The Space In Between

by Melyssa Winchester

  It’s about to be forbidden.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Christmas 2014

  Christian

  How long has it been since I saw a house done up like this?

  There are lights everywhere, from the roof all the way down to the door and surrounding the windows, and the world’s largest inflatable snowman taking up residence on their front lawn.

  After getting the okay from my dad to spend Christmas Eve with Emery and her mom with the sole condition that I’m home no later than midnight, I’d jumped in the truck and made my way here. I’ve been sitting here for at least ten minutes fingering Emery’s present and the bouquet of freshly cut roses I picked up so I wouldn’t be empty handed for her mom, trying to work up the courage to get myself to their front door.

  After falling asleep under the stars with Emery on my birthday, and being woken by what I now call Angry Mom Face, I’m a man on a mission. I’ve got to make this woman believe I have the best of intentions where her daughter is concerned. That I take what my mom and dad taught me seriously and would never do anything to go against it.

  No matter how good her daughter happens to look every time I see her.

  How good she looked that night when we were woken out of a sound sleep, her hair matted to one side while the other roamed free all crazy like.

  Damnit. Imagining her like that is not helping best behavior Christian make his appearance.

  So an assortment of colored roses it is.

  Tapping my fingers on the wheel three times for a shot of good luck, I push the door open and jump down, swiping at my jeans nervously a few times before shutting it behind me and heading around to the path that winds all the way to the front door.

  Rocking back and forth on my heels and lifting my arms to do a quick pit check, I press my finger into the doorbell and shift uncomfortably as I hear it go off inside.

  Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe I should have taken Dad up on his idea of staying in and binge watched stupid holiday flicks on TCM. At least if I’d done that, I wouldn’t have to worry about impressing anyone, least of all a parent that had caught me while I cradled her daughter while we slept.

  Looking up as the door opens and a faint glow of light finds its way out and over me, I smile when I see who it is.

  Emery.

  As always coming to my rescue and saving the day.

  “Come on, Mikey,” she announces after looking past me and scrunching up her nose at the snow now starting to blanket the truck. “Get your butt in here.”

  Taking me by the hand and pulling me in, stopping just long enough to gesture to the shoe mat and waiting as I slip them off, she makes her way down the hall to where I think the most glorious smell in the world was born.

  Also known as my second favorite place on Earth next to being with her.

  The kitchen.

  “Mom, Christian’s here. We’re gonna head up to my room and hang out for a bit while you finish dinner.”

  “Door open, Emery Rose.”

  Grinning at me before turning her attention back to her mom, who I now see has us in her sights, she rolls her eyes, but agrees. “Fine, but just know that if I really wanted to, I could do all the naughty things you think I do with my door open just as easily as if it was shut.”

  Taking off before she can get the payoff that comes from shocking a parent, she leads me up the stairs and into her room.

  Throwing herself back onto the bed once we’ve made our way across the room, she slips her hand out and once I’ve taken it, pulls me to her. My body under the force, falling to the side of her, which once I notice, I immediately rectify by sliding on top trapping her legs in between mine.

  “You were serious weren’t you?”

  “Hmmm,” she ponders with a tap of her chin for effect. “Serious about what?”

  “Doing things with the door open.”

  “Oh, I don’t know, Mikey.” she purrs and before I can respond to how hot she sounds or how badly I want her to say something else to prolong the sound, she lifts herself up onto her hands, crashing her lips to mine and after a few seconds of what feels like her devouring me, I feel her tongue pressing me for entrance.

  Obliging her, I allow my body to sink into hers as our tongues begin dancing together, slowly at first, turning more passionate and deep only when our bodies completely connect and I can feel the soft skin of her back under my fingertips.

  “Mmmm, Mikey, you taste like chocolate.” She moans, her voice as low as before, the sound driving me crazy, the need to have more of her intensifying when she makes contact with my neck and starts to softly suck.

  “Ems, your mom.”

  Jesus. What the hell is wrong with me? I’ve got this beautiful girl underneath me, wanting this connection as much as I do and I’m ruining it by talking about her mom. If my junk south of the border wasn’t already ripping me a new one as her lips separate from mine, my mind definitely would be. Only a complete moron would put the brakes on in the middle of a moment as hot as this.

  “What about her?” she murmurs as she pulls back just enough for me to see her pout.

  “She’s downstairs.”

  “And?”

  “And despite knowing that I want more of this,” I gesture between us. “I also know that you want to do what she said.”

  “Damnit.” She huffs, pushing me off before climbing out around me and making a beeline for her desk, officially ending what might have been the hottest moment we’ve ever had since we got together. “Why do you always have to be right?”

  “It’s a gift, what can I say?”

  Looking at me, but making no move to come back over, she grins before changing the subject. “Speaking of presents, how do you feel about getting yours right now?”

  “I’d say I’m game, but there’s a condition.”

  “Name it.”

  “I get to give you the one I bought you at the same time.” I say, motioning to the end of the bed where I’d tossed both the flowers and her present when she pulled me into the room.

  “You got me flowers?”

  “No. Those are supposed to be for your mom. A make-up present as well as a Christmas one. You know, for what she caught us doing a couple weeks ago.”

  “We were sleeping together on the grass in the middle of the night. It’s not like we were fucking in her bed or something.”

  I’ve heard a lot of girls swear before. I mean, all it takes is walking down a couple of halls in school or really paying attention to the mean girls when they’re pissed off in class, and I swear you’ll have heard so much you won’t feel the need to do it yourself, but with Emery, it’s completely different.

  She doesn’t do it often, so when it does slip out, it’s hot as hell, which does nothing to help my need to keep this innocent.

  “I still feel bad and want to make it up to her.”

  “Well, if the flowers aren’t for me, which they totally should be, what is?”

  Leaning across her bed until my fingers grasp the packaging I delicately wrapped it in, I sit back up, smile and hand it over.

  “Merry Christmas, Emery.”

  Looking from me to the delicate package she’s now holding in her hands, it’s hard not to be overcome with adoration for her with the glow of happiness in her eyes as she starts undoing the paper.

  I’m finally getting to see what buying something for someone that you really care about looks like. It’s beautiful.

  I just hope she likes it and it wasn’t all in vain.

  “Chris—I mean Mikey—no, I mean Christian...” she stammers. “It’s…wow. I don’t even know what to say. It’s gorgeous.”

  Calming the nerves that have manifested themselves in the shaking of my legs and my knees knocking together, I stand and close the distance between us, seeing the shimmer of wetness in her eyes and catching it with my finger before it has the chance to fall.

  “Do you really like it?”

  “No, I don’t like it. I
could never just like something like this. I love it.”

  “It’s not too much?”

  “Of course it’s too much, and I’m pretty sure when you see my present, you’re going to feel the same, but I don’t even care right now because it’s so beautiful. Our names and double infinity. It all makes sense now.”

  Huh? What makes sense?

  “Not following, Ems.”

  “The infinity symbol Jonah caught you looking up. You weren’t going to get a tattoo. You meant what you said. You were just looking the meaning up.”

  “I’m gonna kill him.” I practically seethe when I realize what’s happened. Jonah threw me under the bus.

  “No, Mikey, you’re not. He was just worried about you. And honestly, so was I. Looks like the joke’s on us.” Laughing softly, she pulls the necklace delicately from the box, batting her eyes before laying the sweetest smile she has on me and holding it out between us. “Will you help me put it on?”

  “Are you sure you want to?”

  “Yeah. I want my mom to see it when we go downstairs. I want the entire world to see it, because it’s true.”

  “What is?”

  “You and me, Christian. We’re infinite.”

  Emery

  You would think with a camera hanging around my neck every day that wearing a necklace would be second nature, but it’s not. I think the last time I wore one, I was ten and it was something my grandma sent me and I felt obligated to wear.

  I cared so little about it that I don’t even know where it is now. With the way I am, it’s probably lost over the side of the bluffs.

  It doesn’t even matter because this, what he’s given me, is the one that matters. The necklace that once he slips it around my neck, won’t ever come off.

  Even if I take it in to get cleaned, they’re gonna have to shine me up all pretty with it.

  Lifting his hands up and over my head, I feel the brush of them against the back of my neck, the fine hairs standing at attention as they always do whenever he’s in the vicinity, and hearing the click of the clasp as he unhooks it, I wait with baited breath for him to finish.

  Mostly because any attempt at talking I might make while his hands are as close as they are would be considered the ramblings of a lunatic.

  “All done. Turn around please. I wanna see how it looks.”

  Doing a twirl all the way around, I pause in a vogue like position and pout my lips, which earns me a laugh before he leans in and kisses me softly.

  “The perfect necklace for the perfect girl.”

  I could argue that I’m not perfect, but there’s something about the way he’s looking at me right now that says even I did try and mount an argument, it would fall flat. The way Christian looks at me, it’s the same as I do him.

  We’re perfectly imperfect.

  “Alright, Ems. I showed you mine. It’s only fair you show me yours.”

  “In that case,” I play along, slipping my hands under my shirt and beginning to lift as he sucks in a breath and reaches out in an attempt to bring it back down. “You told me to show you!”

  “Is my present under your shirt?”

  Winking, I lower my hands back down and laugh. “Maaybe.”

  “Emery…”

  “Mikey…”

  Stepping away and slipping my hand through the tight space between the wall and my desk, I feel the edges of his present and pull on it slowly, only lifting once I’ve got a firm enough grip, and with one final look at what I painstakingly spent weeks working on, I turn and hand it over.

  “Merry Christian, Christmas.” I laugh as he takes it and again, sucking in and holding my breath, I watch mesmerized as he opens the cover and takes sight of each of the pages inside.

  It had taken awhile, but I knew that this being our first Christmas together as a couple, I wanted to do something unique. Put together a present that was completely original and reflected us, much the same way he had done with the necklace that now hangs so daintily around my neck.

  “Ems…Did you really do all of this yourself?”

  Nodding, I move in and even though I’m taking it at an upside down angle, slip my hand down over his and turn the pages until we get to the one I really want him to see.

  A picture he has no idea I even took.

  A month ago when we were jamming in the music room, I’d gotten up and left to grab some snacks. Christian at the time was so immersed in the song he was putting together, writing the music tabs for it as well as the lyrics and testing them out as he went along, that he hadn’t even noticed I’d taken my camera with me.

  Coming back in, attempting stealth mode like the ninjas I’ve seen so much of on television, I’d slipped my way silently across the room and turning down the flash, started snapping pictures.

  When you spend so much time around each other, things like the way their hair sits, or how dreamy their eyes go when they’re concentrating on something they love, cease to exist. It all flows together into a repetitive package and you never really notice the small things. What you’re actually missing out on.

  Taking pictures that day, it showed me. The way his lips would purse when something didn’t quite work right, or the intense stare of his as he’s moving his hands, creating music by pulling the chords and notes straight from the center of his heart.

  Christian never looked as beautiful as he did that day, and while it would have been easy to just sit and tell him the way it made me feel, I thought showing him would be better.

  “When did you take this?”

  “Last month.”

  “When? We were together the entire time and it’s not very often that I’m not fixated on you, but here, it’s like I’m in another world.”

  “It’s because you were.”

  “Elaborate please?”

  “I went to get munchies and when I came back in, you were so deep into the music you were trying to create that I didn’t want to interrupt. It would have ruined it. So I took these instead. I wanted to remember it. Preserve it forever.”

  “You definitely did that.” He agrees, continuing to flip through the pages, his eyes growing softer with each one he passes by. “I had no idea you knew how to do this kind of thing.”

  “I get bored sometimes, so when that happens, I go through the Annex catalog and find a class to take. I took Scrapbooking last July.”

  “It’s us.”

  “Yeah. Well, not all of it. I mean there’s the shots I just showed you where it’s just you, but the idea is, I wanted to put together the story of us and since I’m not exactly the best writer on the planet, I decided to do it in pictures instead.”

  “Even using ones from before we got together?”

  “We’ve always been together, Mikey. Right from that first awkward day. Almost running someone over bonds them.”

  If you’ve never seen a guy melt, I suggest using my idea, because the moment his blue eyes lift away from their place scanning through our story and they land on me, I’m pretty sure I’ve turned him to mush.

  It’s only when I see the glazed over look in his eyes that I realize I’ve done a whole lot more than make him melt. I’ve also made him cry.

  Damn I’m good.

  “Your gift,” he begins softly, pausing long enough to swipe at his eye, affectively wiping away the physical traces of the emotionally driven moment. “It’s the best one I’ve ever received.”

  “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

  Turning away just long enough to place the book down on my bed, he turns back and time seems to stand still when our eyes meet again. It’s the moment in the movies where everything comes to a head and you just know the hero is going to move in, sweep his girl off her feet and carry her off into the sunset.

  Only this isn’t a movie. This is real life and Christian isn’t going to play by the rules.

  Instead he steps forward, his hands finding and cupping my face and even though they’re a little rougher than usual, it’s easy to s
ee why. Emotions are at a fever pitch, any second ready to bubble over, and doing the only thing he can in the moment to quell them, his lips find mine and just like before, we’re swept up into the tidal wave of passion that is us when we’re together.

  Our bodies pressed so perfectly into each other, our lips the perfect blend of soft and hard and wet and dry, his skin burning mine in every place that we’re making contact.

  It’s right here in this quiet moment away from the rest of the world that I accept what I think I’ve always just known, but been too scared to admit out loud.

  I’m falling in love with him.

  Chapter Twenty

  January 2015

  Christian

  I think I’ve been hit in the head by too many soccer balls because no matter how many times I go over these math questions, nothing seems to stick.

  Giving up and tossing the book across the bed, watching as it bounces once before landing right on Emery’s knee, I flinch. That didn’t go the way I wanted it to.

  Picking it up and moving it off until it’s laid down flat at the end of the bed closest to the wall, she looks up from her own work and shoots me a sympathetic smile.

  “Easy to see why you’re on the soccer team after that shot. Captain of the basketball team you’re not.”

  “Ha-ha, very funny.” I stick my tongue out. “I’d like to see you do all the questions Mr. Winters wants.”

  “I already did them.” She smirks, pointing over to her desk where the rest of her books are situated. “I finished them in class earlier.”

  “Of course you did.”

  “Aww! Is someone feeling a little jealous?”

  “No,” I immediately deny, though the truth is, I am feeling pretty damn envious. “But just so I know, what would it take for my extremely smart, beautiful and amazing girlfriend to let me sneak a peek at her answers?”

  “Baby, you’re the best, but you couldn’t afford it.”

  “Ouch.” I say, fisting my hands into the shape of a blade and stabbing myself in the chest. “You really know how to torture a guy.”

  “And you might be even better at drama than I am.”