Echoes Between Us - McGarry, Katie Page 0,77

what?”

“This. If you want to do this, have this conversation about why I was upset, about why you’re upset, we will. But once we do, at least once I talk, nothing will be the same between us again and I’m not ready for that yet.”

Sawyer’s gaze flickers around my face as if he’s trying to find the secret way into my brain so he can read the thoughts I so desperately want to keep hidden. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t? Because I do and I think you do, too. You’re holding my hand and I’m holding yours and we’ve snuck out in the middle of the night to be alone to share our deepest thoughts, but we’re both terrified that those deep dark secrets are going to mess everything up so why share them? Why share them now when, if your eyes hadn’t tracked over my shoulder to Leo, you would have kissed me and I would have kissed you. We can talk another time, Sawyer. Whatever it is you have to tell me will still be there in the morning. But tonight, I need you to kiss me.”

SAWYER

My heart beats wildly. Kissing Veronica is my dream, but I never thought it could be a reality and I try hard to focus on rational thought instead of this driving need. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she says as she angles herself toward me.

“But we do need to talk.” I need to do the right thing.

“We will, but can you let me have tonight and then we’ll worry about the rest tomorrow? If you don’t want to kiss me—”

I cut her off as I cup her face with both of my hands. Her skin is so incredibly soft. Her mouth beautifully perfect. I’ve never wanted anything more than her lips against mine. I look straight into her eyes as doubts war within me.

If I kiss her then I talk to her, will she regret it? If I talk to her and she does change her mind, I’ll regret that I let this moment slip through my grasp. I lean forward and her lips are so close to mine. I take a breath in, and her sweet scent envelops me.

“Veronica,” I murmur in a plea to help end this torture of my indecision or to give her the opportunity to run.

“Let’s live tonight,” she whispers as if she can hear my internal struggle. “I want you to kiss me, Sawyer. You. It has to be you.”

And it has to be her. I close the distance between us and press my lips to hers. An explosion in my chest, in my brain, and heat races through my veins with how warm she is, with how soft. Her mouth moves with mine. In question, in hunger, and when she takes my bottom lip into both of hers, I’m lost.

Our mouths open, our tongues dance and her arms twine around my neck. I caress her cheek and then allow my hands to roam. Along her back, into her hair and down her sides. Veronica shivers under my touch and presses tight to me, crawling onto my lap, leaving no space between. Her lips leave mine, graze down my cheek and we’re both breathing at a frantic pace.

“Let’s keep kissing,” she whispers in my ear then nips my earlobe. A new type of rush enters my system and it’s stealing all thought from my brain. “Just kissing, nothing more. But I don’t want to stop. Not yet. I just want to keep doing this.”

I nod my agreement. Her hands find my hair and her fingernails lightly scrape along my scalp as she presses her lips to mine again. A maddening heat rolls through my bloodstream—a rhythmic current begging and pleading for more. With the way Veronica holds on to me, she’s feeling the same driving pulse. I could kiss her forever and that’s exactly what I do.

VERONICA

Sawyer held my hand on the car ride home. We didn’t say much. We listened to the radio, we kept smiling at each other, and we kept holding hands. His fingers would slide against mine, I would trace his knuckles, and my heartbeat would rise with just the mere thought of kissing him again.

Taking the corner toward my house, I catch a glimpse of myself in the side mirror. My lips are swollen from the hours of kissing, my hair rumpled in way that shows I’ve been properly kissed and I’m almost terrified to look at my neck as I’m ninety-nine percent sure