Effervescent

Chapter 10

Romeo

My heart is still pounding in my chest even now that Athena is a step away, the only place where we're connected my hand on her cheek. She's so beautiful it hurts, even with the worry marking her sharp features. Her appearance sure is misleading. Everything about her face from the cold color of her narrow eyes to the straight lines of her jaw and nose is prominent and strong, yet she seems so delicate and unsure at this moment.

I want to kiss her again. Make her melt into me like warm putty the way she did before. But that's not on the table, so I settle for the caress on her cheek.

As if hearing my thoughts, her eyes fall to my lips. I nearly groan right there, my restraint slipping when she looks at me as if she wants to kiss me again, too. So contradicting what she just said.

"Goddess, you better stop looking at my lips like that if you want me to believe that you regret kissing me," I advise, my voice sounding rough to my own ears.

"Who said anything about regretting?" she replies, looking about ready to forget that she didn't usually do things like this. But then she shakes her head slightly and the heat melts from her gaze. "I just told you you were an amazing kisser, I can't very well say I regret it after that, right?" she teases.

I muse as if thinking it over. "Well, many people can be amazing at kissing. Now, if you'd said I was the best you ever had, I would have had no doubt," I trail off, teasing her. She stares at me with those remarkable eyes of hers, nearly making me forget my name. Yet, she doesn't reply. "So, am I?" I prod eventually.

"Are you what?" she asks, blinking up at me. Her voice is so soft, I just want to whisk her off her feet and kiss her dizzy. The way she said my name when I kissed her neck will follow me to my grave. I've never heard a sound so sensuous.

"The best kiss you ever had," I supply, trying to drag my mind out of the gutter to have a normal conversation. It hardly works when more color climbs up her neck, tainting her cheeks red.

"Sure," she mumbles, shifting slightly on her feet as if she had trouble holding my gaze. "That, and the only," she admits, then stares at me to gauge my reaction. If only my brain wouldn't have such a hard time grasping the meaning of her words. The only. The first. Mine.

I mean, I can't really say I'm surprised. With the way she reacted to my touch so far, I figured she might not be super experienced, but I wouldn't have thought she never so much as kissed a man. She's drop-dead gorgeous. There's no way no one made a move to claim those lips before me.

"You're sure?" I ask skeptically.

She laughs then, allowing my shoulders to lose the tension that had been tormenting them ever since I felt Athena tense in my arms. "Am I sure I never kissed anyone before you? Yeah, I feel like I'd remember," she replies.

"I mean, perhaps the others just weren't all that great, so my extraordinary skills wiped them straight out of your memory," I joke just to make her laugh again. She does, and the sound works its way through my body like a balm.

"I'm going to regret telling you you were all right for the rest of time, aren't I?" she demands playfully.

"All right? Now you're already downgrading my score?" I ask in feigned outrage.

"Yeah, I think I overdid it the first time. It wasn't all that memorable after all. I can hardly remember now," she trails off, a sparkle in her eyes. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she wanted me to kiss her again to prove her wrong.

"Oh yeah? You want me to jog your memory with a reminder?" I ask lowly, stepping closer. She swallows, keeping those steely eyes on me.

Finally, her voice is husky when she replies with a whisper, "Yes. I guess that wouldn't hurt. Just a little."