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“Come on. Come here,” he moves to stand, extending his hand as I shift to the side.
Taking his hand, I push up to my feet, take a deep breath and drop my shoulders in defeat. “Where?”
“Doc is good right? Like you trust him and believe in him?”
“Yeah,” I nod. “The best.”
“And Zeke is gonna make it, right?”
Doc interrupts, “Boys, he’s gonna be just fine. I promise. In fact, I’m almost finished here.”
“Okay,” Cole nods as he gives me a knowing glance. “Let’s get all this blood off of us then,” he motions between us and I look down at the deep crimson that stains our shirts and denim equally.
“Go ahead kid, I’ll see myself out when I’m done. Just make sure he gets a lot of rest while he heals. He’s going to need it. You know the drill, call me if he shows any signs of infection or if you all do something stupid and he rips his stitches.”
Cole’s thumb rubs soothing circles on the back of my hand, settling the wave of sadness inside of me, while I take in doc’s instructions. Turning around, I lead him down the hall toward the bathroom. Flicking the light switch, I let go of his hand to turn on the shower. As the water warms, I turn back to Cole and I notice his eyes are darker than usual.
I feel like there’s a million words I should be saying right now, but none of them would be the right combination to let him know how much guilt I feel for everything that happened tonight. He knows though. I can see it. Without me uttering so much as one of those one million words, he somehow knows exactly what’s going on in my head, and his eyes tell me to stop.
We stare each other down, both of us waiting for the other to do something, or say something. The tension in the air is palpable as I watch his chest rise and fall in tandem with his short, staggering breaths. Making the first move, Cole grips the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head, and I follow suit. Next come his pants, and when they hit the floor, I’m suddenly hyper aware that I’m seeing every last inch of his perfect, unmarked skin for the first time and it’s fucking breathtaking. With shaky hands, I unbutton my pants, letting them fall to the ground as Cole brushes past me, stepping into the shower.
The water hits his skin, rolling in thick droplets down his body, drenching his forest green boxer briefs that cling to his body like a second skin. I step in behind him and before my brain can compute what’s happening, Cole is spinning me to face the opposite direction and sudsing my body with body wash. In the midst of all this chaos, when I should be making things better for him, he’s taking care of me in a way that makes my head spin.
Beneath the scalding stream of water, he continues to cleanse my body in silence, making my heart thrum quickly in my chest. There’s nothing sexual about it, but his touch is full of so much care, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in this life. Turning around, I face Cole and he looks at me with this expression in his eyes that I can’t quite figure out.
It’s something that I need to know though.
“What’s going on in your head?” I blurt out.
“You love him, don’t you?”
“I do,” I sigh, as I take the shower puff from Cole’s hand and load it with body wash. “But it’s not like that for him,” I gulp as I run the suds across Cole’s body. Cleansing off the cracked, dried blood from his neck and arms.
“Yeah it is,” Cole smirks.
“No, he won’t let himself,” I sigh.
“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel it,” Cole sighs. “You can’t control feelings, Riot. They don’t work that way. You can pretend like they don’t exist, you can bottle them, but you can’t stop yourself from feeling them. And he showed up tonight Riot, that’s huge. It’s love. Trust me.”
I’m not really sure what comes over me, but the shower puff falls from my hands, I slip my fingertips across Cole’s chest, sliding my hand behind his neck. His mossy colored eyes are sparkling and before I chicken out, I pull him toward me, crushing my lips into his.
He kisses me back softly, slowly. He meets my urgency with deep, steady movements, and I savor each nano-second of time that our lips move together. My stomach flip flops nervously as Cole runs his hands down my sides, settling on my hips.
Kissing Cole is different from kissing Zeke.
Kissing Zeke is like chasing the storm, driving straight into the eye of the tornado. The walls wildly whip and thrash, destroying everything in its path, but there’s a calmness in the center that everyone wants to experience. The thing is, few ever make it there alive.
Kissing Cole is like basking beneath the double rainbow when the storm is over. The winds have calmed, the birds are chirping, and the sun is shining down on you, filling you with an indescribable warmth.
And me? I’m a fucking storm chaser through and through, but I’m also learning that I really love the aftermath too.
Chapter twenty
Cole
“Tell me something about you, Riot. Something most people don’t know. Something real.”
Riot’s fingertips skim through the strands of my hair as he gazes down at me. Stretched across the couch, my head rests on his lap while I look up into his bright baby blues. The television playing in the background serves as nothing more than white noise, static filling the quiet air. After everything that unfolded in that parking lot, neither of us could sleep, so we turned on a movie, but it was clear after about fifteen minutes that neither of us were actually watching the movie.