The way his eyes lit up, I couldn’t say how ridiculous it sounded. “Okay.”
Ollie squeezed my thigh. “Close your eyes, Mia.”
Chapter Eighteen
“How do you do it, my love?
My haven is in your heart and
my shelter is in your arms.
When your eyes find mine,
they give me refuge from the storm.
Did you know I’m homesick without you?”
—Oliver Masters
LATER THAT NIGHT, Ollie reached for my good hand to pull me up through the vent to go back to his room. I couldn’t wait for my hand to heal completely. Two more weeks.
“You ready?” Ollie asked as he propped himself up on his hands and knees in the vent. His hair was in chaos since he’d showered earlier; not an ounce of grease held it down. He wore his gray joggers and a black tee, but his perfect white smile was the best look on him.
I sat up, and he crawled over me until my back met the foundation. “I have to steal moments where I can,” he whispered, and after patiently waiting to be alone together, two pairs of longing lips touched in urgency from holding back for too long.
His mouth moved eagerly, seizing his moments and giving me life all at once. His tongue brushed mine greedily, yet savored the taste of me as he rushed then slowed his speed, unable to make a decision. He was fierce and calm concurrently. He tugged my bottom lip, sucked and kissed before crashing his tongue to mine once more as quiet moans came from his throat.
Ice and fire. Winter and summer. Ollie and Mia.
He brushed his nose against mine, and across my cheek until he found my neck.
“Okay, I think we’re ready now.” I giggled as he breathed into my hair.
“No. I don’t want to go back. Let’s hang out in your room. Fuck, I’ll stay right here all night. Who cares about them, anyway.”
Not me. Well, Jake had grown on me. “If we don’t show, they’ll know something is up.”
Ollie groaned into my neck before raising himself by his arms. “Our first night back together of not being together …” He hung his head before picking it back up to face me. “I know it will be really hard, but you have to keep your hands off me. And don’t tempt me, my love. I struggle to hold myself together around you as is.”
This made me laugh and blush all at once. “Oh, yeah?”
Ollie smiled. “Yeah, and if I come on strong, you have to push me away. You have to. You’re stronger than me.” I knew he was serious, but he couldn’t force away his smile even if he wanted to. “Or, we can always get drunk and blame it on the alcohol.”
He was happy—we were happy.
“This is the last night,” Ollie informed the room after helping me down through the hole. “I can’t have any of you showing up anymore.”
“What? Why?” Bria complained, wearing her notorious crop top and booty shorts.
Ollie glanced over to me as I leaned back against the wall beside Jake and passed over the liquor bottle without taking a sip. Isaac, Bria, and Alicia all watched Ollie, awaiting a reply.
“Because it’s not worth getting caught,” Ollie stated clearly. I peered up at him as he rested his hands over his hipbones. His hair was in disarray, his smile still burned, and his natural sun-kissed skin glowed against his tattoos.
Bria lifted a curious brow. “But you never cared before.”
“I had nothing to lose before,” Ollie countered. He was growing impatient and becoming defensive. His smile was withering. Don’t let her get to you, Ollie.
Bria rose to her feet and narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you have to lose now?”
Ollie ran his hand through his hair and grasped the ends. The tension in the room was undeniable. “Everything.”
When Ollie spoke, which was rare amongst others, he had the ability to silence the world around him. Not because he wanted people to listen, but because people wanted to hear. His voice was smooth, his tone deliberate, and each word delicately considered. It was music—no, it was poetry. Yes, each time Ollie opened his mouth, he silenced the world with poetry.
“Fine, then tonight we’re going big. You’re drinking, Ollie,” Bria said, walking over to him with the liquor bottle in hand. “You too, Mia. None of that skipping shit.”
“Bottoms up,” Isaac added amongst Bria’s influence, speaking up for the first time since I’d arrived.
Ollie glanced down at me as I sat pinned against his wall and I raised my shoulders in a half-shrug. We were doomed either way; at least we could end the night making out and blame it on the alcohol like he’d suggested.
The music played in the background, liquor circulated between us and through us, and Jake and I couldn’t restrain our laughter as Alicia awkwardly danced around a drunken Bria.
Bria’s attention rested on Ollie, and from the look in her eyes, and Ollie’s eyes on me, something told me she knew what was going on between Ollie and me. “Who’s up for a game of strip or dare?” she asked with her hands in the air. “I’ll start.”
She shimmied out of her little shorts to reveal a black lace thong underneath. She had no boundaries. None. I had used to be bold, and I supposed a part of me was still daring in a way. I wasn’t exactly sure anymore—stuck between the girl I once was and the girl I hoped to be. A girl who experienced feelings. Real feelings. A girl who cried and showed emotion. A girl who was inspired to love herself because a boy loved her.
“I’m not playing,” Ollie said, and Bria marched over to him and raised him off the mattress by his arm.
“This is our last night, Ollie. You’re playing.” She dragged him across the room and tugged him down beside her on the floor. “Okay, since I stripped first … Ollie, strip or dare?”
Ollie withdrew his shirt and leaned back on his hands. The birds along his ribcage and up his back moved as his muscles flexed. It had been too long since we’d been intimate, and it took all the strength I had not to climb over his lap and have him right then and there. Ollie met my gaze and winked at me from across the circle. “I want you,” I mouthed to him like he’d done to me before. His cheeks flushed, and his smile resurfaced.
“Alicia, strip or dare?” Ollie asked with a lingering smile on his face.
“Dare.”
“Change clothes with Jake.”
Alicia and Jake swapped looks before they scanned each other up and down. Alicia only wore a tank top and little spandex shorts while Jake wore long sleeve flannel pajamas.