She awoke slowly to a slight pressure against her forehead. But it wasn’t unpleasant. It was warm and alive. She could feel its vibration even while her eyes remained closed. She was lying in a comfortable bed. But she had the sense that she was not alone. Alarmed, her eyes flew open.
A scant few centimeters from her face another face lay. Her eyes studied that handsome countenance as her heart flipped over at his proximity. Jin was lying right next to her! With utmost self-restraint, she resisted the immediate urge to jump up off the bed.
Why was she lying on a bed next to Jin? Fear spiraled through her for a moment as she realized she remembered nothing. Her hand flew up to pat her clothing. Everything seemed to be in its rightful place. She glanced down. They were both lying on top of the covers. Her eyes traveled the length of Jin’s lean form. He was fully dressed too. She heaved a mighty sigh of relief. Apparently, they had just slept together. That was all. Slept beside each other.
But how come she couldn’t remember anything? She closed her eyes and focused on what she could remember. Ugh. Today was her birthday. And Jin’s. Her eyes flew open and took in his face. He was here. With her. Asleep on her bed. On his birthday. Instead of with his friends. Her heart shifted. She had been so mean to him, so angry with him. And all he’d wanted to do was to help her. To make her feel special. She’d been cruel to him. So cruel.
Tenderness flooding her heart, she gazed at his beautiful face, relaxed in sleep. His lovely eyelids hid his chocolate eyes from her view. But she remembered them nonetheless, recalled the kindness in them. His dark lashes were nestled against his cheeks. Her eyes slid down the straight curve of his regal nose before tracing his full, pouty lips. What would it feel like to be embraced by them? A few more centimeters and she could find out…
Her stomach dipped as she imagined it. Kissing Jin. That would be quite the birthday present. Her first kiss. Would it also be Jin’s?
She shook her head. Doubtful. He was twenty-seven years old today. Surely, he’d been kissed before. But she hadn’t. It had driven Santiago nuts, but she had never given her lips to him. She wasn’t sure why. She just hadn’t been able to bring herself to. Something about Santiago had never felt right after her parents died. So she had kept her lips to herself even as he had called himself her boyfriend. She had never even been tempted to kiss Santiago. Not after her fifteenth birthday.
But now as she gazed at Jin, she was more than tempted. She felt an intense desire burning in her gut. She felt tears pricking her eyes. What was this? Her heart was yearning for Jin. Longing for the comfort of his arms, the bliss of his kiss.
She took a deep breath, but it didn’t help to loosen the tightness she felt in her chest. She wanted Jin. His smile. His laugh. His kind eyes. His sympathetic gaze. His helpful heart. His touch. His kiss. She wanted all of him. She loved him.
Her heart stopped. No. She couldn’t love him. She had pulled away from everyone. That way they wouldn’t be hurt by her. That way she couldn’t be hurt again. She hadn’t kissed Santiago not because she was waiting for something better. She had been afraid to give him her heart. Because then she could lose it again. She could lose him. He could be brutally torn from her just as her parents had been. So Santiago had never truly entered her heart.
But somehow, when she wasn’t looking, when her guard had dropped, Jin had slipped, unnoticed, into her heart. She put her hand over that tender organ. How to get him out? How to stop caring? Stop loving him? How to stop being vulnerable to more pain?
Just then, Jin’s eyes fluttered open. She and Jin lay side by side, staring each into the other’s eyes. And two stomachs did somersaults. And two hearts began to beat faster.
“What’s wrong?” Jin whispered, noting the distress in her gaze.
“I can’t,” she breathed.
“You can’t what?” Jin asked, perplexed.
“I can’t fall in love.”
Now this was an interesting conversation to wake up to. Jin’s eyes adoringly traced her lovely face and kissed her every feature before he responded as his eyes found her own again, “OK.”
Then, slowly, he drew near to her, his eyes traveling from her eyes to her lips and back again, begging permission. He must have liked the message in her eyes more than the one she’d spoken through her lips. For in the next instant, his head dipped, and his lips found her own. He sank into her softness and knew that he had finally come home.
Julieta’s heart had just flown straight up into the sky, like a rocket suddenly catapulted towards the moon. Seeing him coming for her lips, she’d closed her eyes, her heart beating wildly in her chest. She wanted his kiss. She longed to feel his arms around her. His lips found her own first. But then his arm came up around her and pulled her towards him. The length of her body fit perfectly with his own. She was embraced in the next instant by all of him. She could feel him surrounding her, his arm lovingly cradling her while his lips ministered joy to her own.
