Survivor (First to Fight #2)(4)
He lets me go to embrace his family and I step behind him, giving them room to welcome him back. I look around, lost in thought, and my gaze settles on the women walking around us, a couple of them a few years older than me, nearer to Jack’s age than mine. They smile and eye him appreciatively and suddenly I feel like a little girl caught in dress up, not quite old enough to play these adult games.
Are those the kind of women that he’s around when he goes out with Ben and his friends? I watch them walk away, keenly aware of their confidence and worldly air. I’ve never been out of Florida. I’ve hardly even traveled away from our small town of Nassau. How could I compete with women like that? What does he even see in a girl like me when he has options like that?
I bite my lip as he swings an arm around my shoulders. “I’m starving. Where are we going to eat?” he asks his mom.
“One track mind,” Livvie says.
“We made you your favorites back at home,” his mom replies. “Consider this your day.”
“Yeah,” Livvie says. “Because tomorrow I declare to be my day.”
“Every day is your day.” Jack ruffles her hair and kisses her forehead. “I missed you, brat.”
Livvie smiles back up at him. “Missed you, too.”
His parents file out in front of us with Livvie detailing to them exactly what she wants for her dinner. A cocoon of intimacy surrounds us, even in the middle of the crowd. The arm he’d thrown over my shoulders pulls me close enough so that he can press a kiss to my hair. My eyes close and a sweet ache takes up residence in my chest and pulses throughout my body.
“I missed you, baby.” His voice is steady and deep. Intoxicating. God, he puts me under his spell just by speaking.
“I missed you, too.”
“Anything exciting happen these last couple weeks?”
I bite my lip, the words threatening to spill over. I swallow them, determined to let him have at least one good day back. “Nothing much, really.”
“I’m sure Mom and Dad have something planned for tonight, and I have to help out at the gym tomorrow, but I want you to come with me. Hang out for a while.”
“I’m all yours,” I say.
His eyes darken and he pulls me closer.
“Son, I’m going to get your bags from the line while your mom and sister pull the car around,” his dad calls from the hall in front of us.
“Thanks, Pops,” he answers, his gaze still intent on my face. His heartbeat races under my palms and mine trips over itself to catch up. He can’t seem to stop touching me, rubbing his hands over my arms and down the exposed line of my back. In the pause between his dad’s words and their departure, every naughty word he whispered to me during our video chats comes rushing back.
His family breaks apart, going in their separate directions and leaving us alone. Jack tears his gaze away from me and glances around. He spots whatever it is he’s looking for and pulls me behind him, towards an empty corner. He has a knack for finding deserted spaces.
My blood heats and pools low, replacing the uncertainty and doubt. This, we’ve never had a problem with. I can lose myself in this. He drops his backpack and cages me against the wall, his easy-going expression suddenly replaced with what I can only describe as savage need. The change is so swift and shocking that I don’t resist when he presses me against the cool tile of the wall, even though I can hear people just a couple feet away. His body is hot, so very hot, and rock hard when it comes into contact with my own.
Feelings that I can’t even begin to describe riot through me, but the one thing that I do recognize is simple. Need. I crave his touch to erase my worries about our rapidly changing future, to fill the empty parts inside of me.
One hand slides up my back, the material of my dress riding dangerously high as it catches on the roughness of his palms. The other cups my neck and jaw to bring my lips to his in a desperate kiss that conveys a hundred nights worth of separation and want.
My own response shocks me. I make a frantic, surprised sound against his lips as my arms go up and around the broad shape of his shoulders to pull him even closer. His lips don’t even bother with gentleness. They plunder, forcing mine open. Our teeth knock together, and I think I forget to breathe at some point.
He pulls back a little and I look at him, my brain suddenly fuzzy and drunk. His nose rubs against mine and he says, “That didn’t even take the edge off. God, you taste even sweeter than I remember.”
I grin at him, my earlier reservations forgotten. College, the future, and responsibilities can wait. I bring his lips back to mine and steal as many kisses as I can before his family gets back. Before reality can ruin this one perfect moment.
There are three things I love most in this world, and two of them I can probably live without.
The other smiles up at me. “Shouldn’t we be getting back soon? Your dad’s gonna notice we’re gone at some point.”
I kiss her breathless, mostly to taste her again, and the rest to stop the conversation from going anywhere near my dad. Sofie groans and her fingers dive back in my hair, tugging a little, just the way she knows I like it.
We probably should head back soon, before someone does search us out, but I can’t seem to muster up any f*cks to give. Not with her body all hot and soft beneath my searching hands. Especially not when she sucks in a breath and her fingers tug me closer. Seeing my family was great, but I’ve spent the past six months dreaming of touching her. I’ve only been home for twenty-four hours, but I’ve spent as many of those with my hands on her as I can.