Page 51 of The Pretenders of Copper County
Chris managed a shaky laugh. “D-don’t say that word in front of an adult, Reed.”
But I wasn’t in any mood yet for laughter. “Did that Zach kid push you in?” I demanded.
I set him gently on his feet, but his knees wobbled, so I wrapped my arms around him and let him rest against me.
Chris pressed his nose to my T-shirt and shook his head. “N-no! Not exactly.”
“Then what did happen, exactly?”
“Well. It turns out I still don’t know how to swim. And I’m starting to wonder if the ‘swimming instinct’ my nonna assured me would kick in when I really needed it might be a myth.”
I tugged gently on the back of his hair to make him look at me. Water ran off his glasses in rivulets, streamingdown his cheek to his lips. “Are you telling me that you were standing near the edge of the dock when you don’t know how to swim?” I shook his shoulders slightly. “What thehell, Chris?” Another thought occurred to me. “And if he didn’t push you in, how’d you wind up in the water?”
“Zach and Derry were going to fight. I didn’t want either of them to get hurt, so I distracted them. I jumped,” he said, for all the world as though this were a reasonable fucking answer.
“Youjumped.” Emotion clawed up my chest, clogged my throat. My fingers clamped his shoulders like twin vises. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“Well… no? I didn’t think it would be quite that deep, and anyway, my nonna always said?—”
“No.” I shook my head forcefully. “No.”
I let go of his shoulders, but only so I could run my hands up and down his arms, his chest, his neck and face. His skin was getting warmer, finally. Turning rosy pink all over. And soft… so damn soft. His breathing got heavier with every brush of my fingertips.
“First, shootouts, then bar fights, and now…” My throat clicked as I swallowed. “I don’t give a shit what your nonna says, Chris Winowksi. You don’t take chances like that?—”
One small hand lifted to my mouth, silencing me. “Chris Winowskidoesn’ttake chances,” he whispered, voice barely audible under the thunder of the water. “Not ever. But… I’m thinking maybe Chris Sunday does. Sometimes. When it’s important.”
I shook my head again, dislodging his fingers. My hands continued tracing the lines of his body, the lean muscles, the fine bones and perfect symmetry. “What the fuck am I going to do with you?” I demanded. It wasn’t an angry statement but an honest question. Aplea. “I’m losing my mindhere. I can’t think. I can’t focus. I can’t stop wanting— Tell me, Chris. Tell me. What am I going to do with you?”
Chris’s teeth sank into his lower lip. His big eyes stared up at me like it was Christmas morning and I was his very best present. Then he lifted on his tiptoes and pressed his lips to mine.
CHAPTER NINE
CHRIS
I just wantedto make Reed stop talking.
There were some things I wouldn’t mind hearing him say again, like the way I was almost positive he’d called mebabyback at the dock. But the way he was talking now, the fear in his voice, made everything feel too real.
That near-drowning had been scary as heck. I hadn’t really thought about jumping before I did it—which, in retrospect, probably had not been the sort of jumping-without-thinking Van had advised me to try—and the second I’d hit the water, I hadn’t been able to think at all. I’d been so cold, cold all the way to my bones, and I’d tried to be brave and claw my way to the surface, but I hadn’t known which way was up. The harder I fought, the deeper I’d seemed to fall. And maybe—I mean, probably, almost definitely—I would have gotten out on my own somehow, but in that terrifying instant when I’d thought perhaps Icouldn’t, with my lungs burning so badly I thought they might burst, the one thought my panicked brain had latched onto was that I refused to die before Reed Sunday kissed me again.
Now, with his hands on me and his lips warm on mine… Iwas done waiting for him to kiss me. I was going to take matters into my own hands.
He was so much bigger than I was in every way. My toes slipped on the shower floor, and if it hadn’t been for his strong arms around me, I probably would have tumbled to the ground in a sodden, shivering heap.
But Reed hadn’t taken his hands off me since he’d pulled me out of the lake, and at this point, I kind of hoped he never did. Or… or at least didn’t for as long as I could keep him kissing me.
His mouth was firm on mine. Just like last time, he took control immediately and dominated my mouth in the very best way.
“Don’t stop,” I begged when he gave me just enough space to draw breath. “Please.”
I was terrified he’d suddenly realize what he was doing and go back to the regretful hecking grump he was after our first kiss in the hotel room.
My brain spun with ideas… well, mostly fantasies… things I’d only dreamed about doing with a guy. But I knew with complete certainty I wanted to do them withthisguy.
And I wanted to do them now before he changed his mind and got all… bossy protector… on me again.
“Suck you,” I said. The words were muffled against his lips and may have accidentally sounded like the eff-word. I winced.
