Page 69 of Not that Impressed
“There isn’t an easy answer,” I say into his shoulder.
“No.” He kisses the top of my head and then we stay like that for a long time, both of us wishing things could be different.
When I can resist him no longer, I shift so I can reach his lips, and I kiss him.
“Trying to distract me?” he murmurs.
I smile. “Trying to convince myself this is real.” His hand is splayed across my back and the tips of his fingers lying gently there sends shocks of electricity at every point where he touches me.
He studies my face, grazing a finger along my cheek and then shifting some hair out of the way. “I don’t know when my frustration with you turned into admiration. Or when your fierceness became my addiction. But I’m bewitched by you, Ellie. And I’m completely in love. I don’t want you to think what I did was out of guilt or responsibility. It was because I’d do anything for you.”
The tender way he spoke has my insides melting. “I know the moment I fell in love with you,” I whisper. “When you dropped everything for me and wouldn’t let me talk you out of it. Stubborn man.”
“Have to be,” he growls. “I’d have never won you over if I wasn’t.”
I smile as I lean in to kiss him again. He puts his hands on my hips and lifts me effortlessly into his lap, then wraps his arms around me to hold me closer as we deepen the kiss. Fire races along every inch of me. I grip his biceps, reveling in the strengththere, and not just the physical strength, but what it represents. Who he is. The man who stood steadfastly beside me during the most terrifying two days of my life. I’ve fallen in love with Will so quickly, but perhaps the seeds were there all along, waiting for me to recognize his importance to me. When I’m not wrapped in his embrace, I’ll think about our history and see it all in a new light.
I slide my fingers around his shoulders and then up his neck. He murmurs my name against my lips and then trails kisses along my jawline, leaving me completely breathless. He slides one of his fingers up my spine, trailing electricity that pulls a shiver from me.
My lips find his again, and he tightens his hold on me. A man has never kissed me the way Will does, fully invested, so all-consuming that I forget everything. Maybe it’s because Will’s kisses are a promise I know he’ll keep. It’s not just how he helped Libby that has shown me his steadiness, but knowing who he is and how he takes care of me—even when I’d rejected him. How he saw the possibilities between us when I thought we didn’t make sense. I can’t imagine misunderstanding him anymore, though there will be small moments in our future where something he says comes out wrong and I react too quickly.
He will only need to kiss me like this and forgiveness will come instantly.
I have to leave Will too soon, especially since I want to spend every second with him. But Libby and Mom are on their way home, and Libby will want me there.
He walks me down to my car, leaving me with another searing kiss, even though it’s brief. It sends bolts of electricity from the tips of my fingers to my toes.
“Dinner tomorrow night?” he asks as he opens my door.
“At my parents’?” I reply tentatively.
“Fine with me.” He doesn’t even hesitate. My parents love him, so there’s nothing for him to worry about.
“I love you, Ellie,” he says.
I put my hands on his chest and lean into him. He already told me that he’d fallen in love with me, but this is the first time he’s saying the words to me. “I love you too, Will,” I say softly. I put a hand on his cheek and leave a lingering kiss there, because if I start kissing his lips again, I might never go home.
He hugs me from behind when I turn to get in my car, dropping a quick kiss on my temple before letting me go. He stands in the parking lot and watches me as I drive away, and even when I’m at the light, a block away from his apartment, he’s still standing there, watching me.
I grin, roll my window down, and wave enthusiastically as the light turns green. He laughs but doesn’t move. He’s still standing there when I have to turn and lose sight of him.
I have a feeling that Will Pemberton is always going to be standing somewhere for me, watching and not wanting to lose sight of me. It’s the same for me.
Colin Hurst
Congratulations! Looks like you and Will Pemberton are Official. I’m so happy for you.
And Isla says that Janelle and Charlie Baldwin are a thing too. So exciting.
We should do some kind of cool couples collaboration!
Ellie?
READ 9:05PM
CHAPTER 30
ELLIE
