Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 92368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“And are you?”
“What?” He turns his face to me.
“Godlike?” Because, from where I’m sitting, you sure as hell look like one.
Zeus’s eyes hold mine for a long time. “No,” he says softly. “I bleed just like everyone else, Dove.”
The ride comes to a stop, leaving us stationary at the top.
“Ride must be over,” Zeus muses, looking over the edge. “They’re letting people off.”
I feel a spike of sadness that it’s almost to the end. I could stay on here with him forever.
Something wet hits my nose. Then, my forehead.
“Is it raining?” I say right as the heavens open. I mean, they open wide. It’s pouring down.
“I’d say so.” Zeus laughs.
“Jesus! I’m getting soaked!”
The shelter over the top of the car is doing nothing to shield us. I can hear the other people on the wheel squawking out their dismay over the sound of the music playing.
“Come on. Move, Mr. Ferris Wheel,” I chant, now wishing for the ride to hurry up so that I can get off it and under some shelter.
Zeus pulls off his jacket. “Here, put this over your head,” he offers.
“You’ll get soaked.”
“I’m fine. It’s just a bit of rain.”
“Share it?”
“Okay.”
He holds the jacket over our heads, and I have to move in a little closer to get us both under the shelter.
I look up, and his face is so close to mine. I can see the droplets of water on his face. Feel the heat of his breath on my cheek.
I somehow register the song that’s currently pumping out of the speakers on the ground below.
“Do you think it’s a little ironic that ‘Umbrella’ is playing while it’s raining like the Great Flood is about to start?”
He purses his lips in the most adorable way. “That, or fate.”
“Fate?”
“Mmhmm.”
“How so?”
He’s staring at my lips, and it’s making my heart beat faster. My pulse is racing off, sending adrenaline shooting through my veins.
His gaze lifts to mine. “I have no clue.”
He smiles, eyes dancing with humor, and I laugh.
God, he’s gorgeous. And I can’t stop staring at him.
My breaths are coming in shallow, and I notice his are, too.
I inhale, and my lungs fill with him. That heady, spicy smell of his mixed in with the cool scent of rain does crazy things to me. Hormones are setting off inside me like rockets.
Water trickles down his cheek, catching on his upper lip.
And I really want to catch those raindrops with my lips.
So, I do.
I don’t know what comes over me, but without a second thought, I lean in and press my lips to his.
Shit. I’m kissing him!
And…he’s not kissing me back.
I make a strangled sound in my throat as I pull back at the realization of what I just did.
I kissed him, and he didn’t kiss me back.
Can I please die now?
God, I’m so freaking dumb. Of course he’s not interested in me in that way. He’s older and gorgeous. He could have anyone.
“Oh God,” I groan, covering my face with my hands. “I’m so sorry, Zeus. After my big don’t-try-to-cop-a-feel lecture, I attack you with my lips. I really don’t know why I did that.” Well, I do. He’s hot, and I’m stupid. “Can we just pretend that never happened?”
“No.”
My heart pauses. “No?” I lower my hands from my face.
The shield of his jacket is now gone, and he’s staring at me with this intensity in his eyes that makes my toes curl up in my sneakers.
“No.” He slides a hand around my cheek, cupping my face. “Even if I did want to pretend it never happened, which I don’t, I wouldn’t be able to. Because it’s scorched in my memory.”
“Scorched in your memory in a good way?”
“The best way.”
He smiles, and I feel like I’m falling or floating or something.
Rain trickles onto my lips. He catches it with his thumb, making me shiver.
His eyes focus there, and my insides are swirling like a whirlpool.
“Are you going to kiss me?” I whisper.
“I want to…”
“I hear a but.”
His eyes lift to mine. “You’re fifteen. And I’m seventeen.”
All my good feelings come to a halt. “And?”
Silence stretches between us.
He hasn’t stopped looking at me, and I don’t know what this means or what I’m feeling. All I know is that I want to be with him. This guy I’ve known for only a short period of time. But he’s making me feel things I’ve never felt before, and I want to keep feeling them.
“And”—his lip lifts at the corner, giving me that gorgeous smile of his—“we’ll take it slow, Dove.”
“Whoa! Slow down, Gigi.”
My little ballerina comes flying past me in the kitchen, doing a running leap, and I catch hold of her and scoop her up into my arms. She wraps her tiny legs around my waist.
“Mommy.” She frowns at me, disapproving, that cute little dimple appearing between her beautiful brows. “I was pwacticing my leaps.”