Fall Back Skyward (Fall Back #1)(45)

Pure torture.

Exquisite.

Perfection.

It’s everything that is Cole Holloway, a quiet yet powerful storm, which could wreck me.

Break me.

Mend me.

I swear this boy will be the death of me.

His hand leaves the nape of my neck and now he’s cupping my cheeks, slowing the kiss, taming the hurricane currently destroying every little fragment that makes me who I am. I open my eyes and lean my head back, as his mouth slides down my neck, across my collarbone, before he pulls back to stare at me.

“Hi,” he pants.

“Hi,” I reply, twirling the hair curling on his neck. I bury my face in his chest. Feel his heart beating frantically to the same rhythm as mine.

I close my eyes and smile.

I could live on that kiss alone.

Cole cups the side of my neck, caressing my jaw with his thumbs as he searches my face. His eyes are filled with something akin to bewilderment, bordering on wonder. And then he shakes his head and kisses my forehead.

“Thank you.” He mouths the words on my skin and I can feel them imprint themselves in my soul. The soul that he owns.

Unhooking my legs from around his taut waist, I slide down his body, and suck in a breath as his erection pushes against my stomach. I land on shaking feet. Cole doesn’t let me go yet. He readjusts my dress, then deftly brushes my hair back with his fingers before pulling me back into his arms, wrapping them around me. Cole doesn’t just hug me, though. He has a way of holding me, and just when I think he’s about to drop his arms and let me go, they tighten around me. Firm yet gentle. I love it. I’m sure he invented this kind of hug.

A Cole kind of hug.

He ducks his head to meet my gaze and asks, “Can you walk?”

I jerk my head up and feel heat burst on my cheeks at the look on his face. I’m afraid if I open my mouth to speak, I might start whooping in joy.

I nod and grin. “Dude. You’re lethal.” I still can’t believe this quiet boy kissed the living crap out of me. The quiet ones are always the most dangerous, I guess.

One side of his mouth tips up. I’m beginning to get addicted to that smile of his. He steps back and shoves those hands that tilted my world off its axis inside his pockets.

Cole kissed me.

Cole hugged me.

Cole kissed me.

“See you later.” And hopefully we’ll create a storm of kisses again.

I wave and turn around, literally skipping out of the room and ignoring the freckled boy gaping at us. With Cole’s taste still fresh on my tongue, I press my fingers on my lips and grin.

He tastes like what my dreams are made of. I like it.

“That look suits you,” Megs announces, startling me out of my thoughts.

I glance up and see her smiling wide. She and Simon exchange a look. Simon scowls, darts a look in the direction I came from, then back at me.

“Damn it,” he says, shoving his hand inside the back pocket of his shorts and pulling out his wallet. He pulls out a ten-dollar bill and slaps it on the counter toward Megs, who is now laughing hard.

“What’s going on?” I ask, feeling the heat in my cheeks fade a little.

“I told him Cole would kiss the shit out of you. Simon said he wouldn’t. We placed a bet and I won. How could Cole not kiss you when he gets this moony look in his eyes whenever your name pops up in a conversation?” She winks, grabs the money on the counter and tucks it inside her bra.

I don’t even know how to react to this, but the look on Simon’s face is priceless. A giggle sneaks out of my mouth, followed by another one. Soon Megs and I are laughing hard. Simon’s lips twitch as he fights a smile. When I finally stop, Megs walks toward me and hugs me too tight.

“It’s so good to see you laugh, Nor,” she whispers in my neck.

I hug her tighter, basking in this friendship. “I promise to laugh more often then,” I say, pulling back.

“That shit would be hot if you two didn’t look as if you’re having a soap opera moment,” Simon says from the other side of the counter.

We turn to look at him as he waggles his eyebrows.

I chuckle and shake my head, too happy to even form any kind of reply. “I’m ready to check out those dresses you were talking about.”

“Awesome.” She sashays around the counter. Simon grins like he can’t stop himself, his face lit up with his feelings for Megs. Grabbing her hand, he drags her to an alcove which is mostly hidden from the public, shackles her wrists with one of his hands and slides them above her head before he kisses her. Oh my God, he kisses her like he wants to consume her whole.

My face starts to heat again at this passionate display, so I yell, “I’ll be in the car, Megs,” while turning around and heading out the door.

Once I’m seated inside my mom’s old Station Wagon, it hits me that Cole probably wasn’t just giving me a lesson in ASL. He asked me out for coffee.

Well, at least I hope he did.

I roll down the window to let out the heat in the car and wait for my friend, and my thoughts go back to what happened in the book nook. I shiver all over again, feeling a tingly-warm feeling settle low in my stomach.

I’ve always wondered what steamy, heart pounding kisses feel like. Cole knocked the ball out of the park with that kiss.





MONDAY MORNING, I JERK AWAKE at the sound of a bird chipping merrily outside my window. I turn my head to check the time on the clock on my nightstand and fly out of bed.