“I’ve never seen him before.”
I wait for Wes to launch back into being pissed at me for starting a fight, but he doesn’t do it.
Apparently there are things that even the Sheriff can’t allow. He’s not upset at me for the punch anymore.
Instead he just cleans up everything in the bathroom, then quietly regards me, like he’s being cautious around a rabid dog.
The image of Wes as a child, bullied and ostracized in school, floats through my mind, and I can’t get it to go away.
“What?” he murmurs as he notices me staring.
“Just looking at you.”
He flips me off. “Why?”
“That wet shirt is starting to make you look awfully chilly, Wes,” I tell him before reaching out and giving his nipple a pinch.
He swats my hand away fast.
So I reach back and do it again on the other nipple and I’m shocked when he actually lets out a quick laugh.
His smile is like a tiny glimpse of sun after months of grey. It almost makes me wish I could get him to smile more, even if his scowl is starting to grow on me too.
He clutches his hand around my wrist but he doesn’t push my arm away this time, instead just holding it steady.
“Can’t believe you’re that mad I didn’t text you back,” he finally murmurs.
“Didn’t say I was mad. Just that I want you to unblock me.”
I pull at his wet shirt in a few places.
Teasing him, just a little.
He eyes me like a hawk as I fuck with him a little more and give him a squeeze on his hip.
And then he’s looking at my lips.
His gaze lingers for quite a while on my mouth.
“I’ll unblock you if you quit sending me that many stupid texts,” he finally says, his voice dropping into a lower register.
I can’t be imagining it. The way he’s looking at me stirs something hot in my chest. Like he’s radiating an electric field between the two of us, crackling and alive.
I see it in his eyes again and I realize that it’s not my imagination.
“Weston,” I say softly.
“What?” His voice is quiet, too.
I tread carefully, like I’m trying to win over a scared stray puppy.
“You want to kiss me.”
His eyes flare, almost imperceptibly.
I had meant for it to come out as a question. But it ended up sounding like a statement of obvious fact:
Of course you want to kiss me.