Page 29 of Quietly Falling
“Did you remember the accident before today?”
“Not like that. I’ve read the reports but I was young.” I let out a huff as I drag a hand over my face. “It felt like I was there again, the car losing control and my mother screaming and the sound of the impact.”
“I’m so sorry.” Sadness fills her voice as she presses the softest kiss to the underside of my jaw.
“It was a long time ago.”
“You scared the shit out of me.” There’s a tremor of fear in her voice as shame floods my veins. A burden. I’d held her and kissed her andfuck, I didn’t deserve any of it. She mistakes my silence as self-consciousness as she continues. “In the truck. You didn’t hear me, and I was so scared I didn’t know what to do.”
“I’m sorry,” I manage, squeezing my eyes closed, my body stiffening and my hand dropping to the mattress.
Burden.
And it’s not just that. If she only knew…
And here I’d been relishing the way she’d calmed me, held me, comforted me in a way I’d never let anyone before.
I’m such an idiot.
“You know damn well you don’t need to be sorry,” she says, swinging her leg all the way over mine before pulling herself up to straddle me. Hands braced on my chest, she glares at me, the darkness unable to hide the disapproval on her face.
Why does she have to feel so good?
“It’s—”
“Don’t.” Her vehemence gets my attention. “Don’t shut me out. I don’t deserve it and neither do you.”
“Ella.”
“I was scaredforyou, notofyou.”
This gives me pause—the weight of her on my lap doing nothing to help connect to braincells in my head.
“I never want you to be scared of me.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
“Bodhi?” I love the way she says my name, the way it rolls off her tongue like a physical caress that I feel absolutely everywhere.
“What?”
“What do you want?”
You.
God, what would it be like to give in to her?
She hasn’t moved, and no doubt she can feel how hard I am.
Fuck it.
I slide my palms up her thighs, exhaling slowly until I reach the apex. “I want to kiss you again.”
“And then what?” she asks, leaning forward and stopping when she’s only inches from my mouth.
“I haven’t gotten that far,” I admit. And it’s the truth. The things I’m feeling are complicated, but I just know I wantmore.
