Page 27 of Sweet Little Lies
Chapter 10
Mica
The day’s events are a blur and have left me bone-tired. All I see is water, sand and the noise of beeping machines fill my head with a chaotic symphony.
And all I hear are the cries of my sister and mother.
They’re obviously grateful that Alvaro is alive and breathing and that the doctor’s diagnosis is he’s suffered no brain damage or any other long-term health risks. That’s all good news, but it doesn’t wipe away their anger over it happening. Or shift the blame from me because it occurred while he was under my supervision. And the topping on the cake is that they had to receive the call from Lance, a guy I’ve never mentioned before and they weren’t aware was there with us.
My words are shaky as they slip from my lips. “You saved him, Lance. He could’ve died.”
“No, no, no. Absolutely not. Don’t you do that to yourself,” he says in a commanding tone.
He drops me to my feet, reaches for my hand and ushers me out the automatic doors. He keeps going until we’re on the opposite end of the hospital around the corner out of sight next to the parking garage.
When we finally stop, he bends his head toward me and cups my face in his overly large hands. They’re warm against my cheeks that are now cold – from both the freezing air conditioning inside and the blood that drained hours ago from shock.
“Micaela, you listen to me. Alvie is fine. I know you blame yourself. It was a terrible accident that could’ve happened to anyone. To your mom. To your sister. Your brother. It happened, Mica, but you’re not to blame. If anything, blame me. I was the one that distracted you. I pulled your focus away. It. Is. Not. Your. Fault.”
The full force of his words and his embrace nearly knock me off my feet, but I regain my balance and stability as he hugs me tightly to his chest, grounding me with the weight of him. The top of my head barely reaches underneath his chin, as he places a chaste, and reassuring kiss to the top of my hair.
“You were so brave and heroic,mi Principe Azul.”
When I pull back, his eyes are filled with so many emotions I get lost in their beauty. The normally gray-blue is now a deep, haunting mass of dark silver.
“I’m no Prince Charming, Mica. Far from it,” his guttural tone serious and pained.
But I smile regardless, but he understood what I called him in Spanish. It makes me happy to know he did study and learn and take my help seriously. Although it also strips me bare because I can no longer hide behind my native language that once was a mystery to him. That barrier I’d used in the past to say what I really felt without him knowing was used to protect me and my heart.
The way he stares at me right now flays me wide open and I can’t resist him any longer. I don’t want to. He’s given me everything. Proven his loyalty and commitment to our friendship.
As if he senses the wall has just disintegrated between us, Lance leans in, the height disparity no longer an obstacle as I join him halfway on my tiptoes. My hair had been in a ponytail at the beach has now come loose, falling over my shoulders.
Gently, he slips his fingers through the strands and lets out a groan – tender and tortured.
“I need to kiss you now, Mica. You should stop me.”
It’s a warning. Signaling danger ahead. But I don’t listen. My heart won’t take heed.
Plain and simple, I don’t want to anymore. I’ve pushed and pushed and pushed him away – for so many reasons – for so long now, but they don’t matter now. The magnets that unite us together are too strong to be resisted. There’s an electricity thrumming through my blood igniting the burn in my belly and turning me into a pliant, needymujer morena. A dark, skinned woman who has fallen for her light-skinned Prince.
“Don’t stop,” I plead. “I don’t want you to stop.”
With one hand gripping the back of my neck and the other on my hip, Lance pulls me into his body. We’re connected – flesh-to-flesh, soul-to-soul. The solid heat and hard muscle of his chest and torso send vibrations down to my toes. I push up further on my tiptoes, angling my head, my fingers curling into the fabric of his t-shirt. I need him with a ferociousness I’ve never felt before. Oxygen, water, Lance.
As I finally pull him down the remaining inch to meet me, our lips meet and lock together for the first time in over a month.
Weeks and months of frustration and attraction and a year of this back-and-forth has left us both starving for one another. His kiss is hungry and so is mine as we devour one another’s tastes and scents. His tongue is wet and the inside of his mouth so warm and inviting as I open for him to take what he wants. To plunder me. Conquer me.
I’m restless for everything he has to offer and all I can think about is touching him. My hand burrows underneath his shirt, palming the hard, smooth skin of his chest. Using the blunt edges of my nails, I run them down, scoring every inch and magnificent plane of his abdomen. He makes low, pleasured sounds as his erection comes to life between us, pressing into my belly.
Completely forgetting where we are or who might be witnessing this erotic homecoming of sorts, I grunt greedily and begin to climb this mountain of a man, wrapping myself around him, hooking my ankles around his waist and hoisting myself up into his awaiting arms.
I should be ashamed of myself for acting so wanton or making a spectacle of myself like this outside in public in broad daylight. But I’m not because I’m lost in Lance. He makes me crazy with need.
He grunts into my mouth, his hands palming my ass to push me into body. My panties flood with hot need and I grind mindlessly against him, my mouth starving for every part I can gain access to. I slide one hand underneath the back of his shirt, feeling the notches of his spine and the ripple of his back muscles. He’s a work of art – of stone and concrete – that’s all marble and smooth.
Need coils low in my belly and I’m so desperate for him that I claw and clutch to him as if he’s life support. His tongue sweeps inside my mouth and his kiss claims me. I rock my hips against him seeking friction as he grunts, his kisses turning hard and punishing.
