Lessons in Gravity (Study Abroad #2) by Jessica Peterson

Author:Jessica Peterson [Peterson, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peterson Paperbacks
Published: 2016-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

***

The restaurant is close to Maddie’s apartment, so we walk the few blocks to Calle de Villenueva together, huddled against the cold. The city has come alive for the holidays, the avenues decked out in twinkling lights that form a cathedral-like ceiling above our heads.

“You guys really go all out for Christmas,” Maddie says, teeth chattering.

I move a bit closer to her, and I bite back a smile of surprise when she curls closer to me, too, our breath mingling in a pale cloud in front of our faces. I pop a few more mints in my mouth, chewing through them in half a second.

“It’s brilliant, isn’t it?” I say.

“It is,” she says. “More than that. It’s magical.”

My smile widens. She really is head over heels in love with Madrid. The place I come from, the place I love, too.

We slow our pace when we reach her street.

“Javier,” she says softly. She loops her arm through mine, burying her face into the sleeve of my jacket. “I appreciate you listening tonight. That was really awesome of you. I understand if you want to run away screaming, though. It’s…a lot, I know.”

My heart begins to pound.

“I mean, you practically ran screaming from me. So I guess it’s only fair if I return the favor,” I say.

I resist the urge to wince at my terrible joke. I’m a fucking idiot.

But Maddie just laughs. “Seriously, Javi, I wouldn’t blame you.”

Javi. She’s never called me that before. I like the sound of my nickname on her lips; it’s what my family calls me. My good friends, too.

It rushes over me then, a tidal wave of lust and like and holy fuck I want to reach out and pull her to me and kiss her until the tears come, tears of release, of overwhelmed relief.

I want to hear that name on her tongue again, this time breathless, a plea.

My heart turns over in my chest, and in that moment I know, I know, that I’m in over my head. It isn’t supposed to happen so fast, and it isn’t supposed to happen with someone who’s on the run.

But it’s happening between us, me and Maddie, and there is nothing I can do to stop it.

She draws to a stop a few feet from her door. The soft light from a nearby street lamp gilds her skin, turns her eyes into translucent pools of blue. Tonight they’re very full. More beautiful than ever.

A hand grips my heart and squeezes.

Maddie is still curled close against me.

Come home with me tonight, I want to murmur into her hair. Be with me, Maddie. Let me have you. Let me in.

She looks up at me. “Thanks again for today. I had a really, really great time. Whenever you want to lose gravity again, you know who to call.”

I let out a half-hearted scoff as I meet her eyes. “Is tomorrow too soon?”

“I have class,” she says, smiling. Her mouth is inches from mine. My body throbs with the desire to pull her to me, claim those lips as my own.

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