A Kiss Like This (Kiss and Make Up #3)(79)

Cecelia: Oh great. It’s probably a black market Taser that shoots STUN darts.

Cecelia: Um… I was just talking to Matthew and he says to wait on calling the cops…

Abby: Why would he tell me not to call the cops????

Cecelia: Remember that time he pretended to be a creeper at MY door in the middle of the night? Thought he was being romantic in a Shakespearean kind of way but really just scared the ever-loving SHIT out of me?





CHAPTER 32

Abby

I hear the familiar grunt again, accompanied by the sound of metal being scraped along the side of my windowpane.

“Go. In. God. Dammit,” the voice curses gruffly in a huff, doing God only knows what to my window, a dim light flickering through my curtains, aimed at the bottom righthand corner of my window.

I bite my lip and pull the blanket up to my chin, debating.

I would know that voice anywhere.

Throwing back my blankets, I smooth down the shirt I’m wearing—Caleb’s shirt, the one I was wearing the last time I was with him, um, intimately. My legs are bare, but I move across the room toward the window, my heart beating so wildly in my chest that I pause, and press a hand to my breast to steady it.

The action does little to soothe me.

Pulling back the curtains, I unlatch the lock and crank open the window.

Crouching, I speak through the screen. “Caleb.”

“Holy shit, Jesus Christ! Abby, you scared the piss out of me.”

I ignore his startled litany of profanity and bring a hand to cover my mouth, chuckling. It feels good to laugh.

“I scared you? You’re the one trying to break into my room.”

“Yup.” His low, grumbly voice rises out of the dark, but he sounds oddly pleased with himself. “Wanna help me up?”

It only takes me a few seconds to decide my next course of action. Reaching down, I pop the screen out of its frame, then stand back as Caleb counts out a few bounces on his heels, and, like a gymnast, hoists himself up using only the strength from his upper torso.

Drool.

He hangs over the window frame, grunting, before falling to my carpet in a heap inside my bedroom.

I walk backwards in the dark and sit on the edge of my bed as he steadies himself and rises to his feet. Kicking off his shoes, he neatly arranges them next to the closet door.

The uncertainty of the situation while he busies himself is killing me, so I adjust my position on the bed restlessly, pressing my palms to my flaming-hot face.

“What are you doing here?” I ask nervously when he stands at his full height, his tall frame silhouetted by the full moon lingering high in the night sky.

He hesitates. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Well, yes, when you put it that way…

I groan inwardly.

“Do you have a small light we can turn on?” he asks, crossing the room. “Not the overhead light. I just want… I have to see your face.”

“Yes, m-my desk light, maybe?” I stand, careful to avoid contact with him. I feel my way through the dark to the little white light clamped to my IKEA desk and click the switch. A dim light casts pallor over the room.

I turn to face Caleb, whose imposing figure swallows up all the space in room, and I nervously flop down on the edge of my bed.

He approaches slowly then sinks to his knees in front of me.





Caleb

I sink to my knees in front of her, needing her to see me, and place my palms on her smooth, bare knees. It doesn’t occur to me to ask permission, but when she doesn’t pull away, my heart encourages me to power forward.

“God, Abby, I’m so sorry.” I risk a glance at her face, and she’s staring at me slack-jawed. “I’m such an ass.”

Her head tilts to the side as she silently watches me.

“Right after you climbed out that window, when you stormed away, that’s when I found your ring. It was shining in the sun, and I went to your cousin’s. He would have given it to you, but—” I run a hand under my hat, nervously before I continue “—I wanted to see you again. So I kept it.

“At first, I had it in my pocket. You know, just in case I ran into you. Then, when I finally did see you out, either I was with Blaze, or my friends, or I was just ashamed to admit I had it. That day you stormed out of the yard, and I walked you home, all I could think about was being in that moment with you.”

As I babble on, Abby’s lips part on a sigh when I run my large hands aimlessly up and down her bare thighs, stroking them gently.

“It didn’t even occur to me after that. Well, okay, maybe it did a few times. Not even when you were in my room; because you were in my room. Clearly I did not handle that well.” I clear my throat. “When you’re around, I become… God, I don’t know. Not that the ring wasn’t important—that isn’t it at all. The truth is you’re literally all I can think about. I forget everything else—I f*cking adore you. I want to make this work.”

“Abby?” Pausing, I let out a deep breath, wishing she’d say something. “Abby? Is this making any sense, or am I f*cking this up, too?”





Abby

He says my name in a tortured whisper, and I watch, spellbound, as his big, strong hands caress my legs.

I’m so stunned I don’t even know what to say. Everything I know about boys does not add up to this moment.