Page 39 of Apple of My Eye

Chapter Thirty-One

Eloise

Things I Would Usually NEVER Write Down, But I Can’t Seem to Focus on Anything Else

– Sliding a finger under the waistline of Nick’s jeans

– Nick’s breath in my ear

– The pads of Nick’s fingers

– The stubble on Nick’s chin scraping against my inner thigh

– The feel of Nick’s lips pressed to my forehead

– The way his eyes light up with gold when he smiles

‘Yep. I, Eloise Anderson, want to declare a truce with you.’ I fidget where I’m standing, the two of us pinned up against an apple tree.

He’s stooped ever so slightly to avoid hitting the branch above his head and to lean a little closer to me.

Shari’s voice memo runs through my brain again and all I’m thinking about is how good it would feel to have some of her energy.

I would explain it to Nick, but smelling his signature combination of cinnamon and mint is stealing all my concentration.

His eyebrows pull together. ‘This feels fishy.’

‘It’s not,’ I protest, hoping he doesn’t press.

How am I supposed to explain that this is all I’ve thought about since the County Fair?

I like him too much to ignore him completely.

And I’m rationalizing it by needing to know how the Parkers are doing in U-Pick season.

I would rather know sooner than later if my plan will be blown to smithereens. The anxiety of it is killing me.

‘OK.’ He looks at me, grinning. ‘I would really like that, then.’ He leans in slowly and I relax into the tree, letting my weight shift ever so slightly forward until our lips just barely touch.

Just like before, the slightest graze of his lips sends electricity buzzing through me, but now there’s no one to interrupt us.

Nick kisses me deeply, so deeply I feel it in my toes as they curl into my work boots.

Has he somehow gotten better since the laundry room?

God, how have I been living without this?

My lips part of their own accord, inviting his tongue in.

He’s greedy all of a sudden, one of his hands is on my lower back and the other is on the nape of my neck and God, he feels amazing.

My back is scratching against the tree but I don’t even care, I can hardly even think about anything other than this kiss .

I reach around for his lower back, snaking one hand up the back of his shirt and sliding two fingers in between his pants and his skin, skimming the ridge of his underwear.

He presses his hips into mine and I feel him getting hard.

I gasp into his mouth and he sucks on my tongue, wetness gathering between my legs.

‘God, Eloise,’ Nick pants in between kisses.

My body feels so much like a live wire I can’t even form words.

Suddenly, Nick pulls away. ‘Maisy!’ he screams, sending us careening apart, my head slamming into the branch above me. Confused, I squint at Nick, who has already taken off running, so quickly that he’s almost run right into a tree across the way.

‘Nick!’ I yell, chasing after him. He thuds to a stop at the end of the row of trees and I crash into his back, sending us both skittering forward, finally coming to a stop right in front of a giant pink pig, who is nosing around in the roots of a tree.

‘We have to corner her,’ Nick whispers, ‘sometimes she gets out, but she’s too heavy to pick up, we have to corral her back into her pen.’

‘All the way into her pen?’ I exclaim.

Nick’s eyes widen, sheepish. ‘I don’t know how she got out.’

Working together, slowly, we stay on either side of Maisy, gently nudging her all the way back up over the hill, towards the Parkers’ barn.

Every time she starts to stall, nosing at a tree or snorting at Nick, he talks to her softly, like she can understand him, asking her to please keep going.

His earnest tone sends me into a fit of giggles every time.

Halfway up the hill Nick reaches for my hand, intertwines his fingers with mine, and squeezes.

Clink.

I look up from the book I’m reading, confused. I cock my head at the door. Mom and Dad went to bed not long after me, I heard the usual rhythms of the house shutting down, their door closing, the creak of their footsteps across the floor.

Clink .

It’s coming from the window. My stained-glass window. My favorite window. I take a step towards it and pause, listening for the wind. Is it breaking? I take another step so I’m right up in front of it, just in time for a pebble to sail straight towards my face.

‘Shit!’ I exclaim, ducking as fast as I can. Clink .

Trying to stay as quiet as I can, I take the stairs two at a time until I’m easing the front door closed behind me.

‘Nick!’ I hiss into the darkness. ‘That better be you.’

‘Who else would it be?’ Nick appears, a shadow morphing into his strong stature as he gets closer.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘We didn’t get to finish what we started earlier. So .?.?.’ He thrusts his hands in his pockets and shrugs sheepishly.

‘So you thought I wanted more?’ I tease.

‘Well, you did declare a truce.’

‘Oh, come on.’ I reach for his hand and thread my fingers through his, pulling him towards me. ‘Be quiet. And no more throwing pebbles at my window. It’s stained glass! It’s fragile!’

‘Promise,’ he whispers. He follows me diligently, even stepping over the third stair like I do, which is a small miracle because that’s the one that creaks the loudest.

‘So, this is your room?’

I nod, suddenly embarrassed at the state of things. There’s laundry covering a threadbare armchair and my vintage purple lampshade is tilted. I shift my weight from foot to foot.

‘I love it,’ he says. He takes a turn around the room, picking up the book I had left on the bed. ‘What’s this?’ he asks.

‘No.’ I go to grab it but I’m too late, his eyes are already widening.

‘Wow,’ he says, ‘I didn’t peg you for .?.?.’

‘It’s really popular,’ I whisper defiantly, fully aware that my cheeks are bright red.

I was just reading a scene about a sexy warrior’s first tryst with a cursed prince and based on Nick’s face I’m confident he skimmed straight to the part where the warrior suggested they take things even further and explained what she was looking for in great detail.

‘It’s .?.?.’ He gulps. ‘.?.?. it sure is something .?.?.’ He places the book down gently and sits down on the bed.

I remain standing, feeling vulnerable being in such close quarters with him with no warning, suddenly wondering if I left moisturizer on my face accidentally or if my hair is a mess from getting ready for bed.

‘Do you want to sit?’ he asks. ‘Or I can stand?’ He gets up, his body rippling as he pulls himself to his full height. I forget how tall he is when we’re standing in the fields, not hemmed in by anything. But in my room he looks so large. ‘I’m so sorry for just coming over here.’

‘No, don’t be,’ I tell him. ‘I’m happy you did. Sit back down.’ I climb onto the bed next to him, so we’re facing each other but we’re not touching. The air between us is filled with tension.

‘Have you found out if your brother’s coming this weekend?’

‘No.’ I shake my head. ‘No idea.’

‘I hope he does. I’d like to meet him.’

‘I’m excited to meet Julian and Isaac.’

Nick rolls his eyes. ‘They’ll love you.’

I pick at a loose thread on my bedspread. ‘Are you excited to see them?’

He nods. ‘They’re my best friends .?.?. I don’t know if I told you this but right before I started graduate school I hit a rough patch.

Just not really sure why I was going back to school, what my purpose was.

’ He shrugs. ‘They helped me through it. Didn’t even need to ask them, they just picked up on something being off and started coming over. Isaac even called my mom at one point.’

I reach over and grab his hand, anything to help the sad expression that overtook his face go away.

‘They seem great.’ I rub a thumb over the top of his hand. ‘I can’t wait to meet them.’

‘Yeah,’ Nick sighs. ‘They’re different than what you’re used to around here, but they’re good people.’

We talk about everything and nothing for what feels like hours, our conversation evolving from Nick telling me about his college shenanigans with Julian and Isaac to me telling Nick more about Evan (although I don’t tell him how big Evan’s crush on him is).

Before I know it, we’re lying side by side, staring up at the ceiling in the dark, one of my legs underneath one of his and my head on his chest. I can hear his heart beating, and by how fast it sounds I know he isn’t ready to go to sleep either.

I turn to face him, our noses brushing in the pitch-black night.

‘Eloise,’ he says softly, ‘I can’t believe how much I like you.’

I lean forward and kiss him, finally , and he wraps his arms around me, pulling me closer.

Our bodies press together, his mouth all over mine, and I feel his heart beat even faster.

Somehow his lips get sexier every time we kiss, hungrier, softer, he bites my lower lip and I pin my hips to his.

All I want to be is closer. All I’ve wanted, all day, all month, is to be closer to him.

His hand slides towards the base of my neck and he gently teases his fingers into my hair, leaning my head back and pressing kisses to my throat, trailing them down towards my chest as I writhe with pleasure.

‘Nick,’ I murmur. As his mouth presses delicate kisses in a trail towards my breast, his other palm slides from my hips to the swell of my breast and his thumb circles around my nipple.

His hand is calloused, rough from weeks of work, and feels desperately good against my skin.

I arch into him and when he kisses my nipple, his tongue flickering the sensitive tip, I moan so loudly that we both freeze.

A barn owl hoots outside.

‘Eloise!’ he admonishes, but I don’t have to see his face to know he’s pleased.

‘I’ll be quieter,’ I promise, ‘just don’t—’