesn’t feel real,” Tori confessed against Mia’s famished lips.

Tori held herself over Mia when all Mia wanted was to have Tori’s full weight on her again. Wanted the barrel tiles to dig into her back and Tori to moan into her mouth. But the pleading in Tori’s voice made Mia ignore the shocking amount of arousal making her underwear stick to her body.

“How long have you wanted to kiss me?” Mia asked while tracing the collar of Tori’s T-shirt before drifting up her elegant throat.

At her touch, Tori closed her eyes as if to shut out all her other senses. Her lips parted in invitation when Mia ran her fingers along the back of her neck, and it took all of Mia’s willpower not to lunge for her mouth again.

“I don’t want to make things weird,” Tori replied, eyes half-lidded.

Mia chuckled and made a fist in Tori’s hair. “Tori, for fuck’s sake, I just mauled you.”

Tori bit her bottom lip, head tipping back into Mia’s touch, and Mia forgot how to breathe. Forgot everything but the sharp angle of Tori’s jaw and the way her lips parted like she was waiting for her. Like she was silently begging for Mia to kiss her again.

“You can’t imagine how many nights I stayed awake wondering what would happen if I were brave enough to tell you…”

Mia’s heart raced when Tori’s eyes, brimming with devastating emotion, landed on hers again. “Tell me what?” Mia’s breathless question was barely above a whisper.

Tori shook her head. There was a world locked behind her dark eyes, and Mia would trade anything to be let inside.

“Please, don’t run away from me,” Mia pleaded. “Talk to me.”

Tori’s hesitation was heartbreaking. How could she be so afraid of her? Did she really believe Mia would hurt her on purpose?

Mia held Tori’s face with both hands to stop her from looking away again. “I want to know, Tori. I want to know everything you’re thinking,” she swore. “There’s nothing you could ever say that would push me away. So, please? Don’t shut me out.” She let one hand slide down Tori’s tense jaw and over her neck before pressing the center of Tori’s chest. “I want to know everything happening in here,” she promised with Tori’s racing heart vibrating against her open palm.

“I wanted to tell you,” Tori admitted, entire body trembling like she was truly afraid. Like even now, she feared Mia would shove her off when all she wanted was to bring her closer.

“I’d play out all these scenarios that might happen if I was brave enough to tell you I liked you.” She swallowed hard and shut her eyes tight. “To tell you I had all these feelings I didn’t understand,” she added, voice covered in hairline fractures. Spider cracks on glass.

Mia felt the trembling in Tori’s voice like a fissure in her own chest. Desperate to ease Tori’s doubt, to convince her she wasn’t in mortal danger, Mia sat up. Planting one foot on the roof, she hooked her leg around Tori. Pulling Tori half onto her lap, she circled her arms around her waist and held her as close as the awkward position allowed.

“I’m so sorry I left you so alone with all of this,” Mia whispered when she lifted Tori’s chin so she’d bring her gaze back to her. “I can’t imagine how awful that was.”

When Tori looked at her, eyes brimming with unshed tears, Mia was overcome with an instinctive urge to reach for her sword. To stand between Tori and the fire-breathing dragon in her mind. To slay the monster filling Tori with dread. But all she had were useless hands and an inability to change the past.

“But every time I thought about telling you, I imagined you looking at me like I was a creep just waiting to get out of the friend zone.” She furrowed her brow, silently begging Mia to believe her. “I never wanted you to look at me like I was taking advantage of your friendship because I would never?—”

---