Fearless (The Story of Samantha Smith #1) (30 page)

“Let me up!” I panicked. I pushed away from him with both arms.

“What?”

“Let me go! I need to get out of here!”

He was so surprised, he released me and I jumped up. I didn’t know where to go or what to do. I was trapped. I needed to get away.

I yanked the front door open and ran outside as fast as I could. I rushed down the balcony stairs, into the parking lot, and ran right out into the street.

My neighborhood was very quiet, so I literally ran down the middle of the empty road. Had there been any cars, I wouldn’t have noticed until they ran me over, which I hoped would happen.

“Samantha! Come back! Samantha! Where are you going?” Christos’ boots pounded the pavement behind me. He caught up before I made it to the next block.

He fell into step beside me. I didn’t look at him. I was barely able to see through my tears. I tripped on a pothole and went down.

Christos caught me in his arms and we stumbled to a stop. He held on to me tightly. “Shhh, shhh, shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

A fresh storm of sobs poured out of me. He hugged me in the middle of the street. I held my arms stiffly at my sides, head turned away, trying to shield myself, trying to escape from Christos’ kindness.

“I won’t let go, Samantha,” he whispered. “Let it out. I promise, I won’t let go.”

His words should have been freaking me out even further. But they didn’t. The simple act of his chasing me and catching me when I fell had comforted me in a way I couldn’t understand. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged back.

Slowly, my feelings transformed in a crazy direction. Sadness yielded to its polar opposite. I felt authentic, unabashed joy, in a way I couldn’t remember having before. I started to laugh. I tried to stop it, suddenly mortified, afraid Christos would think I was crazy.

But Christos laughed with me. We were laughing together. Standing in the middle of the street like fools. We both laughed so hard, we released our embrace, and stood leaning shoulder to shoulder like the two oldest pals in the history of the world.

The belly laughs continued until I was wheezing, and we both calmed into giggling. I don’t know how long it lasted.

When we were both quiet, he rubbed my back until I stood up straight.

We looked into each other’s eyes, both of us smiling widely. It took about three seconds for another wave of laughter to double us over, hands on knees.

When we calmed again, Christos said, “We should get back to the apartment. I left your door wide open.”

We returned, and I washed my face in the bathroom sink. My eyes were totally red.
 

Christos stood behind me. “You look fine,” he said.

His eyes were pretty red too. I guess it was okay.

We sat back down on the couch, facing each other.

We were both still giggly. When our eyes met, another round of laughter shook us. sending us rolling onto our backs on the couch.

We sprawled at opposite ends, draped over the cushions like two spent lovers. Staring at the ceiling, I sighed audibly. He sighed too. His voice was so damn manly and rich.

That got me thinking entirely inappropriate thoughts. I pulled my feet under me and sat up straighter.

He was still sprawled, and grinned at me.

Screw being careful. I crawled over to him and snuggled up against him. “Can friends and mentors cuddle?”

“Looks like it.” He chuckled.

He stroked my hair gently. “I’m going to have to get you down to the studio and get you started with the paints next weekend.”

“I promise I won’t use red,” I joked.

“Don’t worry, Beans went to the dog beach in the sky a long time ago. He’s probably rolling around in every color of the rainbow. Got it all over his fur.” Christos chuckled.

“He looks like one of those rainbow unicorns, I bet. There’s this one on Adventure Time that probably looks just like him.” I felt stupid talking to Christos about Kamiko’s cartoons. The truth was, I had now watched several episodes of Adventure Time in her dorm room while hanging with her and Romeo between classes.

“I know a guy who works on Adventure Time.”

“What do you mean?”

“A buddy of mine works on the show. He’s one of the storyboard artists.”

I slapped my palms on his chest and sat up. “What? Do you seriously know, like, everybody?”

“Only in the art world.” He gave me that smug smile of his. “He came down for my gallery opening.”

“Kamiko would freak if you told her that!”

“If I’d known, I would’ve said something. I can set it up for them to meet, if you want.”

“OMG! She would be so in love with you if you did that.”

“Let me know, I’ll make it happen.”

“You’re like the coolest guy ever.”

“So they say.”

I slapped his chest one-handed. “Ass.” I laid back against him, stroking his chest. His muscles were so defined, deliciously ridged and curved. I made circles, pressing down with the heel of my hand. I slid my hand down to his abs. I couldn’t help myself.

“You might not want to do that,” he murmured.

“Why not?”

“Mentor, mentee?”

“Who thought of that word mentee, anyway? It sounds like manatee. It makes me sound like a blubbery sea cow.”

“You are far from blubbery.”

“Really?”

“You’re about as far from being a cow as rainbow unicorns are from reality.”

I snickered.
 

“I really should paint you nude sometime.”

“No way. You only paint super hot women.”

“Yup.”

A pregnant pause vacuumed all the air out of the room.

“Are you saying I’m super hot?”

“Yup.”

“Liar.”

“Nope.”

I propped myself up on my elbow and smiled at him. “You’re totally just being nice. Between your paintings and my, uh, unexpected visit when you were with Paisley, I’ve seen more of the women you’ve been with than I ever cared to. They all have perfect bodies. I’m not even close to them.”

“I’m the artist here, I’ll make that call.”

“But you haven’t seen me naked!”

“I saw you in a bikini at the beach. It was pretty obvious.”

“That’s right! I almost forgot!”

“Why do you think I wanted to mentor you so bad?” He smiled mischievously.

“You are such a perv, Christos!”

“Why, because you’re hot, and I like it?”

“You, you like it?”

His face twisted into a smirk. “Are you insane? Of course I like it. I’m sure every guy who gets a good look at you likes it. Why do you think so many guys hit on you, Samantha?”

“I don’t know, because guys are dogs?”

“While that may be true, and I’m not pointing any fingers here, I’m somewhat picky. If you hadn’t noticed.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed all your super model cohorts. Guys are so damn shallow.”

“Why, because we go after the best looking women we can find?”

“Exactly.” I flopped onto my back. I wasn’t the women he ‘went’ after, so that automatically disqualified me. He was bullshitting. “If I was so hot, you would totally be all over me right now.”

“That can be arranged.”

My heart stopped. No, seriously, this time it actually stopped. I don’t know for how long. Not like an hour, or even a minute, but it seemed like forever. “What,” I coughed. “What did you just say?”

“I said, that can be arranged.”

I stared at the ceiling, afraid to move, like I would break the spell. “I thought we were mentor and student, or mentee, or whatever.”

“Thus far, yes.” A sly smile slid across his lips.

I really wanted to lick those lips.
 

“Well, what are you going to do about it?”

“Anything you want.”

A pulse surged up my entire body and bounced back down. What did he mean by anything? Did he mean
anything
anything? Judging by the way his eyes smoldered, I think the standard definition was in effect.

He crossed his chest on top of me. His nose was an inch from mine. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this.”

“You’re right, I don’t. You’ve acted like I was the least desirable woman on the planet most of the time.”

“I had a professional responsibility to adhere to. But we can change that.” He slid his thumb across my lower lip.
 

Oh, shiver.
 

He kissed the tip of my nose. I didn’t think that would be sexy, but it was. Incredibly. He kissed one of my cheeks, then the other, then each corner of my mouth, as if he was anointing me with a blessing of some kind. Maybe he was.

“I don’t know if you realize this, but your lips are exceedingly luscious,” he murmured. His mouth hovered over mine. I smelled his sweet breath. I’m glad I served us mint tea!
 

“How luscious are they?”

“This luscious.” He brushed his lower lip across my mouth. It was slick and wet. A quiver shot up from my sex to my head. A soft moan whispered from me.

He flicked his tongue across my upper lip. Oh, wow. He tickled me with gentle almost-kisses for I don’t know how long. I was sailing over the moon. My body flushed with heat.
 

I felt his fingers stroke my cheek, slip down the line of my jaw, caress my neck, and dance across my chest. The gentlest feather touch from his fingertips slid down my cleavage. I wanted him to rip my t-shirt off right then.
 

Then his hand was on my waist. Fire flared in my belly as it worked down to my hip. His thumb teased the tops of my jeans, probing the seam between my t-shirt and the waist band of my panties, were the thinnest strip of skin was exposed completely to him.

More shivers spasmed through my body, emanating from my core. My eyes squeezed shut as the pleasure overwhelmed me. I squeezed my knees together, not to prevent his access, but to hold in the incredible energy that he had stirred inside my body with the faintest touch. I wanted to hold on to that pleasure as long as I could.
 

I had made out with a couple different boys a bunch of times in high school, but nothing approaching this. And Christos and I hadn’t even joined our lips together in a full kiss.

His soft touches continued along my collar bone, then alternated back to my waist, where his thumb slid across to my other hip.

I was so distracted by his touch that I almost missed the moment his lips first pressed all the way into mine. When I felt the wetness of his slick lips, he had my full attention.

All previous kisses were but ripples on a pond. This was crashing forty-foot waves, the perfect storm of kissing. The intense energy flew through my body and heart, spiraling out in every direction. My thighs quivered and my pelvis throbbed while my mouth burned with hunger fulfilled.

I reveled in the experience of his kiss. One moment gentle and yearning, the next desperate and forceful. I could feel him wanting me and wanting me to want him.
 

He was both confident and uncertain. It seemed so unlike him. Was the confidence the Adonis part of him, and the uncertainty the Christos part of him? I had never seen him behave timidly with any of his women friends, but I felt it now. The vulnerability. That seed of self-doubt and insecurity. Was he afraid of rejection too? Like a normal human being?

That drove me wild. I opened my lips and his tongue slid into my wetness and circled my own, the tip of his dancing against the tip of mine. I needed him inside me. Like this, like…what was I thinking?! I was getting way ahead of myself!

I pushed my palm to his chest. “Wait,” I breathed, “a second, just a…”

Tease.

He pulled away.

I feared anger would suddenly disfigure his beautiful features. But no, calmness, warmth, and openness emanated from him like sunrise.

“What’s wrong?”

A voice sprung up in my mind, “
You’re not mad at me, are you?”

And that inevitably led to…

Taylor.

No. No, no, no. It was happening again. Horror seized my heart.

Christos frowned. “Do you want me to stop?”

“Yes. No. For a second. I need to catch my breath.” I sat bolt upright, ready to run from the couch because I was convinced Christos was going to explode and go ballistic on me any second.

“Samantha?”

He
never called me Samantha. Always Sam. There was a soothing note in Christos’ deep baritone voice that calmed me instantly.

“Are you all right? Something’s bothering you. If you want to stop, give me the word. We don’t have to do this.”

Did he mean the kissing, the mentoring, or everything? I started to panic. I didn’t know if I was afraid he would leave, or afraid he would stay. And what would happen if he
did
stay?

“If it’s something else, Samantha, I can go home. If that will make you more comfortable.”

“I, no. Don’t leave. It’s just that, when I kissed you, I…”

“Did I hurt you? I kind of got carried away.” He grinned. “I sort of lost my equilibrium for a minute there, when my tongue went in your mouth. I’ve never been so, I don’t know, so swept away. Just from kissing.”

“You too?” I blurted like a little kid. I was immediately embarrassed and hid my face in both hands.

“It’s okay,” he chuckled. “Yeah, me too. It was pretty awesome.”

“I thought you were totally into, like, sex with your hot girlfriends. How could kissing do that to
you?
”

“I don’t know. But it did. I’m sort of not surprised.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because you’re different.”

I lowered my hands, wanting to hear more. “How?”

“You have this feisty spirit. You just barrel into things.”

I wrinkled my nose. “That makes me sound clumsy.”

“No, not like that. You jump into things, try new stuff without worrying about the consequences. You went to college on the other side of the country where you didn’t have a single friend. That takes courage.”

I didn’t want to admit that in this case, courage equaled running away.
 

“And you took an art class.”

“There were plenty of girls drooling all over you that first day of class. It’s like they knew you’d be there,” I scoffed.

“Maybe they did. But you didn’t. You were there to learn how to draw.”