Page 73 of The Executioners Three
She rolled her eyes as hard as she could. “Itoldyou, Mr. Porter, I’m not here to distract you.”
“And what if I said…” He paused, jaw muscle fluttering. Tongue flicking over his lips. Then he closed the final step between them. “And what if I said my life was a mess right now? What if I said that all I wanted was to be distracted?”
It took Freddie two heartbeats to understand what he was telling her. Two heartbeats filled with a car alarm and the waking whistle of impatientcrickets. Then the reality of his words—of what he wasimplying—careened into her.
Her breath punched out. “I… I’m sure there are lots of people who would willingly distract you.”
“And maybe I don’t want lots of people, Gellar. Remember how I said I’d be impressed if you actually got the log book back? Well, here I am. Impressed.”
“Is… is this a prank?” Freddie croaked. Theo spoke like a teen movie; people didn’t say these sorts of things in Real Life. And they certainly didn’t say them to her.
“No.” He scratched the back of his neck. “If anyone from Fortin found out I was down here with you, telling you what I just said… Well, it would not be great for me.”
“So whydidyou tell me? And why are you still here?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But you’re still standing here too, so I figure that has to count for something.”
Yes, Freddie was still standing here too—and she supposed he was right: it did count for something.
It also counted that Theo was very close now. Close enough for her to see each of the stitches over his left eye (four of them) and also how bloodshot his black eye really was. And yes, he had been standing close to her all morning, but now it was different.
Now an energy crackled off him that was aching and exposed. That had nothing to lose and didn’t care about enemies or prank wars or Montagues at Verona Beach.
This was Theo from the old water mill. This was Theo holding out his iron heart, and suddenly—just like that—Freddie knew what to do.
16
Ever so gently, Freddie reached up and touched Theo’s face. Exactly as she’d wanted to at the hospital. Exactly as she’d wanted to all morning. He didn’t pull away. He simply watched her, breath held and lips parted.
Outside, the car alarm kept blaring. The crickets hummed and crooned.
Freddie brushed her fingers above his stitches—careful not to caress them directly. Someone had punched him there.
Davis,she thought, recalling what Theo had said only a few minutes ago.Did Davis put you up to this?Theo had also said his life was a mess, meaning something must have happened to him since their kiss on Sunday.
Something awful. Something more than just his grandmother in the hospital. Something he thought was worth kissing her for.
Ever so slowly, Freddie moved her fingers away from his eyebrow and down the sides of his jaw. With each inch, Theo sucked in air—just a fraction of a breath, his lungs and ribs expanding each time. His pupils dilating.
Then her fingers reached his lips, and he went completely still.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she murmured, running her thumb near the cut over his upper lip. Even broken like it was, the skin was soft.
“You won’t.” His voice was a warm whisper against her fingertips.
She didn’t reply. She wanted to kiss himso badlythat it hurt. Like a python constricting around her chest. But now that she was standing here, now that she’d caressed his face and he hadn’t pulled away—now that she had placed her fingertips to his lips and gotten permission to take this further, she found she couldn’t move.
She was still so new to all of this. To boys kissing her and her wanting to kiss them back.
So Freddie simply stared up at Theo, and he simply stared down at her. Blue, blue, intense blue. And somewhere, a million miles away, crickets and car alarms still sang.
Theo was the first to finally move. With barely any shift at all, he twisted his head and kissed the tips of Freddie’s fingers.
It was like lighting another sparkler. The feel of his lips against the sensitive skin—it sent Freddie’s entire stomach rocketing into her eyeballs.
One kiss became two, Theo’s gaze never breaking from hers, and Freddie thought she might faint from that stare alone. Then his own fingers slid up and laced gently around her wrist.
He kissed the inside of her fingers. He kissed her palm. He kissed her pulse point. And if it hurt him to do so, he gave no indication. He just kept staring and kissing and, Freddie supposed, waiting for her to offer some kind of reaction.
