irrevocable

{Eight}

Are You Bored Yet? // Wallows

Holly

I put the finishing touches on my side braid while trying to avoid looking my reflection in the eye because I can't stand my pink cheeks anymore. I've been blushing for almost a solid week anytime I think of Jackson.

The way his hands slid to the back of my head.

The way he leaned closer as my heart raced.

The look in his eye right before he moved the final inch.

The moment his lips pressed against mine.

If the kiss by the lake was a ten out of ten, the kiss at my doorstep was a twenty. And it went on much longer than the first one. My fingers fisted his shirt as his mouth moved over mine. His hands gripped me, cupping my head then moving to caress my jaw. Tingles and sparks erupted on my skin, everywhere.

My panties had never been so soaked. Ruined.

I fan myself after securing the braid, something I've done more times than I can count as my mind replays the moment that I've come to know as my branding. I'll never be the same now that Jackson has kissed me like that.

But it's what he said afterwards, as I held onto the doorknob for dear life, that has stuck with me the most. Given me a high I had no idea I could experience.

I'm yours now, Holly. No way to deny it anymore.

He didn't say I was his, which would have been hot, I admit. He didn't claim me even though his words were a claim in and of themselves. He devoted himself to me, instead. Somehow, that's hotter than a possessive claim. It says something more.

Not that belonging to him would be a hardship. No, I don't think that for a second. I want to belong to him. But for him to give himself to me so assuredly, so completely and without question...I've never felt like that in my life. Not with anyone.

There hasn't been a day where I didn't feel like someone owned a piece of me. My duty, my time, my obedience. It's like Jackson knew instinctively that being claimed would have felt expected. I've never spoken a thing about my reality to him, other than my slip that first night we went to the mud creek. But he understands more deeply than I could imagine.

Unless it was blind luck that he didn't voice the typical growly alpha male mantra 'you're mine' after that epic kiss.

No. He knows me better than that. I feel it to my very core. He senses my needs before I even understand them myself.

I take a deep breath and return to the present moment, blinking away my emotions to put the finishing touches on my soft makeup. I chance a look into my eyes in the mirror and find brightness reflected back to me. I don't have much to look forward to in my day to day life, until now. And the light sparkling in my eyes is a direct result.

I exit the bathroom, waiting for the ominous knock by my date. Jackson made it very clear last time that he wanted to come to the door and say hi to my mom. Thank goodness my dad is still out of town and I can agree to his request. I've already prepped Mom to keep things light and simple, let Jackson say hello and not try to rope him in with small talk.

As I'm folding a knitted throw blanket for the couch, the long-awaited knock comes, startling me into awareness.

"Coming!" I almost trip over my own feet scurrying to the door. When I swing it open to see a devastatingly handsome Jackson waiting on the other side, all the oxygen in my lungs whooshes right out.

"Hi," he says softly, a hungry look in his eye as he gazes at me, taking in my light blue sleeveless top and skinny jeans. I felt good before he saw me, but the look he's giving me now makes me feel like a sex kitten. That's new.