Page 3 of The Way Home
“And… if I hadn't come, I wouldn't have met you.” Jeremy’s hand lightly rubbed over my arm, sending shivers through me.
“Me?”
“Sure, why not you?” Jeremy's hand was still on my arm, surpassing any casual, friendly touch. The look in his deep brown eyes made my skin heat and my brain short circuit.
“Because you're so…” I waved my hand at him as if that was answer enough.
Jeremy leaned closer until everything in the background went blurry, and he was all I could see. When he spoke again, helowered his voice and brushed my too-long hair behind my ear. “Soo…what?”
“Hot.” The word barely choked out of me, but he must have heard it because his lips widened into a devious grin.
“Really? So you think I'm hot?”
I felt my cheeks burning, and I pushed my glasses up my nose for something to do as I tried to become part of the wall behind me. “I mean, yeah, of course you are, and I'm… well… not.”
Jeremy tsked and shook his head. “That's where you and I disagree.”
My mind was working overtime trying to stay online. I seldom caught the attention of any of the guys I liked back home in the land of the very tan and gorgeous. Jeremy would have fit right in. From what I saw in the brief glimpse around the room when I'd arrived, it wasn't like there was a shortage of attractive people. Why Jeremy focused in on me was hard to comprehend. I was tall and gangly, while he looked like his body had grown proportionately in all the right ways. And of course, I was gifted with acne and glasses, and his golden skin looked like he’d been painted by the gods.
“What?” It was the only word I could manage. In fact, I'd been staring at him for so long, I'd almost forgotten what he said.
Jeremy smirked and took the can of soda from me, setting it on the table. “Come with me, Riley.”
“Okay.” That was the only easy part about all of this. Following him meant not having to think and letting him guide me. The only thing that gave me pause was when I realized we were standing outside of the men's restroom.
“Wait. What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing. I just have to take a piss, and I figure you probably do, too.” He pushed the door open, revealing a single stall room.
“I'm… I’m okay,” I stammered, trying to keep my voice level as heat rushed through my body centering in my groin. I’d never had such an intense reaction to anyone, but even in such a short time, Jeremy made me feel safe. But still, I really didn't need to have a boner in the middle of a church.
“Yeah, but help a guy out, why don't ya?” He winked and grabbed my hand, tugging me into the bathroom before I had a chance to object. Though my body seemed to have more sense than my mind, because it didn't put up any kind of fight.
Once we were both inside, he closed the door behind us and locked the door. Not even a second passed before he pushed me back against the door and closed the distance between us. He was a few inches shorter than me, and his eyes lined up with my lips, which he couldn't stop staring at. Torn between wanting to grab hold of him to steady myself or to push him away and clear my head, my hands hung uselessly at my sides. Unable to do anything, I simply stared at the hot guy in front of me like he walked right out of a fantasy. This wasn't real. This didn't happen. At least not to me.
Jeremy somehow stepped even closer, wedging his leg between mine, and there was no stopping my boner now, not with him invading my space and the heat of his body radiating into me.
His cheek brushed against mine as he leaned in to whisper, his warm breath fluttering by my ear. “Since you don't seem to think you are hot, I’ll just have to show you.”
I gulped loudly and simply answered. “Okay.”
Before I could think too much about what he meant, his hand was on my neck, pulling me down, and his lips pressed against mine. The suddenness of it had me gasping instead of kissing back. I was frozen stiff, but when I didn't pull away, his mouth landed on mine once more. The warmth, the pressure, the testing of his tongue against my lips—my brain exploded.Soon, I was completely lost in the sensation of him. Jeremy was relentless and didn't seem to care that I didn’t know what I was doing as I eagerly tried to match move for move. It was clunky, awkward, and hot as fuck! Of all the times I imagined my first kiss, I never thought it would be something as heated as this.
It was… everything. Suddenly, the longing for being back in California fell away, and I felt peace and excitement settle into me. With Jeremy's body pressed into me and his mouth on mine, why would I want to be anywhere else?
Riley
Present Day
Driving into town, the knot that had been in my stomach since the plane landed had grown exponentially. It wasn't like I hadn’t been back since I moved away, but it was usually for holidays. Those had been hard enough, but it felt different this time. I'd never come here by myself. There were too many complicated feelings about the cabin.
Really great memories, of course, but it was also the reason I'd been in a hurry to go away to college and not look back. Still, it haunted me: a ghost that clung to my heart, reminding me of what could have been.
The knot in my belly grew tighter as I turned onto a road I knew would take me past the church I used to attend on occasion. The very one where I'd methim. That stolen moment was the start of a fling that would mark the greatest and worst summer of my life. How many times had I wished I'd never been kissed by Jeremy?
It might have been one thing if kissing was all we did. But it was more. So much more. I'd given him my heart and my body, everything a sixteen-year-old in love could give. How could I have known it was going to be yanked away from me in a flash and become the biggest torment in my life?
Trying to center myself, I inhaled and exhaled slowly. My eyes purposefully locked on the road ahead of me, avoiding the glimpse of the church's sign. In a few miles, I would be safely away from the reminders that existed all over town and within the walls of the cabin. Well, maybe not-so-safely. The cabin was the most haunted of all.
