sakura
I gently laid my hands upon Callan’s wet chest and moaned softly against his mouth, warmth exploding through my body. He sucked my bottom lip between his teeth and slipped his tongue between my lips.
Pressing my thighs together, I moved closer to him and found myself crawling into his lap. I straddled his waist and sat on his thighs, taking his face in both of my hands. While I had never kissed anyone and feared that I was doing it all wrong, Callan continued to kiss me.
“God, Sakura,” he groaned into the kiss.
My heart pounded as my breathing became more ragged. I wanted to kiss him forever.
He placed his hands on my hips and curled his fingers against my waist, deepening the kiss even more. His mouth moved hungrily against mine. And what had started as a simple brush of our lips turned into something more.
This wasn’t just a kiss.
This was my first kiss, my first taste of him.
Callan had been my first everything. I just hoped he wouldn’t be my first heartbreak too.
After a few more moments, I pulled away to catch my breath and rested my forehead against his. My chest heaved up and down. I dropped my hands to his muscular shoulders and smiled softly, a giggle bubbling up in the back of my throat.
What we had was physical, but it felt like … more.
Our heavy breaths filled the car. Callan closed his eyes softly, and they stayed closed, his fingers still digging into my waist. He drew his nose up mine until our lips met again, but even gentler this time.
“Sakura,” he murmured.
I pulled away slightly and cupped his chin in my hand, lifting it so I could gaze into his eyes. Lightness fluttered in my stomach, and I wondered how it’d feel to be with him as an item. Not just … like this.
Would the sex still be the same? What about his kiss? His touch?
He lifted his head so he stared right up at me, a soft and almost-vulnerable expression on his face, one that I had never seen before. No stress lines. No angry, furrowed brow. No disappointment.
Ease. Peace. Serenity.
While I had made him look up at me, the moment I stared into those deep eyes, I froze. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and fuck this all up, nor did I want to make him regret kissing me. Right here, right now … it was the most I’d felt alive.
“You look so calm,” I whispered, gliding my fingers across his forehead to push his hair off his face.
Staring up at me, he followed my gaze with his eyes. And somehow, his expression softened even more. “I am,” he said, pulling my waist closer to him so our bodies were flush together. “I don’t get many nights like this.”
“What? Sitting in the back of your car at the Overlook?”
He chuckled. “No, Sakura. Without constant nagging, screaming, shouting. This is nice.”
Screaming? Shouting?
Callan had only raised his voice to the class a couple of times. I couldn’t imagine him yelling at anyone. But maybe … he was talking about his wife doing that to him.
Is that why he has been sneaking around with me? Has she hurt him?
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, not wanting him to become upset.
I didn’t even want him thinking about her.
When he didn’t respond, I sat back against his thighs and gazed out the window.
Always ruining things, Sakura.
Rain pounded against the windshield, lightning shooting through the sky. I didn’t want to go, but it was getting late.
“I should get going,” I whispered.
He tightened his grip on me slightly, then looked over my shoulder at the dash. “It’s late.”
But as I reached for the door handle, he stopped me and sat me on the seat beside him. He popped his trunk and scurried back to it, rummaging around in the rain. A moment later, he opened an umbrella, then my door.
Quietly, he walked me back to my car, holding an umbrella over my head and letting himself get soaked yet again.
After he opened my car door, I slipped into the driver’s seat and smiled up at him. “Thank you.”
He nodded, then held out his hand. “Give me your phone.”
I slipped my phone into his hand and watched him type in his number.
He handed it back to me. “See you at school, Sakura.”
My smile turned into a full-on grin that I couldn’t hide. “Bye.”
Once he shut the door and walked back to his car, I started the engine and pulled off the curb, heading in the direction of home. Thoughts were racing through my mind, my stomach fluttering with all sorts of giddy emotions.
When I reached a stoplight, I hummed to myself and glanced out the driver’s window, lost in my own little world. A motorcycle pulled up next to me, and Kai Koh—a member of Redwood’s most cutthroat gang—looked over at me and nodded.
Yes, nodded.
My gaze drifted from him to the girl sitting on the back of his bike. Her arms were tight around his waist, her coiled brown hair emerging from the back of a black helmet. She leaned closer to him to say something, and then the light turned green.
They whizzed ahead of me on the bike, but I didn’t mind.
All I could think about was Mr. Callan Avery. My Literature professor.
I turned onto my street and drove toward the house. I didn’t know how the hell I’d get inside with my hair and skirt soaked while wearing a shirt that my parents had never even seen before, but I’d have to find some sort of excuse.
After I turned off my car, I sat inside it and just smiled. I wished I had a best friend—besides Ichika—who I could talk to about this. I had so much to gush about, so many feelings to confess.
Callan Avery kissed me tonight. He kissed me!
And not the sorta heat-of-the-moment kiss, but softly and slowly.
Like that little moment had meant something to him.