parents and Grampa Jack and for everyone being healthy and…and for a boy who took pity on a girl with a broken heart and showed her that all guys aren’t douchebags and who makes her feel happy again.”
I took a swallow of rum and waited for him to say something.
“Seems like we have a lot to be thankful for,” he said, swirling the liquid in his glass. All the things unsaid between us hung in the air like smoke.
“Oh, I’m also thankful that I’m alive. I don’t know how I forgot that,” I said. “Being alive is important. Unless you’re a vampire.”
“Haha.”
He put his glass down on the table and sighed.
“I’m sorry about the Ric thing. I feel even shittier about it now that you’ve done all this.” He waved his arm around.
“It’s okay. I forgive you, and I’m pretty sure she’s scared of me now, so that’s not a bad thing.”
“Was your mom pissed that you came back?” I wished he hadn’t changed the subject. I’d rather talk about Ric.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t talk to her before I left. We had our usual yelling match and then I went to my room with Kayla and then I left. I just couldn’t be in that house anymore with her. I’ll call her tomorrow.”
“You think she’ll ever see me as anything other than a troublemaker?”
Probably never. “She might. We’ll see,” I lied.
“So are you telling me that I have to take out my eyebrow ring, and my lip ring and cover my tattoos and dye my hair a respectable color?”
“No!” I couldn’t even imagine him that way.
“Oh, so you’re saying that you like all of this,” he gestured up and down. “Interesting.”
“It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I can’t imagine you being like that. Being like everyone else. You’re not like everyone else.” I leaned closer and put my hand on his arm.
“You’re not like everyone else either, sweetheart,” he said, leaning in as well.
We both paused with our faces about a foot apart.
“So,” I said.
“So,” he said coming an inch closer. “There’s one more thing I want to be thankful for.”
“And what’s that?” I came closer so that when he exhaled, it moved my hair.
“This.” He put his hand under my chin and brought my face to his and gave me a sweet, soft kiss. Like the one we’d shared this afternoon, before we’d gotten interrupted.
Funny, that kiss had led directly to this one.
I leaned into him and kissed him slowly. No biting, no tongue. Just two sets of lips trying each other out. Testing. Teasing. I took my hands and put them on his upper arms, pulling him a fraction closer.
He tasted like the spiced rum and faintly of cigarettes. He must have smoked one with Ric. I really wished he’d quit, but I wasn’t going to quibble about something like that right now.
Stryker leaned back on the couch, taking me with him. I braced my hands on his chest as he moved his hands from my chin to my hair, wrapping it around his fingers and tugging it just a bit. The kiss got a little bit more intense, and he took the invitation to slip his tongue into my mouth. I touched his with mine and we began an exquisite slow dance, giving and taking, back and forth, him and me, me and him.
I pressed my body against his and felt him getting hard. He pulled his tongue back and broke the kiss. Both of us took a moment to breathe, and he put his hands under my chin again.
“I’m thankful for that.”
“Just the kissing?”
“For everything. For the way that you feel against me, and for the way you get this little pucker between your eyes when you kiss me hard. For the way you taste and you smell and for…you.”
“I’m thankful for you, too.”
He took his hands and squeezed my boobs.
“These are pretty great, too.”
I tried to be shocked, but he didn’t move his hands away, and started stroking my nipples. Despite having a shirt and a bra between his fingers and my skin, his touch was still setting me on fire.
“This wasn’t some elaborate plan to seduce me, was it?” he said, moving his hands down to my stomach and moving his thumbs in circular motions. It was very hard to think.
“No. I honestly wanted to apologize and Trish said you hated apologies, so I figured food was in order to help you swallow it. Besides, I don’t