Page 99 of Ominous: Part 1
I see perspiration grazing his sharp cheekbones. Water clinging to his thick lashes from where he jumped in, too. I’m worried I look like a seal with my hair up, wet and piled on top of my head, but his inky black hair is smoothed back from his face, and he just looks even more beautiful. Like a god.
But Adonis is a mortal. And he fell for Aphrodite.
Goddess of sex and love. Even thinking it, I feel bolder as lift my chin, cock my head, and sit up a little straighter. He’s into me as much as I’m into him. Ishouldbe confident.
“Nothing.” I barely whisper the word, my voice raspy from the alcohol and the low tone, but it sounds sexy right now.
More melted ice is trickling through my fingers, and I should probably get my broken cup out of the pool, but I currently can barely manage to breathe while affecting poise, so I cut myself some slack.
“Did you want to tell me toshut up?”His nose is so close to mine, I feel his breath in my mouth.
I lick my lips, already slightly blistered from the sun. There’s a distant nagging in my head, my mom’s reminder about sunscreen, which she threw in my backpack, currently on the floor of one of Eli’s guest bathrooms, and I smeared it on my face, the tops of my shoulders, but nowhere else, and I need some for my chest but…
“No.”
“No?” he questions, leaning closer, so our noses touch, his brow pressed to mine.
I hold his gaze, swaying my feet in the water, ankles still locked over each other. “Eli.” His name comes out sharp and jagged from my mouth.
He looks momentarily surprised I said it, but he recovers quickly. “Yeah, baby girl?”
I feel like I’m melting in my seat. I can’t keep up this sensual charade much longer. “Can I have another drink?”
The surprise flits across his face again, but he smiles, too, straightening, putting a little space between us, until I realize he’s sliding over closer, his hip touching mine.
“Sure, but here.” He holds up the joint between us. “Try this first.”
I glance at it, the rolled white paper, the burnt end. I don’t really have good experiences when I get high. I think of the walls moving, Amanda coddling me at that one party. But it’s just me and Eli. He wouldn’t make fun of me, I don’t think.
So, all I say is, “Okay.”
Instead of offering me the joint, he brings it up to his own mouth, inhales, the tip glowing bright, then reaches for the back of my neck, fingers splayed along my skin as I startle, my pulse picking up pace, and I’m not sure if it’s his touch that does it, or the fact the lit end of the joint is so close to my hair.
I want to duck out of his grip and grab him instead, but he tightens his hold, fingers looped around the back of one of my necklaces, and pulls me toward him at the same time I lean closer, giving in.
He cocks his head, and I mirror the action, until our lips are touching, his thumb pressing into the side of my throat, his free hand coming to my bare thigh and squeezing.
I release my ankles, widening my legs at the same time I open my mouth, and he exhales, the earthy-sweet taste of marijuana on my tongue as he blows smoke down my throat. I get the point, inhaling as my lips make a suction around his and I breathe it all in.
His hand shifts higher up my thigh as the smoke trails down into my lungs, and he pulls back slightly, but he doesn’t release his hold on the back of my neck, or my thigh.
I cough, closing my eyes a second, trying to catch my breath as I turn my head, but he keeps us pressed close together, his fingers dancing even higher, until he’s at the edge of the cutout of my swimsuit over my thigh. I’m too busy coughing up smoke to protest, and I don’t want to, anyway.
“Good girl,” he whispers against my cheek, and my stomach muscles tighten with the lazy way he says the words, his thumb stroking the inside of my thigh in the same manner.
I take a deep breath. Another. Then one more, relieved I’m no longer choking through my first inhale. It’s only as my breathing returns to normal, my heart thumping hard in my chest, that I feel the heat from the lit end of the joint in his fingers, still clamped possessively on the back of my neck.
I raise my eyes to his, our lips close again.
“How do you feel?”
“Don’t fucking burn me.” I bite out the words, born from nervousness.
His expression is neutral as he stares at me, then slowly, he nudges his nose against mine, almost like a kiss.
I don’t move, but I love how it feels.
He angles his head so his lips brush mine when he speaks again. “I’d never hurt you.”
