But I want to with you so, so badly.
He’s the only person I’ve ever even thought about doing it with, and that’s just crazy. I barely know him at all.
“So, you wouldn’t ever… I mean… I don’t know what I mean,” he stammers out while turning around to hide his flustered nerves.
“Maybe one day, if you stick around for a while,” I say to answer the question I can only assume he was trying to ask, and I feel his lips back against mine.
I smile against the kiss, and my hands tangle in his hair as he grips me almost too tightly.
“I’ll be around for a long damn time, Aria. I'm not going anywhere."
Mmm. Good.
“Don’t let my mother interrogate you, and I mean that literally.”
I'm blocking the door I know my mother is hiding behind, praying this doesn't turn out to be a disaster. He stifles a laugh, and then he shrugs.
“She’ll learn to love me,” he says too cockily, and I accidentally show him the grin I was trying to suppress.
It’d be hard not to learn to love you.
His eyes soften, and his lips find mine in front of the room holding my mother and my very intimidating stepfather. He always has a damn grenade dangling from his belt like a badge of honor... or a badge of what’s to come later rather.
Jase starts laughing, and I pull back from our broken kiss to show my confusion.
“What?”
“You taste nervous, baby,” he murmurs while kissing my forehead.
He called me baby again. That’s it. I’m officially mush.
He smiles bigger, and then he tugs on my hand as we walk into the room. The long, dark hair hangs past my mother’s bra line just barely as her eyes study the man on the other side of the glass. Uncle Brazen’s arm is snaked around her waist as she leans into him. It’s as though they can’t keep their hands off each other, but then again, I sort of know that feeling these days.
I feel the cool, soft lips pushing against my forehead, and my stepdad turns around just in time to see it.
“What the hell?” he grumbles in surprise.
I stifle a laugh, and Jase smirks. Suddenly Uncle Brazen’s eyes widen as he stares at Jase a little closer, and he shakes his head with a grin.
“Boy, are you in trouble,” he chuckles out.
In trouble? What does that mean?
Jase’s eyes widen, and the two men seem to share a silent conversation as my stepdad turns back around and nudges my tuned out mother.
She slowly turns her head just enough to see me, and she lunges over to wrap me up in a hug.
“Oh, I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t start telling me the whole story,” she scolds.
“Whole story?” I muse.
She draws back, and her eyes narrow at me.
“The landmines? I heard you were launched toward them, but you used your gift to land at a safe distance.”
Whew. I was worried she was talking about my fucked up power I used once to stop the hearts of hundreds of men.
“Oh. Sorry. Minor detail,” I say while shrugging, but she has lost interest in stories about work and life and... stuff, as she stares at my hand being held by the incredibly sexy full blood on my left.
