Page 100 of Revelation

But, goddammit, I wanted so badly to tell her about my upcoming move to Seattle, plus a bunch of other stuff, too. I wanted to tell her how excited I am to sit down to dinner with her noisy, chaotic family, to meet her mom and dad and brothers and just sit there, watching everyone interact. I wanted to explain that it’s a big fucking deal for someone like me to sit down for a birthday dinner with a real family—abigfamily—even though it’s a ho-hum kind of thing for everyone else. In fact, I wanted to tell her, the whole reason I lived in my fraternity house for my first two years in college (even though the place should have been condemned) was because I craved being around noise and chaos and laughter andpeopleso badly after growing up my whole goddamned life in a fucking morgue with Joseph Stalin breathing down my neck.

Oh my God, I wanted to take Kat’s gorgeous face in my hands and stare into those icy-blue eyes that see right through me and tell her she blows me the fuck away, and not just in bed, but in every conceivable way—that I can’t find a goddamned fucking fault withher—that even her stubbornness and jealousy and evil make me want her that much more, more than I’ve ever wanted any other woman, in fact. That I can’t stand it when we’re apart. That she’s hilarious. And sweet. And honest. A force of nature. That she makes my heart physicallyhurtwhen she does nothing more than smile at me.

I lean forward and stare at myself in the mirror. I’m trembling. Panting. Freaking out. I need to get a grip.

I wanted to tell her I’m falling so fast and hard for her, I feel like I need a Dramamine. And a parachute. And a fucking last will and testament.

Fuck.

I stare at my blue eyes reflected back at me in the mirror.

“Pull yourself together, man,” I say through gritted teeth. “Stop acting like a total puss.” I nod in reply to myself, take a deep breath, and slap my cheekhard—and then, once I feel like I’ve regained control of myself, I turn around and head back into my room.

28

JOSH

When I emerge from my bathroom, there’s yet another James Bay song playing—this one, thankfully, in no danger of sending me into a tailspin. Kat’s sprawled naked on her stomach across my bed, looking like a wet dream, her long, toned limbs stretched across my mattress, her blonde hair unfurled across my pillow, her tight ass just begging to get spanked or bitten or fucked. Or all of the above. Jesus. I wouldn’t mind being greeted with this vision every time I come out of my bathroom.

I crawl onto the bed and drape my body over hers, pressing my naked body into hers. “Hey, babe,” I say softly.

She turns her head and rests her cheek on the pillow.

“Hey,” she says softly. “Everything okay?”

“Mmm hmm. Everything’s great.” I push her hair to one side and stroke the Scorpio tattoo on the back of her neck. “How are you?”

“Good.”

She squirms underneath me and I lift up, letting her turn onto her back so that we’re lying nose to nose, our bodies pressed together.

“You look like you have one eye,” she says, pressing her nose into mine. “One very blue and beautiful eye.”

“I’m Mike Wazowski,” I say.

She laughs. “Why do you know that?”

“Are you kidding me? I loveMonsters, Inc.”

She laughs. “You never cease to surprise me.”

“Mike Wazowski!” I say in the voice of Boo. “Kitty!”

“Admit it—you were stoned out of your mind when you watched that movie, weren’t you?”

“No, as a matter of fact. I was, like, sixteen or something—still a very nice boy.”

She laughs. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you.”

I pause. “I was a very nice boy at one point, Kat—I went to see cartoon-movies in the theatre and everything.”

“I’m sure you were.”

I pause. “Although, in the interest of the honesty-game, I watchedMonsters, Inc.stoned out of my mind later on DVD.”

She bursts out laughing and I join her. God, I’m fucking addicted to her. I can’t resist reaching out and touching her golden hair. It’s the color of straw. Spun gold. Sunshine. I stroke her hair for a moment and she purrs like a cat.

“You blow me away, Kat—not just in bed. All the time. With everything you do and say.”

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