Page 70 of Up in Smoke

“Nothing.” She shakes her head. I pin her with a look that saysnice try. “Why does it feel like we still have some things to work out? More to talk about?”

“We’ll always have that, I think. Whatever bothers you, talk to me about it. Talk to me again and again until you’re over it. Maybe you never will be, but that’s okay. I’ll keep listening.”

I hardly recognize this version of myself. The thought of her hesitating around me on any subject, let alonethisone, is too infuriating to even think about.

She leans down to kiss my cheek, and I smooth my hands over her lower back. As she leans up slightly to look at me again, I can still see a hint of nervousness in her eyes.

“It doesn’t have to be a giant leap. We’ll figure it out as we go.”

“Okay.” This time, a smile surrounds her words. “I’m with you.”

She kisses me with more pressure and opens her mouth for my tongue when I graze it across her lips. I’m losing my shit on the inside, but the kiss grounds me in a way. I don’t think anything has ever felt this good.

The longing between us that has been so pent-up, so strong and impossible to hide, finally dissolves into something more sure: Desire.

Her thumb dusts along my jaw, while I frame the curves of her hips with my hands. The aching need to flip us and smother every inch of her skin with my mouth is unbelievably hard to tamp down.

Mesa comes up for air after another minute and peppers my neck with sweet kisses. Her fingers trail down and smooth overmy left pec. “I’d like to wake up with my face against this chest on the regular.”

“I can make that happen.”

She takes my face in both of her hands. “And never wear a shirt again.”

“Never?”

“Never ever.”

My hands slide up to her upper arms, and I pull to make her collapse on top of me. We roll over until I’m hovering above her and smashing my mouth against hers. My hips grind down, but the second they do, her body goes rigid. I furrow my brows and pull away to look at her face.

“I’m—on my period.”

“Okay.” I shrug, leaning back down to claim her mouth again and resume pressing my hips to hers.

She laughs into my mouth. Her hands press against my chest until I reluctantly pull back again with a sigh.

“I don’t care if you’re on your period,” I say.

She blushes. “You don’t?”

“No,” I scoff. “Why would I?”

“Okay.” She smiles shyly. “Well, as much as I’d like to get naked with you right now, I actually have a little headache. And cramps. And I kind of want to get the baggy sweatpants out of my bag and then cocoon myself in a blanket while you hold me until the sun comes up.”

I bend to kiss her before rolling to the side of the bed and jogging to the bathroom.

“What are you doing?” she calls out.

“Painkillers, babe.” I reenter the bedroom and place a bottle of pills on the nightstand. “Be right back, okay?”

She reaches for my hand and pulls me back down to the bed for another kiss. Will this ever get old? Our lips are going to falloff by the end of the week if we keep this up, and I don’t even care. I love it.

“I promise I’ll be right back,” I repeat, chuckling at the way she continues trying to pull me back down to the bed.

She finally releases me, and I’m out the door and halfway down the lane in the next few minutes. After a short drive and parking downtown, my phone buzzes.

Heston

Where you goin

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