Mountain of Courage

Chapter Nineteen

I had been having the best Thanksgiving of my life, the best holiday of my life, and, actually, the best night of my life.

In a very perfect, magical moment, I believed Jake was going to kiss me. Then he left so that he 'didn't do something stupid'.

Of course he thought kissing me would be a mistake! How could I have ever hoped for otherwise?!?

After he left, I stared at the door he had ran out of, then I started sobbing my heart out.

Jake didn't want me. I was disillusioned. I had known I was going to get hurt. I knew it but I let myself traipse down this path regardless. I was pathetic and stupid. I had ruined everything and he wouldn't ever want to see me again, not even as a friend. How could he? This was so embarrassing! I had thrown myself at him and it hadn't even worked. I had no skill whatsoever at being seductive. I was a massive embarrassment to myself and to women everywhere.

So caught up in my sobbing I was that I didn't hear my front door opening until it fully opened, giving me no time whatsoever to compose myself as Jake burst in and found me there in my misery.

...........................................................................

Jake didn't know how he was going to rectify what he did but he knew he had to try. He flew down the hill to Riley's house faster than he had left and burst in her front door to find her exactly where he had left her. The tears on her face and the anguish in her eyes confirmed what Jake had feared. She thought he wasn't attracted to her, that he thought the idea of kissing her was stupid.

He went to her, planning to comfort her, to explain. The way she looked at him as he approached- a mixture of pain and hope in those huge clear green eyes...it was too much. It stirred up the feelings in himself that he had been squashing for months and those feelings swallowed up all thought.

Like a magnet being drawn to it's opposite charge, his hands reached for her face. His thumbs wiped the tears from it, then he leaned down and kissed her.

He kissed her- on the mouth- like he wanted to, like he meant it, like he had wanted to for a very long time.

It was gentler than he had ever kissed anyone, and it evoked feelings in him he couldn't exactly remember feeling before, familiar though not quite like this.

She kissed him back, instantly, with no hesitation.

He didn't let go, couldn't let go, as the kiss progressed. Her hands were gripping his wrists as his held her face.

Her soft lips parted and he slid his tongue against hers- so soft, so gentle, so sweet.

This was worth whatever fresh hell of repercussions would follow.

She removed her little cold hands from his wrists, wrapped them around the back of his neck, and pulled his face deeply into hers.

Whatever control over himself he may have had up to that point broke loose.

He slid both of his hands down the curves of her back, grabbed her butt, squeezed it, and lifted her up onto the kitchen counter they were next to.

Then she was unbuttoning his shirt and he was pulling his arms out of it. He hadn't even gotten it off all the way before she had the bottom of his t-shirt, pulling it up to his chest. He lifted his arms as she pulled it over his head.

He found her mouth again and ran his hands all over her upper body as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He gently grabbed a fistful of hair at the base of her skull to pull her head back gently, exposing her neck to him as he trailed his kisses down it. She lightly dug her nails into the bare skin of his back.