Page 63 of An Overdue Match
Tai’s hands are still cupping my face, and now his thumb iscaressing my cheek, pulling my attention back to him. When I meet his gaze, I realize he’d never even looked away. He’d kept his eyes on me the entire time.
There’s a question in them as they sweep over my face, settle for a moment on my lips, then rise again to my eyes.
“Kiss, kiss, kiss,” the crowd chants around us.
I search for the cautionary voice in my head. The one that warns against giving in to the moment. That reminds me that Tai doesn’t know the whole truth about me. That he hasn’t seen me how I truly am, and that if I lean into him now, I could lose my balance and fall completely and irrevocably, with only pain to follow.
But that’s not the voice I hear. Instead, I hear Tai’s low timbre claiming I’m a true heroine, not just a side character in my own story. That I’m worthy of moments just like this one. Besides, hadn’t I already decided I was going to use the day to see if I fit, even a little bit, into that role?
I close my eyes and hear Tai say, “You’re so beautiful,” and whether it’s the Tai in my mind or the one right in front of me, I don’t know. I just know I’ve needed to hear—and listen—to those words for way too long, and the sound of them in my ear pushes me forward until my lips are met with Tai’s welcoming kiss.
27
The chant of the crowd immediately hushes the second Tai’s lips gently sweep over mine. My focus narrows to one spot—Tai’s warm mouth covering my own—as everything else is drowned out. Where other parts of him are hard lines—the cut of his jaw, the slope of his broad shoulders, the occasional slash of his brows—his lips are soft and light, almost as if promising to always be a safe place to land if I find myself needing one.
Sensations are just registering in my brain when Tai begins to pull away. It takes every ounce of my willpower not to chase after his mouth. I’m not ready to leave the cocoon of this moment. Not nearly ready to let go of this feeling welling up from my center. I want to soak in it. Revel. Explore. I want to grow strong and bold and feast on this feeling.
As soon as the kiss ends, the noise of the crowd comes roaring back. The whistles, the cheers. I can feel the heat of the afternoon sun and smell a hot dog someone is eating a few seats away. But these are peripheral sensory inputs. Tai’s lips are no longer pressed sweetly against mine in a chaste kiss appropriate for a family event, but he hasn’t withdrawn much either. Our faces are still only inches apart, and he’slooking at me, his dark eyes probing, a familiar expression on his face, and I realize what it really is that he’s doing. He’s not merely looking at me; he’sseeingme. He’s seeing me in a way that I don’t think Brett ever did, even when I still had my hair.
I want to be known, I realize.Reallyknown. I want this thing between Tai and me, this attraction or interest or ... possibility—whatever undefinable thing this is—I want it to be real. And it can’t be real unlessIam real.
Fear weighs heavy in my chest. Once Tai sees me without my wig, there’s no turning back. I could possibly find myself right where I was with Brett—staring at the face of a man who no longer wants anything to do with me. Who would never again say I’m beautiful. I could lose the parts of myself again that I just now realize Tai has been giving back to me piece by piece. The shattered remnants of my self-esteem.
I want it to be real.Need, really. Ineedit to be real. With Tai, I think that it maybe, possibly, could be. I just have to be strong and vulnerable. Like a real heroine.
“Tai.” His name comes out raspy, my throat thick with emotions.
His thumb moves to outline my bottom lip. “I can do better.”
My mind must be more addled than I thought because I can’t have heard right. “What?”
“Kiss you. I can kiss you better, the way you deserve. With abandon. With ardor. With devotion. I want to show you everything that’s bursting to be let out of here, Angel.” Tai places the palm of my hand over his heart. “Everything I see, everything I know in my heart when I look at you. Please tell me you’ll give me another chance to kiss you right. That I didn’t blow my one opportunity because of the cameras.”
His head tilts forward, and he rests his forehead againstmine. “I need to kiss you again more than I need oxygen,” he whispers in a strangled voice.
I lick my lips, imagining what a second kiss from Tai would be like. The first had felt like heaven on earth, yet he claims he can do even better. I doubt any kiss can rival the first, but I’m more than willing to let him prove me wrong.
I nod jerkily. “Okay.”
His head lifts off mine. “Okay?” he asks in a way that sounds like hope is a tangible thing he’s gripping in his fingers.
“Okay.”
His smile lights up his entire face. My hand is suddenly engulfed in his and he’s tugging me toward the stairs that lead to the exit.
“What are you doing?” I ask with a laugh.
He’s completely serious as he regards me. “You just said I could kiss you again. Do you really think I want to sit around and wait until after a baseball game so I can get you alone?”
Even with the game only half over, we aren’t the only ones trickling out of the stadium. Tai looks more serious than I’ve ever seen him. His usual smiling, teasing demeanor is nowhere in sight. He moves his gaze to me, but his expression doesn’t soften. If anything, he gets even more intense than before.
“I would do anything for a few minutes of privacy right now.” His voice is rough, almost battle-worn, like he’s barely keeping himself in check.
And it acts like a battering ram to the last of my defenses, my resolve to stay on the outskirts of romance snapped. Over Tai’s shoulder, I see a hidden alcove behind the large concrete walls. No one walking by would be able to see us.
I’m on cruise control, every part of my body hijacked by this one moment, and now I’m the one tugging Tai behind me.
“Where are we going?”
