Page 11 of Words I Couldn't Say
It had sounded so stupid to my ears, but Tucker’s lips crashed onto mine almost instantly, and I knew that it hadn’t been stupid. It had been so far from stupid that it wasn’t even funny.
It killed me to pull away, but I had to tell him something. Something he needed to know.
He groaned when I tore my lips from his. His eyes were stormy blue, the darkest I’d ever seen them, and the sight of his freshly kissed lips sent shivers down my spine, straight to the place between my legs. I’d never felt like this before, and all I wanted to do was throw my arms around his neck and ask him to take me to bed. Which, of course, I couldn’t do because, well, as much as I was in both love and lust with him, I wasn’t quite ready to go from zero to sex on prom night.
“You are the most beautiful woman,” he murmured as his thumb caressed my cheek, which I was sure was pink from my heated flush. “I’ve dreamed of this moment for my entire life.”
I blinked tears back. “You have?”
A slow grin spread across his handsome face. “Of course I have. You may have been a little slow, but you’re here now. And it’s a dream come true.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose before pulling back and staring into my eyes. “You, Ava. You’ve always been my dream.”
My heart fluttered. How had I missed this? He’d been right in front of me the entire time, and I’d foolishly ignored the chemistry, the romance brewing between us. It didn’t matter though. Because we were there and together now. Hopefully, that’s how we’d always be.
“I think deep down I knew, even if I didn’t want to admit it. I was waiting for someone special to come along and sweep me off my feet. I had no idea you were there already, doing that little by little.” I paused then let it out. “That was my first kiss.”
I didn’t know how it was possible, but Tucker’s smile widened. “I wasn’t sure…but I’d hoped. While it wouldn’t matter to me if you had been kissed before, I’m glad I was your first. Because my lips? Yours are the only ones who have ever kissed them, too.”
Butterflies took flight in my belly. “I guess our hearts both knew the truth. It just took a while for our brains to catch up.”
He cupped my face in both his hands. “I love you, Ava. I always will. I want to be your first and last everything.”
“There’s nothing I want more,” I agreed.
His lips descended and overtook mine in a passionate kiss that left me breathless but unwilling to come up for air until the dance was obviously over and my dad hopped onto the truck, unceremoniously dumping a water bottle over our heads. Mom shook her head while he innocently told us that he’d thought we needed some cooling off.
He was probably right.
And that was that. It wasn’t some crazy whirlwind. It was just the realization that our friendship had blossomed into something more, and we wanted to explore it. We’d spent eighteen years as best friends. Now, we were so much more.
