The Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold

✖ Chapter 30 ✖

PART FOUR: THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES IS MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE

It was like I woke up from a long, deep slumber.

That night it had been hard to take our hands off of each other, but we accomplished that enough to get back on the bike and leave before anyone saw us. Sawyer parked it a couple of blocks away from my house and we walked hand in hand in the night. It smelled of damp earth and grass and we didn't say a thing. We just enjoyed the moment. In my front porch he stopped for another kiss that had me gripping his shoulders tight, because it felt like the floor had vanished under my feet and I was just falling and falling.

When Sawyer pulled away he was chucking. Offended I asked him, "What?"

Even with only the dim lights of the street I could see that his eyes were twinkling as he lowered them. I gasped as I realized that at some point my traitorous hands had decided to explore, decidedly detached from my brain, and they'd made their way under his shirt. One was up against his chest and the other one all nice and cozy agains his side.

I gasped and tried to pull away, saying, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

His hands curled around my wrists, holding mine in place. He leaned down closer to my ear and said, "You have my full permission to touch me." As I looked up at him with wide eyes he took great pleasure in adding, "Anywhere you want."

I yelped and pulled away. "A-Anyway, it's late and my parents must be worried."

"Aurora," he said, holding my hand as seriousness took over him. "I mean it, but I want you to know that I won't assume the same from you unless you say it."

My heart twisted. It hurt enough to make my eyes water. I blinked back tears, because I knew I shouldn't start crying over this. This was a good thing. It meant I didn't have to worry that Sawyer thought I'd automatically agree to anything.

I took a shaky breath and said, "Thank you. I'm just not ready yet."

"I know." He leaned forward and gave me a sweet peck on my cheek. His long eyelashes lowered as he looked down, pondering whether to initiate another kiss. With a shake of his head he gave up on the idea. "I'll see you tomorrow."

When I eventually recovered enough to step into the house, I had to school my features into something that looked like I'd had a long day and didn't want to talk. Not at all like I'd had the single most amazing afternoon that I could have ever dreamed of. It wouldn't have worked if papa and mama had been alone, waiting for me, but Toni had kept them distracted as they chatted up a storm about baby names. We didn't know the sex yet, but like good latino parents, mine were already proposing the names of all of their ancestors. When I walked out of the kitchen with a glass of water and a sandwich they asked for my opinion.

They all looked at me expectant. They truly thought I had been paying attention. It was probably best to pretend I had, to avoid questions about why I hadn't. So although I wanted to run upstairs and lock myself up in my room to scream into my pillow, I joined the ridiculous discussion that was running way longer past my bedtime.

Despite the short and restless sleep, when I arrived to school that morning I felt like a new person. As soon as I saw Lina, I pulled her away from the arms of her boyfriend and dragged her with me until we found Courtney. Then I told them everything, and this time I spared no details. I started by telling them about my first date with Sawyer, all the sweet moments and earth shattering kisses, and I built up to tell them what I'd discovered about Lexie Cooper. The day had been so full of activity yesterday that I'd only managed to give them the gist.

Now, though, now was the time to make a plan. I asked them, "What do you think we should do?"

The tale had been so long that the three of us were huddled together in the middle of class, talking about it even though we should be working on a group assignment.