Page 46 of We Are Yours

I mouthed, “Your ex?”

He laughed, smiling widely. “She wishes.”

I didn’t know how long our gazes stayed connected. It was the kind of stare that etched into your skin, burning into you. No words were exchanged until he spoke with actions, simply letting me go.

I shook off the side effects of what could only be described as hurricane Kraven.

He reached behind me to grab a red Solo cup, filling it more than halfway with vodka, and then threw in some of the club soda.

With a nod, he handed it to me. “Has your name on it if you want it.”

I appreciated that he wasn’t pressuring me into drinking, giving me the choice. Usually, I would have turned it down. However, the tension was consuming me whole. I had to shift my mindset into another timeline to make it out of there with my sanity intact. I took a sip and immediately cleared my throat from the strong taste burning its way down my chest.

He knowingly smiled, hopped onto the tailgate beside me, and placed the bottle between his legs.

“My apologies,” he remarked in a smart-ass tone. “I got a loose hand.”

Suddenly, I felt all warm inside, and I didn’t know if it was from the liquor or how close he was sitting next to me. Our legs were pressed up against each other, and I could smell his intoxicating scent.

Taking another sip of my drink, I laid his hoodie beside me and threw on my scarf, wrapping it around my neck. He lifted the bottle to his lips, taking a long swig. Setting it back between his legs again, he gulped it down like a pro.

The silence between us was deafening as we just sat there, lost in our own thoughts. I never wanted to know what he was thinking as much as I did in that second.

I watched the way his lips moved with each rapid breath that blew out of his mouth, knowing his thoughts were racing as fast as mine.

I watched as his hair blew in the wind, framing his defined face and intense stare, which was fixed solely on the horizon ahead of him.

I watched the way his solid, muscular chest heaved up and down, mirroring mine as if they were in sync with one another.

When he casually brushed the hair away from his face, he still didn’t say a word, which was unlike him since he was usually trying to get a rise out of me. I chugged my drink, this time trying to forget about the past I couldn’t change and the future I didn’t know.

* * *

And the present that was coldly sinking its teeth into me.

Chapter

Eighteen

Isla

I stifled a grin when I saw Kraven looking at me over the rim of his bottle, his gaze filled with nothing but curiosity. We sat there, tossing back drink after drink.

My lips tingled.

My face was on fire.

My body was numb.

Neither one of us spoke, though it was starting to feel like we had expressed a lot.

It was the first time in forever that I felt so carefree, throwing my head back and laughing, enjoying the way the booze made me feel, and understanding why people got lost in it so often.

Peering up at the sky, I decided to fall back onto the bed of the truck to get a better view.

Kraven asked, “What are you doing?”

I pointed above at the same time a shooting star flew across it.