“Gladly.” I place my hand at the curve of her waist beneath the sweatshirt, my fingers brushing the velvety skin of her back. “What do you want?”
She looks up at me, and I know what she wants because I want it, too. To be as physically close as possible every moment we have together. Since last night’s infamous piano encounter, we’ve been insatiable. It’s not just our bodies that can’t get enough. I’ve missed every part of her equally. Her laugh. Her kisses. The silences we fill up with all the things we don’t ever have to say aloud. And when I can’t find the words to tell her the world is less bright when she’s not around, my body speaks for me. Sometimes there’s no other way to say it.
And I love that everything I’m feeling, I see reflected back every time she looks at me. She can’t hide it.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Suspicion tinges her voice, even though she’s smiling just the tiniest bit.
“Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing.” She narrows her eyes at me. “Tell me what you were thinking.”
“I’ll sound like a dick.”
“Won’t be the first time.”
Oh, she’s got jokes.
“Okay. You asked for it.” I heave a longsuffering sigh, preparing myself for a ball busting. “I was thinking that I like seeing the effect I have on you.”
Pink crawls over her cheeks, immediately making my case.
“How you . . . what?” Her eyes slide down and to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Well, your cheeks, for one thing.” I brush a knuckle over the high slant of one cheekbone. “You blush.”
“I do not blush, Rhys,” she says unconvincingly.
“Yeah, okay.” I laugh because her cheeks just get pinker by the second. “And your breathing changes. Kind of catches.”
As if on cue, her breath hitches in her throat. It’s incredibly arousing knowing I’m doing this to her in a crowd, like my words are stroking her under her clothes.
“And then,” I say, leaning down so my words land right in her ears. “It’s like you don’t know what to do with your hands. You touch your throat. Put your hands in your pockets. You fidget. After months together, I love seeing that you still respond that way to me.”
She lowers her eyes to the sand under our feet, a wry smile crooking her mouth.
“You were right. You do sound like a dick.”
I recapture her hands, pulling her into me.
“But it’s the same for me.” I have to laugh at myself. “Maybe worse. I feel all of that when you walk into a room. Hell, I feel that waking up beside you.”
“Well, I can’t tell.”
“Guys just do a better job at hiding that shit. Only fair since we can’t even hide our erections. At least we can hide our feelings. Maybe it’s the male’s overdeveloped evolutionary response so we don’t look like pussies. A mating thing.”
I pause, tilting my head to consider my little Southern Baptist girl.
“You do believe in evolution, right?”
“I’m a Creationist, actually.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” I shake my head, grinning and on the verge of laughter. “Pep, that’s basically a fairy tale.”
“Says you.”
“Says science.”
“I believe that science and faith can peacefully co-exist.”
“But you must have questions. I mean, half of it makes no sense. Doesn’t even compute.”
“Is something less powerful because you have questions about it? Because sometimes you have doubts or you’re unsure?”
“Are we still talking about creation?” I frown a little, her question provoking me.
“Among other things. Is it really faith if it doesn’t require you to stretch yourself beyond the rational? Past your questions?” The intensity of her eyes holds me completely. “Mama always said faith requires at least a little bit more than you think you have. You should be glad I was raised that way. It may be the only thing holding this dysfunctional relationship together.”
“Oh, really?” Now that grabs my attention by the horns. “How do you figure?”
“I was raised with the capacity to believe in something that I can’t see and always have questions about, but have no doubt is absolutely real.”
She tips up on her toes and hovers over my lips.
“Like us.”
She comes in the last few inches to lay those sweet lips on me. I open for her and lose myself in that kiss for long seconds. She draws my tongue in deeper, until with a groan, I squat to grab her butt and lift her up. When my moustache starts slipping and sliding around our lips, she laughs, pulling away.
I catch the eye of a lady over Kai’s shoulder watching us intently, who gives me two thumbs up.
“Love is love, my man,” she says. “You and your little guy look great together.”
I smile and adjust my moustache. I glance back at Kai, whose eyes are still a little dreamy and glazed from our kiss.
“Pep, you keep looking at me like that, I’m dragging you over to one of those ships in the harbor to play rock the boat with my little boy toy.”
“No rocking any boats.” She pulls back pouting. “Your little guy’s hungry. You promised me food. And, no, I’m not having public sex with you.”