Page 26

I laugh a little. Instead of giving him the towel, I assist him dry off by rubbing his face and then cleaning his upper body gently.
He is very handsome, even if he is covered in perspiration. When the towel touches his abs, I feel my cheeks flush.
He must have seen that I was nervous because the next thing he does is help me put the towel around his shoulders. My fingertips touch his naked flesh, and I get shivers down my spine. I’m ready to pull away and release grip of the towel, but he stops me from doing so. Instead, he grabs my wrists with both hands and wraps my arms around his shoulders.
I don’t sure what to do in this uncomfortable situation, so I softly stroke him on the back of the shoulders. I hope he doesn’t see that my hands are trembling a little bit because we’re so close.
“Something I’ve been wanting to do,” he replies, his voice scratchy.
I wrinkle my brows in perplexity. I whisper, “What is it?”
He swallows, and I can see that he’s frightened too. His neck muscles move.
He touches my chin with two fingers, which scares me. He squints, as if he’s really thinking. My heart races as his fingertip touches my bottom lip.
“Hey, lips,” he murmurs.
My heart is racing even faster. He’s looking at me and trying to remember me in his head.
“Lips,” I say again, and my lips tremble a little because I’m feeling so many things.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes. When I blow air on his thumb, I can hear his breath shaking.
I can feel his fingers moving up and caressing my nose.
“Nose,” he adds, and I can’t help but smile.
“Whisper,” I say.
I open my eyes to see how he feels. He is looking at me quite closely.
He says “Eyes” again as his fingers touch the region under my tear ducts.
I can hear the sadness in his voice. He sounds like he’s in a lot of pain.
His grey eyes become hazy. I’m looking at their, and he’s looking at mine, but only I can see.
His grey eyes are the most beautiful and interesting. I could look at them forever and become lost in them. Now, grey is my favourite colour. I have no question about that.
Tears make my eyesight fuzzy. “Eyes.” I nod, and that’s when a tear falls on his finger.
It scares him. “Don’t cry,” he adds, brushing away my tear.
I hold on to his shoulders more tightly to calm down, which brings his face closer to mine. We know how close we are to each other, but none of us can draw back.
“Emily, may I…” He stops in the middle of his sentence, and it seems like it hurts him to say the following words.
My heart is beating in my chest. What may he do?
“Can I kiss your lips?” he says quietly.
The butterflies in my stomach are going crazy. I take a bite. “Yes.” My voice is so soft, but I’m sure he can hear it.
I can’t believe I just said that.
He coughs. “I might not be good at it. I’ve never done it before.”
“I haven’t done it either,” I respond honestly.
I never anticipated that Liam Carter would be my first kiss.
I don’t know how he feels about what I told him. I’m going crazy trying to figure out what he’s thinking.
Liam also seems really apprehensive. I close my eyes and his face tightens. I can feel his nose meet mine next.
I open my eyes wide and shout, “Wait.”
He stops right away.
“Don’t worry about what the girl you’re going to kiss for the first time looks like.” I’m so scared that I’m talking like a mess. “Just think that you’re about to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world.”
What the heck am I saying? I wish I hadn’t said what I did, but it’s too late.
Liam laughs quietly, which surprises me. My eyes get bigger. I’ve never seen him grin before, and nothing could make me feel better than I do right now.
“Oh my God.” I take a breath. “You just smiled,” I say it like I can’t believe what I saw.
This is the first time I’ve seen it.
Liam too appears shocked, but then his eyes light up. I want to remember the sparkle in his eyes and how happy he was for the rest of my life.
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” He smiles in a way that shows he finds it funny. “I don’t think I ever did it in the last nine years.”
When he leans in and brushes his lips against mine, I can’t help but close my eyes.
Our first kiss is a little awkward. Looking around. Like the first taste of being free.
“Your lips are so soft.” He murmurs against my mouth, and his voice shakes.
Liam is talking like the sensation is too much for him, but he should know that I feel the same way.
I kiss him back with all my heart. We kiss each other back and forth for a long minute till he pulls away. My stomach hurts. I’m worried that he doesn’t like it enough.
But as I open my eyes, I know why he stopped all of a sudden.
“I’m so sorry for denying you.” He grits his teeth.
My heart races as he kisses me again and again.
Emily Fiat is the end of me.
The concept keeps coming back to me. It doesn’t leave my head, even when I have to train my warriors the day after Emily and I kissed for the first time.
I’m back in the boxing ring, but this time the basement is full with people. The masses scream, yell, and chat like crazy.
People are watching me battle with the Eagle Wings members I choose. I can hear some of them putting money on somebody they think will beat me. The people who made that dumb bet must be new since anybody else should have known that no one has ever beaten me in a one-on-one combat.
My heart beats faster and slower as I wait for the next person to challenge me. As I sense the guy ascending up the ring, the audience gets louder. I drink a lot of water from my water bottle and look him in the eye.
I can hear him breathing and feel the weight of his feet hitting the earth. This one doesn’t seem big or heavy, but it doesn’t feel little either. He’s not very good, but he is certainly angry since he’s panting.
His nostrils flare like a bull’s, and I don’t know why. When we quarrel, it’s generally the other way around. Most of the time, I’m the one who’s mad.
But after kissing Emily yesterday, I don’t think anything can make me feel bad. Damn god, I can still taste her lips on mine.
I still have a strong sensation of heaven in my head.
I hadn’t felt so happy in a long time.
But it also seems so big that I can’t help but be afraid that when I wake up, it will simply be a dream.
A gentleman yells to start the fight, and exactly like I thought, my opponent runs towards me like a crazy person. He moves quickly, but I’m quicker since I’ve been practicing all the time for years. My other senses are five times greater than a regular person’s, and martial arts is my therapy. Anyone who picked a battle with me would be a fool to think they could beat me.
Just as his punch is about to hit the side of my head, I duck. I take advantage of that single second of his unbalance to go low and kick his feet, which makes him fall to the ground with a loud thud.