Falling Sweetly (Starling Falls #2) (20 page)

“Just in case one thing leads to another tonight, I wanted to be prepared. I didn’t want to come back here and be completely clueless.”

When my statement was met with more silence, I felt tears prickle behind my eyes. I looked between the two of them.

“Am I a freak?” I asked quietly.

Liya’s arms went around me and gently squeezed. “Stop that. You are not a freak. You’ve just finally found someone who you trust. You don’t need to be watching any of this stuff. There aren’t any expectations for tonight, just enjoy yourself and don’t overthink things.”

Addie slid down the bed, so she was lying beside me. “Exactly. My brother is so into you, you could turn up dressed in a turkey suit, and he’d still be thrilled to be going on this date.”

“Why the hell would she be in a turkey suit?” Liya asked, looking at Addie like she’d lost her mind.

“Shut up, Liya.” Addie threw a cookie at Liya, which she caught and promptly ate. “It was just an example.”

“It’s a flippin’ weird example,” Liya mumbled under her breath. “Where would she even get a turkey suit?”

“What I’m trying to say is,” Addie continued, ignoring my sister’s mumblings. “Jake likes you for you, Niki. Weird quirks and all.”

I nodded, trying to take in their advice. “Okay. Be myself. Don’t overthink. I can do that.”

Just try not to hit your head on anything tonight, and you’ll be fine.

CHAPTER 17

Annika

There was a knock on the door at 7:40, and I opened it to find Jake on the other side holding a small plant in a pot which was covered with red flowers.

I gave him a little smile. “You’re early.”

“I didn’t want to take the risk of you changing your mind and enrolling in the witness protection programme to avoid going on our date,” he said, giving me a pointed look.

I felt my face flush and fought every instinct in my body which was telling me to look at the floor to avoid his penetrating gaze.

Be yourself. Just be yourself.

I finally met his intense stare. “Smart move. I was five minutes away from taking my backpack and heading to the highway to hitchhike my way across the state line.”

Jake snorted in surprise. “Good thing I went with my instincts.” He ran his eyes over my body. “You look beautiful.”

I looked down at my outfit sceptically; the light green cardigan I was wearing matched the green leaves on the loose, floaty, knee length white and green dress I had chosen. I didn’t think there was anything particularly special about the dress, but the way Jake was looking at me made me think I should consider adding more dresses to my collection.

Blood stop rushing to my face already! It’s getting ridiculous now.

“Thanks.” I accepted the plant from him with a questioning look. “This is lovely, but why a plant?”

“I remember you saying that you love flowers but you hate when they die. This way you get to keep these alive for longer,” he said with a casual shrug.

My jaw dropped at the thoughtful gift. Without thinking, I rose onto my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “Thank you.”

Jake immediately bent his head and pressed his lips firmly to mine. I was rapidly discovering how addictive this man’s kisses were.

I sighed happily and allowed his tongue to probe further into my mouth to play with mine, and I realised he tasted vaguely like cinnamon.

Pulling back, he was the first to break the kiss. “Damn, you taste good. I’ve been thinking about doing that again all day,” he admitted gruffly.

“Me too,” I said softly before turning to place the plant on the small table by the door.

He cupped my jaw with one large hand making me meet his concerned gaze. “After I left the bakery, Caleb said that you seemed a little shaken. You doing okay? I sort of lost my mind a little this morning, but I had a point I needed to make.”

“I guess I was a little shocked. I wondered why you didn’t just tell me, but then I realised I hadn’t made things easy for you in the past couple of months.”

My face flushed again and unable to take him intense stare, I broke eye contact by looking down at the floor.

He cupped my face again and made me meet his gaze. “You seemed nervous. I didn’t want to scare you off or blow things with you by coming on too strong,” he snorted, “So much for that.”

“What happened to make you change your mind?” I asked curiously.

“Liya,” he said simply, “And Freddy helped too.”

I groaned. “Oh no. My sister is a crazy person. What on earth did she tell you?” I paused as the second name he said registered. “Are you talking about Freddy my goldfish?”

Jake gave me a crooked smile that made my heart beat a little faster. “Yep. He’s an excellent listener, and he gives great advice.”

He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “And it doesn’t matter what Liya said. All that I care about now is that we’re going out, and you’re not trying to hide behind mail boxes anymore when you see me.”

I cringed in embarrassment. “Oh. I can’t believe you saw me do that.”

“Yeah, baby. You were kind of hard to miss.”

“I don’t know if you realise this because I hide it so well, but I can be slightly awkward at times,” I told him sarcastically.

“You’re cute.”

I frowned at him. “I’m going to be twenty-five soon. Cute is not an adjective that I would use to describe myself.”

“Like it or not it’s the truth. You’re cute. I’ve been thinking about kissing these lips for a long time,” he said as he ran his thumb along my bottom lip.

“Makes me wish I’d stormed into your bakery and kissed you six months ago.” His tone was teasing, but the intense stare he gave me made my mouth dry.

“Jake, I…” Once again I found myself annoyingly lost for words.

“It’s okay,” he said in a soothing tone, “You don’t have to say anything. I get this is all still new for you. I just want you to know where I stand. I’ll try not to be so intense, but it’s going to be tough. In my head you’ve been mine since New Year’s.”

“New Year’s?” I asked incredulously, “That’s how long you’ve been feeling… this way?”

“Well, if we’re getting specific, I’ve wanted you since Thanksgiving.”

My mouth fell open again.

Thanksgiving? He’s been interested for eight months?

“Thanksgiving is when I first… developed feelings for you too.” I bit my lip as I looked at him guiltily. “I guess I’ve wasted a lot of our time by being such an insecure-”

“Stop,” he said firmly, causing me look up at him in surprise. “We’re starting with a clean slate tonight. Okay? It’s just you and me. We’ll go as slow as you need.”

He stared at me until I nodded. His hand sank into my hair, and he tilted my head to the angle he wanted before he placed another devouring kiss on my mouth. I was panting lightly when he pulled away.

“Love being able to do that whenever I want,” he rumbled deeply.

As he took a step back, I took a deep breath and tried to clear the fog in my mind.

“You ready to go?” he asked as he took my hand.

“Yes.” I slung my small bag across my shoulder. “Where are we going?”

Jake grinned at me, “The fair.”

* * * * *

The fair in the neighbouring town of Smithsville was an overwhelming medley of smells, sounds and bright colours from all the rides. The screams from the rides made me smile as memories of the last time I had been to a fair with my family came back to me.

I’d been thirteen at the time, and a seventeen year old Liya had been adamant about going on the Tilt-A-Whirl, despite our parents warnings. She’d gotten off the ride, and promptly thrown up the burger and candyfloss she’d eaten before, and immediately dragged me back onto the ride much to our parent’s amusement.

“It’s been years since I’ve been to a fair, though the last one I went to was nowhere near as big as this,” I told Jake as we walked under a luminous arch to enter the fair.

“Me too. This should be fun,” he said, looking around at what was on offer. “What should we hit up first? Food, rides or games?”

My nose and stomach were all for walking towards the food stands, however I figured that food followed by the motion of the rides probably wouldn’t be a good idea. “Games, rides, then food?”

“Wise decision. How do you feel about the bumper cars? Or the Fun House?”

“As long as there are no clowns… there won’t be clowns, will there?”

He quirked an eyebrow, looking very amused, though I failed to see what was amusing about my very serious question.

“What do you have against clowns?”

“You know who chooses to become clowns, Jake? Sociopaths, that’s who! Don’t let the friendliness and balloon animals trick you into thinking they’re nice. They’re not. They are
evil
creatures!”

“Wow. I’m learning things about you already. Definitely won’t be planning any dates to the circus,” Jake said, looking amused at my informative rant.

“It’s a legitimate fear!” I protested, as he pulled me over to a game booth with rubber ducks floating in a circular plastic tub.

Jake pressed a kiss to my temple. “No clowns. How about one of these animals instead?” he asked gesturing to the luridly coloured animals hanging from the booth.

“Not really a fan of stuffed animals either.”

“First rule at the fair; you have to let your date win you an obnoxiously big toy.”

“What if I want to win a toy myself?” I asked, amused by my own answer.

“Nope, not allowed. It’s in the rules. How else do I prove my manliness and impress you?”

I snorted as he handed over a few dollar bills to the carnie and was given a fishing rod.

“If you wanted to prove your manliness, shouldn’t you be hitting one of those strength testers with a mallet instead?”

“I’m not a caveman, Niki. Gentlemen win their ladies prizes through more civilised ways,” he huffed dramatically, making me laugh.

The plastic rod looked comically tiny in his large hands. I giggled as he leant over the counter and tried to get the hook into the ring of one of the ducks and failed.

“Bite, you little bastards, bite,” Jake muttered as the little boy next to him managed to successfully hook a duck and walked away with his prize.

“Dammit. That kid stole the duck I was working on.”

“I’m sure he did,” I said with a placating smile as I rubbed his shoulder.

He grinned at me hungrily. “Maybe I need a kiss for good luck.”

Oh boy.

I took a deep breath and stared adamantly at his chest. Without missing a beat, he cupped my chin again and tilted my head back. Bending down he took my lips in a slow and deep kiss that caused tingles up and down my spine.

I felt heat radiate through my body as he nibbled on my bottom lip, and then soothed the sensitive flesh with a swipe of his tongue.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when we finally broke apart and just stared at each other. Jake’s fingers traced the outline of my lips as my hands wound around his neck, my lips slowly curling into a bashful smile.

A couple of moments passed in silence, before the carnie cleared his throat. When Jake turned to look at him, the carnie rolled his eyes and put out the cigarette he was smoking. He reached down and picked up a yellow plastic duck and placed it on the counter in front of Jake.

“There you go. Congratulations. You got one.”

“Thank fuck,” Jake muttered under his breath.

I disguised my laugh with a cough, and he frowned at me playfully.

The man tending the game rolled his eyes again and gave me a choice of what appeared to be a multi-coloured tiger or scary looking red bird which only had one big eye.

“Really, man? The mutant rainbow cat or the one-eyed bird? That’s the best you got?” Jake asked him incredulously.

The carnie’s silent, blank stare spoke volumes, and I met Jake’s amused gaze.

“The tiger.”

“You heard the lady, the freaky cat thing it is,” Jake said eyeing the toy warily.

I tucked the toy under an arm, and my breathing quickened as Jake took my hand in his.

“Okay, now that you’ve proved your manliness,” I paused to supress the laugh that was trying to escape. “Where to next?”

“What do you say we head on over to the Ferris Wheel?” Jake gestured towards the large, spinning, luminous wheel.

Seriously? No. Tell him that you hate heights!

I gulped when I saw how high the wheel was. Looking back at Jake’s face, it was obvious that he was eager to go on the rotating-ride-of-doom.

“Niki?”

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go.”

You’re an idiot.

I felt my heart beat faster and palms start to sweat as we took our seats in the swinging chair.

Stop being a chicken. What’s the worst that can happen?

CHAPTER 18

Annika

As the large wheel began to move, I felt an irritation on my right arm, but was distracted by the creaking of the ride as it slowly turned to allow other people to get on.

As the wheel turned again and we got higher, Jake moved closer towards me and placed his arm around my shoulders.

“It’s a nice night,” he said and I felt his eyes on me.

“Mmmhmm,” I murmured, trying to take deep breaths as the wheel gained momentum.

“Are you okay?”

“Mmmhmm,” I said with an unconvincing smile, which looked more like a grimace, and held onto the safety bar for dear life.

Jake frowned and removed his arm from around my shoulders.

Oh fantastic. He thinks you’re uncomfortable because of him. You are such a dingbat.

As the wheel kept turning, I slowly released my death grip on the safety bar. The wheel slowed as we reached the top and I felt Jake attempt to move closer again, and in the process he rocked the chair.

“Oh God,” I whispered under my breath.

“Damn. It’s high.” Jake peered over the edge. “The people down below look like ants. Check it out.”