Now, I’ve traded that appetite for another, and I fear no amount of kissing Kent will satisfy it.
I can’t believe this is my life right now.
We both come to a natural stop, as if perfectly in sync with one another, and our ravenous kissing turns gentle. Then he lifts his face away from mine, as if to get a good look at me. His eyes do that thing they do, plunging deeply into my soul, locking on.
I stare back at him, heart racing. “Something wrong?”
“No. Nothing’s wrong. Literally nothing. You just …”
“Yeah?”
A soft smile spreads his lips. “You amaze me, Jonah.”
Wow.
I bring a hand to his hair, then run my fingers through it. He shuts his eyes as my fingers play in his soft, brown, blonde-tipped spikes, messing them up worse than they already are. I could get lost in his hair.
Until heavy footsteps are heard outside the door.
Kent and I stop at once and turn, alarmed.
“Yeah, I know!” calls a voice outside the door, a young man’s voice. “Hey, can you do me a favor and ask Heather if it’s in my room or hers? I’ll check mine.”
“Fuck,” whispers Kent, hopping off of the bed to grab our clothes from the floor. “It’s Finn. This is his bedroom apparently. Quick, we gotta go!”
“Go?? Where?? He’s at the door!” I hiss back.
Kent throws my clothes at me, then hurries to the window, which he quickly manages to thrust open and climb through. I’m still in my underwear, clothes clutched to my chest, as I race to the window behind him.
I hear the door open just as I’m balanced on the sill of the window. “What the hell?” comes a voice from behind, just before I slip out. Then: “We have three guest rooms, y’know! Ugh!”
Thankfully, there is a lip of roof tracing the second story of the house just outside the window, and it’s along that slanted path of roof that Kent and I make our hurried escape like a pair of dirty sex bandits. We come around a corner of the house, out of sight, and press against the wall. Excitement bubbles up from our chests as we cling to each other, laughing.
“That went well!” cries Kent.
I laugh. “I can’t believe we just did that!”
“Did he see you?”
“Pretty sure.” I’m trying not to look down. My heart is up in my throat. “It’s pretty high up here.”
Kent snorts. “I’ll get an earful from him later I’m sure.”
“How do I amaze you?”
He turns his face to me. Then he turns his whole body and cradles my head with his hands, which causes me to stare into his eyes. He doesn’t give me an answer.
“It’s what you said,” I remind him as the wind plays in our hair. I imagine my own is a mess compared to how it started out. The hairstylists would be so disappointed in what became of their lovely work. “Before Finn caught us doing the nasty on his bed.”
“I know.”
“So how do I amaze you?”
He stays quiet for some time, studying my face. I’m taken with that deep, longing look in his eyes that, for this moment, does all the speaking for him.
Then he kisses me.
And he kisses me.
My back is against the wall of the house. Though the kissing itself is sensitive and emotional, he pins me in place with his firm body and powerful presence. The world has gone away up here on this roof, and no one exists but the two of us, just a few feet away from falling.
Is this kiss his way of answering my question?
There’s a hint of a satisfied smile on his face when he finally pulls away from me and gazes into my eyes. Then he nods. “I’ve got a place for us.”
“Do you?”
“Yep.” He gestures off. “But we’ll have to keep going around the house on this piece of roof. It’s worth it, and I don’t think anyone else will be out there.”
“Lead the way, my disgraced, horny paladin.”
He frowns. “Your what …?”
I smile. “Never mind.”
The pair of us continue circumventing the exterior of the second story. The mansion is a very peculiar shape with all sorts of rooms and sections that jut out at strange places, so it’s around many corners we go until at last we arrive at the special spot.
And special is exactly how I’d describe it. It’s a large balcony that comes off of one of the bedrooms, I gather. It has a large, cushioned couch set in front of a coffee table, with a fancy telescope near the banister. Kent hops over the railing and lends me his hand, helping me over it, too. Through the windows, I see no one in the bedroom, so it feels surprisingly secluded up here. Most of the balcony faces the water, which looks positively infinite up here.