House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) (33 page)

I wondered if this was what he was really thinking. “Something funny?” I didn’t have anything in mind to see. I’d watched a lot of zombie movies with Nathan lately. After tonight, I just wanted something light hearted.

He patted my leg and urged me further onto the bed. I sat back against the headboard, pulling my knees up a little.

He sat with his legs spread out, his thigh brushing mine, and propped himself up beside me against the headboard. Being beside him always made me feel smaller. My eyes stayed on our legs, on the feel of his jeans against my skin.

He reached over for a remote, turning the television on and finding a list of movies. He scrolled through a bit and picked a light comedy.

When a movie started playing, he stretched, and then put an arm around me. Putting my head back against the headboard became impossible, and the most comfortable thing to do was to rest my temple against his shoulder.

When I did that, he pulled me closer. If I didn’t keep my hand on his chest, I might have fallen into his lap.

Everything was quiet, and my heart raced. It was impossible to focus on the movie. I breathed in slowly. The strong muscles of his arm pressed up against me, reminding me how powerful he was.

His hand rested against my bicep, and at one point, his fingertips started moving. Slowly, at first, just a graze against my skin.

At a point in the movie, when a couple started to kiss, those fingers began to massage. Slow, deliberate.

I focused on the screen, but I wasn’t watching. As difficult as it was to pay attention, I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. My heart raced. The whole night, I’d been on a roller-coaster of emotion.

North did say I should encourage Silas to stay with us.

From my peripheral vision, I sensed him looming, close, watching me instead of the movie.

I breathed in slowly, deep. The overwhelming sense of an imminent kiss was thick between us. I felt it from it from him, stronger than ever.

Mr. Blackbourne had said to do what I felt comfortable with. I felt this was what North wanted me to do. It was what
I
wanted to do, but it was easier said than done. I didn’t want to escape and not kiss him, but I was terrified to move forward as well. There was no reason for it. This was Silas. I knew him. I cared about him. I wanted to kiss him. Despite knowing they couldn’t kiss until I did it first, I couldn’t bring myself to even start. I was listening to movie sounds, listening out for his family, listening to him breathing.

The touch of his cheek met with my forehead. “
Aggele Mou
,” he said quietly, the rumbling of his deep voice surging through me.

“Silas,” I said, softly, my voice catching at the end.

There it was, a soft nudge from his hand against my arm, urging me to turn slightly.

I did. A lock of my hair fell away from my ear, brushing against my cheek.

I met his dark eyes, so close to mine that he was a little out of focus. I sometimes forgot how soulful his eyes were. They were so dark, almost black at times. It was striking with his dark hair and olive skin.

He leaned in, and stopped, just short of my lips.

I waited for him to move. I tried to get myself to move but I couldn’t. Despite the others telling me I should, despite knowing what I knew, that they had promised not to until I did it first, it still didn’t stop my nervousness. What did I know about kissing?

He never moved. He hovered, a breath away from me. He stayed, waiting.

I couldn’t. Every time I thought to, I couldn’t. I couldn’t muster the courage. As much as I wanted it, the first move was harder than I thought it would be.

And then there was a growl, low, rumbling, from his stomach.

“Your stomach is growling,” I said.

“I don’t care,” he said quietly.

“I do,” I said. “You should eat if you’re hungry.”

“I’m not in the mood right now,” he said.

“Your stomach says you are.”

He groaned and shifted, pulling back to rock his head back until it rested on the headboard. He pushed a palm over his face, rubbing at his cheek. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go find something.”

My heart dipped. I knew it wasn’t what he wanted, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe I needed the distraction. Maybe I needed a moment to collect my bravery. Dr. Green had simply kissed me before, so I didn’t have a chance to think about it. Nathan did it quickly, too.

Maybe that was my problem. The more I thought on it, the harder it became to make that move.

Silas moved to the edge of the bed, I started to scoot over to follow when he turned, grabbed me by the waist and hauled me up. My legs wrapped around his waist and his arms were under my butt.

I thought it was a hug, so I held on, wrapping my arms around his neck. He turned to the door, carrying me like that out of his bedroom.

My skin electrified and I curled into him tighter, shy to think his brother or his father would see us like this. I was wondering if the back of my jeans were hanging low and someone could see my underwear.

Silas carried me to the kitchen. He put me down on the countertop. The cool of the marble bit through the material of the jeans, and I released him. I closed my legs at the knee and scooted back a touch.

When he pulled back a little, he paused, hovering over me. His face was almost level with mine now. My heart raced, feeling him. He stopped an inch away, almost too close to look at him in his eyes.

He watched me. His hands moved until they were on the outside of my thighs, touching softly. “Like my pictures?” he asked.

Did he mean the ones of his stomach and face from before? I nodded.

“Did the boys give you any trouble today?” he asked.

I blushed, unable to lie. Trouble wasn’t how I would put it. “They teased a little.”

“Did you tell them? About us? Or have you mentioned it?”

“Mr. Blackbourne knows.”

His lips lifted then, like he approved. “Went right to the source, huh?”

Source? “I think he suspected.” Was I supposed to tell Silas about the others? About what I was supposed to do? Mr. Blackbourne had said to tell him everything, but I wasn’t clear on being able to tell the others all that was going on. According to Mr. Blackbourne, I just needed to come to him and keep him informed, but he had been preoccupied after the game. Unless it really was an emergency, I didn’t want to bother him with this.

His eyebrows popped up. “Didn’t think I made it so obvious. To be honest, I wasn’t sure you’d be that interested in me.”

“Why would you think that?” I asked.

“Because you turn away when I try to kiss you.”

I felt my lower lip with my teeth, giving it a soft bite, unable to think up a response.

He smirked, then his big brown eyes lowered, focusing on my lips.

Silas moved forward. It was a fraction of an inch, the slight tilt of his head. He was hovering.

His stomach started to growl again.

A small giggle escaped me. I couldn’t help it. It was an odd moment. Silas was overwhelming and the giggling relieved a lot of that tension. I did feel bad, I just couldn’t stop myself.

He rolled his eyes, and the curve of his lips lifted more into an amused smile. He stepped away from me, going to the fridge. “What are you in the mood for?” he asked.

He was staring at a pile of takeout containers. I did wonder what was in the other packages but I didn’t want him to go shuffling through them to show me. “I liked the...
shawarma
, and the, um...”

“The gyro, right?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

He started pulling out containers and shuffling them around. He opened them, checking the contents. He found what he wanted, took out a plate and start piling on
shawarma, gyro, kibbi
, and a few other items from the boxes. “These will reheat better in the oven,” he said.

“Can you wait?”

“I was willing to wait before,” he said. He found a dish, lined it with aluminum foil, and tossed the food onto it. He set the oven and then put the dish in. He checked his phone during this, and then set it down on the counter as he worked. No news meant good news in the Academy world.

When he was done, he turned toward me. He folded his arms over his chest, leaning his hip against the counter. He looked across at me with a curious expression.

My eyebrows went up, looking back at him. Again I sensed he wanted something, but this time, I waited, hoping he’d bring up whatever he was trying to say.

His lips tightened, and the corner of his mouth lifted. “So you’re kissing everyone else except me?”

My mouth dropped open and my hand fluttered up until I was pressing my fingertips to my cheek. “What?” I said, sputtering. “I don’t... you...who said...”

He shrugged. “Gabriel might have mentioned it.” He unfolded his arms and counted off on his fingers. “Him, Kota, Victor... I think North, too. He wouldn’t confirm but he didn’t deny kissing you either.”

My lips trembled and blood surged through me. The boys talked about it with each other? Is that how Mr. Blackbourne said it might be okay to just go with whatever I was comfortable with doing? “Not all of them kissed me,” I said quickly.

His head titled, his eyes widening. “They haven’t?”

“Not on the mouth. On the cheek, yes. Except for Dr. Green and Nathan and—”

“Hang on,” he said, holding up his palm in a stop gesture. “The doc kissed you?”

My lips pursed, and I was unsure if admitting it was a good thing. Since I’d already done as much, I couldn’t lie. “Yes,” I said, meaning to say something more, to try to perhaps explain it, but I couldn’t find the words. Would he even want to hear about it?

Silas stared at me, mouth partially opened, his white teeth a contrast to his olive complexion and the dark eyes. He combed his fingers through his hair. “You’ve kissed them but you pull back when I try to kiss you?”

“I don’t pull back!”

“You do it every time,” he said.

“You don’t move,” I said. I held up two fingers close together. “You get this close and then...”

“I’m not allowed,” he said quietly.

“I know,” I said. “The others just did it. I didn’t have time to think. When you get that close, I can’t think at all.”

He straightened then, focusing on me. “They did it first?”

I nodded.

“How?”

I shrugged, shook my head, my lips moving but unable to come up with an answer. “Dr. Green said I’m not the type to move first.”

Silas stared at me, unmoving, his face hard to read. I wasn’t sure if he was calculating or was just stunned.

In a quick movement, he crossed the room. I leaned back a bit, surprised by how he was coming at me. I sucked in a sharp breath.

He moved in close. His thighs and waist pressed up against my knees. He planted a palm on either side of my hips and kept himself at eye level with me. “Tell me,” he said.

I was breathless. I didn’t know what he wanted. To hear about Dr. Green and how he kissed me? To learn more about why I wasn’t the type to move first?

He slowly moved his head forward. “Tell me you want to kiss me,” he said.

“I...” I did, but saying it out loud was hard to do. He was handsome, nice, cared about me, but speaking about it was hard.

He inched forward slow and into me enough that I felt the need to hold onto his shoulders to balance myself and not fall backward.

He captured my chin between his fingers and held firm, holding me still. “Say it,
Aggele
.”

“Silas,” I whispered, but with him holding on to me, it was difficult to speak. I guessed if I wasn’t going to make the first move, he was going to get me to say I wanted it. My heart raced. I tried to silence my thoughts and nervousness. Nathan and Dr. Green did it so quickly, I didn’t have time to think. Don’t think!

“Sang,” he said quietly. “I need to hear it.”

“Yes.” It wasn’t what I wanted to say. Trying not to think made it harder to answer.

“Yes,
what
?”

“I want to,” I said.

He retracted his head just a fraction to focus on my eyes. “You want to kiss me?”

It was harder looking at his eyes. I only nodded.

His thumb slipped over my chin. “Say it out loud. Do you want me to kiss you, Sang?”

I forced my eyes closed longer, finding some bravery that way. “Yes.”

It must have been good enough.

Silas closed the inch of space between us.

At first, our lips just brushed. It was like he was making sure I really wanted to.

Slowly, he released my chin to cup his palm along my cheek and his lips pressed against mine harder.

It was a slow kiss, with me barely moving at all, just puckering a little.

His lips parted and he started to kiss more.

I was barely moving my lips, unsure how to move. My palms were flat against his shoulders, hanging on and at the same time, I didn’t know where else to put them.

He moved some more, and I tried to follow along. After a few moments though, he stopped, pulling back just enough to look at me. “You really haven’t been doing this long.”

My face caught on fire. “I told you!”

He laughed. “They never bothered to teach you how?”

“I didn’t know I needed to be taught.

His smile lifted. “You know, the Greeks invented kissing.”

I stared at him, at first thinking he was serious. There had to have been kissing before the Greeks were ever around. “Oh?”

“Ancient people might have pressed lips together,” he said. “But it was the Greeks that really kissed for the first time. It’s in our blood.”

I didn’t have a response for him. I’d never heard him talk about what the Greeks were like, and the boast sounded fun rather than competitive.

“Open your mouth,” he said. “Make an ‘o’ shape.”

I did, my mouth popping open.

“Relax your lips.”

I was trying not to giggle, but I was getting lessons on kissing! I closed my mouth a little more, and tried to relax my lips.

“Now make...I guess the closest would be to make like you’re saying ouch.”

I said a slow, silent
ouch
, moving my lips deliberately.

“That’s it.” He leaned in, moving close again. “Keep doing that. Move when I do.”