True Colors (The Masks #1)(32)
His warm, breathy words were followed by two tender lips. They pressed against mine, soft, sweet and magical. There was nothing hungry and demanding about it, just a warm kiss that sent my brain cells spinning to Pluto. Closing my eyes, I melted into the kiss, running my fingers around the nape of his neck and into the back of his hair.
I couldn’t believe this was actually happening to me. Eric Shore was kissing me. Not my idea. His!
His tongue skimmed along my bottom lip. It felt natural to respond, to let him in, so I deepened the kiss, the pleasure of his tongue against mine sending shivers down the back of my legs. I wanted to pull him on top of me, to feel his weight pressing me into the beanbag, but I’d never be that bold. Not with him. I didn’t want to come across as some hungry slut. His hands stayed on my face, his thumbs gently running up my jaw before he pulled away and leant his forehead against mine.
He didn’t say anything, just looked at me with those dancing eyes. I grinned back, that giddy feeling winning the giggle battle. I let out a breathy laugh.
“Aunt Caity, what are you doing?” Brody’s question made me jump. My forehead collided with Eric’s and we both sat back with a groan.
“Sorry. Sorry, are you okay?” I winced, keeping my eyes squeezed shut so I didn’t have to look at him. He’d never want to kiss me again.
“I’m fine.” I heard him move beside me and then felt him tug on my hand. “Hey buddy, I’m Eric. Your Aunt Caity’s friend.”
“Hi.”
My eyes opened in time to witness the cute bashfulness of my four-year-old nephew. I walked past Eric and took Brody’s hand.
“We were just hanging out.” I ruffled his hair. “You go back to bed and I’ll come tuck you in again.”
“I can’t find teddy and Mommy says I’m not allowed to turn the light on after I go to bed.” His voice was small and fragile.
I kissed his nose and held his chin. “I’ll be up in just a sec. We’ll find him together. I’ll even let you turn the light on.” I winked.
He grinned and waved goodbye to Eric before padding towards the stairs.
I turned back to my gorgeous neighbor, suddenly feeling shy. Tucking a curl hair behind my ear, I tipped my head and walked towards him.
“Your head okay?” I tentatively reached up to rub the pale red spot on his forehead.
He bent down and kissed mine. “I’ll survive.”
“I guess you want to go.”
“No, not really, but I think I probably should.” He took my hand as we walked towards the door. “Hey, do you want to go surfing with me tomorrow or walking or I don’t know...exploring? There are some great hikes up around the San Bernadino area if you could spare a day. Or we could drive up the coast.”
“I love all those options.” I couldn’t remember if I had any plans. My brain went blank the second he invited me out.
“Okay, cool. I’ll come over around nine?”
I nodded, probably way too enthusiastically.
He gently squeezed my hand and I’m sure he was about to kiss me again when a little voice from upstairs stopped him. “See you tomorrow, Caity.”
“Bye.” I closed the door behind him and leaned my head against it.
Holy wow.
Chapter 15
“Where were you yesterday? I called like three times.”
I knew I shouldn’t smile, Stella was really annoyed, but every time I thought about Sunday, I couldn’t help it. Eric had collected me right on time and driven me to the San Bernadino National Park. We had talked the whole way, not one second of silence. I found out all this cool stuff about him, like the fact his ex-serviceman grandfather took him away for an entire summer, up into the mountains and taught him all about surviving in the wild. Eric was having some anger issues to do with his non-existent father and his grandpa had basically saved his life. Teaching him how to get the anger out by running, climbing, surfing...even boxing, which I thought was weird, but Eric said it helped. His grandpa moved in with them and stayed for around six months until Eric learned to channel his energy in more positive ways.
Once we got to the hiking trail, Eric spent the next few hours asking about me and my family. We talked all day. I don’t think I’ve ever talked that much in my life, and I loved every second of it. There was never an awkward pause between us. The whole day was just...easy and the goodbye kiss was...
I grinned.
“Hello! Earth to Caitlyn!” Stella waved her hand in my face.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “My cellphone was out of range.”
“How?”
“I went hiking.” I shrugged.
“Did Toby drive up from San Diego?”
It was a good assumption. Whenever my PE teacher brother came up he always forced me into surfing or hiking. I liked to complain, but secretly loved it. Stella would spaz out if she knew I’d been with Eric, so I went for casual.
“I didn’t go hiking with Toby. It was just a family friend.”
Not a 100 percent lie. I could live with that.
It was enough to appease Stella who I could read didn’t give a rat’s ass about my family friend. She was too annoyed and hurt that I hadn’t made her the central focus of my weekend. I should probably feel bad about that, but for some reason it just pissed me off, which totally helped stunt my guilt over the whole Eric situation. On Saturday night while I was trying, and failing, to fall asleep, I had toyed with the idea of cancelling with Eric, not wanting to cause waves with Stella. I'd started to freak out that Stella would somehow find out and go ballistic on me.