Page 46 of Rapunzel Is Losing It

I stared up in his vibrant green eyes, as I swallowed, as I let him pour cold water down my throat while my own limbs were lost to my nervous system. I couldn’t have moved them if I wanted to.

“What triggered it?” he asked and set the glass down on the counter. His thumb brushed over my lip, catching a stray droplet. “Did I grab your chin too hard?”

“No,” my voice came out hoarse, “you did nothing wrong.”

“Something I said?”

I shook my head, my gaze dropping to my knees still framing his hips. “I just got overwhelmed for a moment. I liked the kiss. But when we stopped, and I thought about all the other things we could do, my thoughts were going a million miles an hour.” I sighed. “The solution is obviously that you can never stop kissing me.”

In response he laid a soft kiss to my cheek, and lifted me off the counter in the same breath.

Not the kissing I’d had in mind. I wanted this to be more than a one off make-out session that we might repeat in six years. “I can’t wait until I’m 35.”

His eyelids twitched in that way they did when he tried to catch my train of thought. I just opened my mouth to explain when his lips closed over mine again. Slow, this time. Deliberate. Just enough for my breath to stutter and the hairs on my arms to stand up. “We will do this. Properly. You have to give me some time to figure things out with my family, but I promise, it won’t be another six years. But Cordelia?”

“Yes?”

“I know you. I want you.Whenwe do this, I’ll be all in. I’m not doing casual with you. We’re not going slow.”

My ribcage suddenly felt too small for the big, bright, fluttering feeling in my chest, and the only way I could let it out was by smiling. Smiling so wide, my cheeks hurt in an instant.

I could give him time. He could have all the time in the world if, at the end, we could have more of this.

“Alright,” I whispered, nodding with my nose brushing against his.

“Alright,” Victor said.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Well…fuck.

How the hell was I supposed to go on after kissing Cordelia Montgomery?

Nothing about the two kisses we had shared before compared to the one from last night. Last night, she had kissed me like she meant it.

The feeling of her thighs clamped around my hips had been haunting me for the last twelve hours. That raspy plea formorereplayed on loop in my brain. Cordelia Montgomery had completely eradicated my ability to think straight.

I’d eyed the gym equipment for two seconds before I figured that I’d end up crushed by weights because my mind was adamantly focused on how careful her tongue had explored mine.

Swimming was easy. My head underwater, my arms and legs moving on their own, I allowed myself to stay in the memory.

At least until I spotted a bright pink spot on the side of the pool.

I stilled halfway down the lane and wiped the water from my eyes.

Cordelia tilted her head, hands gathering all her smooth hair on one side as she regarded me. She was actually trying to kill me. I couldn’t think of a single other reason why she would stand there in sequined little shorts that revealed every inch of skin from her thigh crease to her ankles.

“Are you avoiding me?”

I shook my head.

“You missed breakfast.” She lowered herself to the floor, letting her legs drop over the edge of the pool.

“Last time we kissed, you stopped eating. You couldn’t be in the kitchen at the same time as me. You have to eat.”

“Okay but last time I was embarrassed. I’m not embarrassed about last night.”

“I’ll be there for dinner,” I said and swam up to her, my hands gripping the pool’s edge on either side of her knees. “How’s your shoulder?”