Page 18 of Riding the Line (Willow Ridge #2)

Cherry

Tentatively, I step towards the Ferris wheel. When my foot lands on the metal platform there’s a quiet creak of metal, making me freeze. God, why can’t Ferris wheels be made of something sturdier like goddamn concrete ?

I’m motionless, one foot on the platform, the other on the grass, while Duke just watches me softly, hand still hovering in the air.

After a beat, he sighs – but it’s not condescending, nor one of impatience; instead, there’s something akin to understanding behind it.

‘Look, if you don’t want to, we don’t have to.

Having fears doesn’t make you weak, Cherry.

It makes you normal . Everyone is scared of something, but that doesn’t make us less strong, no matter how irrational some fears might be.

I’ll still think you’re amazing, regardless of whether you get on this ride or not. ’

How does he know what to do and say to me like it’s second nature?

‘What’s yours?’ I find myself asking.

‘Mine?’

‘Fear.’ I let my eyes wander around the metal contraption above me. ‘You said everyone is scared of something.’

A small crease appears between his brows as his gaze drops to the floor. He contemplates for a second, Adam’s apple bobbing before he admits, ‘Losing anyone else. Not having the people I love around me anymore. I’ve lost too many. I’ll do anything to make sure I don’t risk that.’

Considering that I’m not sure Duke even tells Wyatt much about his mother or grandfather, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve his vulnerability. Regardless, he’s given me his, so it’s my turn to give him mine.

‘Okay, let’s do this.’ I try to push all irrational thoughts from my mind as I march past Duke and clamber into the first pod.

My limbs tense up, spine curling, as the pod starts to wobble from my added weight, and again when Duke gets in.

I force my eyes closed, focusing on my breathing and trusting Duke to lock up and secure us in.

It’s only when I feel his weight settle beside me that my eyes shoot open again, instantly examining the wheel.

‘Shouldn’t you sit on the other side to balance out the weight?’ I ask, legs bobbing. Can’t we have a count down or something so I know when it will start?

‘Hey, look at me.’ Suddenly, Duke’s warm fingers are wrapping around mine where they were fidgeting in my lap, intertwining them until they’re locked together in a bind that feels scarily permanent.

Like even if we were freefalling, he’d never let me go.

My eyes shoot open to find his. And then he says, with a squeeze of my hands, ‘I’ve got you, Baby Hensley. ’

His words knead out my taut muscles. My surroundings start to blur in my periphery as I focus in on Duke’s dark, tender, unyielding stare.

The same stare I kept catching landing on me at speed-dating last Thursday.

I can’t pretend that night, him sitting with me, hasn’t been on my mind ever since.

It hit me so hard, like slamming straight into a brick wall, how I’ve never enjoyed talking with a guy as much as I do with him.

Or laughed as much. Or had my body flushed with as much heat as when I’m around him.

With Duke, everything I feel seems magnetised . And I’m wondering if I’ll ever find that sensation in all these other places I’m searching.

Suddenly, a loud, metal clang vibrates through the wheel as it starts to move, rocking the cab in a way that has me scrunching my toes like I stupidly might be able to hold on tighter through my boots. Nausea bubbles in my stomach as we slowly climb into the air, my legs shaking faster.

‘I’m okay, I’m okay,’ I whisper to myself.

‘What’s a firework kiss?’ Duke asks abruptly. His fingers pulse against mine, dragging my attention back to him.

I breathe out raggedly, ‘What?’

‘A firework kiss.’ I swear his eyes dart down to my lips once, neon lights faintly reflecting in them. ‘It was on your bucket list. I don’t know what it is. Tell me.’

Oh, yes, the last item before the list descends into the most chaotic sexual inventory that only emphasises my lack of sexual experience. Which Duke has regrettably seen.

Why is he asking me about this now? Considering how put off he was when he read that list, and how adamant he was about ensuring I knew him helping me with the bucket list did not include anything sexual.

‘It’s, um … a kiss where you feel fireworks.’

Duke slides slightly closer, tugging on my hands that are still harboured within his. One of his thighs lightly brushes mine, his warmth seeping into my bones. He echoes, ‘ Feel fireworks ?’

I chuckle, a little exasperated at having to explain this to him. ‘Yeah, like when you, uh, when you kiss them it feels like a thousand fireworks going off inside of you.’

Little does he know sometimes all I need is for him to smile at me to feel that. I can’t imagine the kind of marvellous explosion that would come from the touch of his lips against mine…

‘Hm,’ Duke hums, gaze dropping to my lips again.

An orange glow slowly lights up his side, shining against his cheekbones and dancing in his eyes.

I’m mesmerised by the way it brings out all the shades of brown in his irises I don’t normally get to see in the dark lighting of the bar.

‘And how does one achieve that exactly?’

My laugh comes out high-pitched. Heat crawls over my skin and up my spine at the way Duke’s still watching my mouth, as if he’s trying to imagine the experience I’ve described. My cheeks flame as I admit, ‘I—I wouldn’t know. That’s why it’s on the bucket list.’

‘You’ve never imagined having one?’

Only with you.

‘Well, sure, but—’

A metal creak sounds and—

‘Tell me what it would be like.’ His rough command makes my back straighten. Fuck, that voice did more to me than I expected.

‘I … I guess it would have to be a long time coming. Something you’ve both been wanting for ages.’

His responding noise of contemplation is more like a growl. I imagine that sound echoing in my ear, the hairs on the back of my neck standing at the sensation.

‘So, it probably wouldn’t be soft ?’

‘No …’ I’m breathless at his words. Warm honey drips down my spine.

‘I think it would be—’ I stop to swallow, my mouth watering at the images flashing into my mind of Duke’s lips crashing against mine ‘—hard. Rough .’ The last word has his pupils completely blowing out, nothing but darkness filling his eyes. ‘Like you’d grab each other and …’

Duke wets his lips; his voice laced with gravel. ‘Hey, Cherry?’

‘Yeah?’

There’s a tightness to his jaw as he says, ‘Look to your left.’

It takes longer than I’d care to admit to drag my eyes away from Duke’s mouth but when I do, wonder flushes through my body, softening every muscle until I’m pliant and all-consumed by the scenery ahead of me.

The sky is a melting pot of pastel pinks, purples, and oranges, small wisps of cloud dappled across it all like drops of candyfloss.

Inky mountains cut through the sugary skyline, a platform for the golden sun that’s beginning to set behind them, raining deep orange rays between their peaks and flooding the valley below.

Pinpricks of starlight break through the top of the sky where a faint stroke of darkness begins.

It’s goddamn breathtaking. I want to take a photo, but I don’t think anything could do this moment enough justice.

‘Look at that, a big thing for a small one,’ Duke whispers to me, squeezing my hand.

It’s then that I realise we’re still holding hands.

That we’ve stopped moving. In fact, I think we might have stopped moving a while ago, but I just hadn’t noticed because I was too entranced by thinking about kissing Duke.

By his full, hypnotising lips. The kind that I know would bring my body to life with a single touch.

I think … all of that was on purpose. A distraction to keep me safe from the climb until we reached the reward.

But how could I have been so scared of this ?

I don’t care how high up we are if this is what I get – able to see the golden-drenched town of Willow Ridge from the heavens, as if I’m an emerging star, readying myself to gaze upon and watch over the beautiful world below.

My skin tingles, limbs becoming lighter as I let my eyes trail over our surroundings.

But it’s not from fear, not the usual faintness that sweeps through me on rides like these.

Instead, it’s power . Aliveness. A strength that only comes from realising how great and vast the world is, how insignificant your worries and fears really are in comparison.

‘How are you feeling?’ Duke questions, his thumb running across my knuckles in a way that sparks through my body. He hasn’t let go yet…

My response is on the tip of my tongue, so unfamiliar, the only word I can use to describe how I feel right now.

Because it’s a sensation I haven’t experienced in years, one I almost don’t dare to say through fear I’ve misunderstood what it truly is.

But with the security of Duke’s hold on me, the golden sunset dousing me in its radiant warmth, and the knowledge that I survived – I got on this Ferris wheel and rose to my fear’s challenge, it feels only right to reply, ‘Invincible.’

And I carry that feeling through the rest of the night.

Through the climb down, and back up again in the Ferris wheel with the rest of the crew, proving to my brother exactly how strong I am.

Through letting loose as we dance to the lively music played by the country music band, allowing my body just to be free and do what feels right, never thinking that it’s too weak.

And through the drive home, curled up in the backseat of Wyatt’s truck with Rory and Fliss, relishing in every time I catch Duke glancing at me in the rear-view mirror.