Oblivion

“Calmed down. How’s Kitten?”

“Sleepy.”

“And?” I smiled.

Kat dragged her fingers along the side of my cheek and then over my jaw. I turned into the caress, kissing the palm of her hand as I unbuttoned the cardigan she was wearing. “Happy you’re here.”

Thrilled to hear that, I spread my hand over the thin tank top she’d worn under the sweater. “And?”

“And glad I didn’t get eaten by a bear or coyote.”

Not expecting that, I arched a brow. “What?”

She gri

I shook my head. “Back to talking about me.”

Kat wasn’t in a talking mood, more of a showing mood, which I was so freaking down for. Her fingers trailed over my bottom lip, and then her hand dropped to my chest. She caught the front of my shirt, pulling my mouth to hers.

I fell into that kiss.

What started off as slow and questioning escalated into a flood of deep, raw sensations that crashed over us in waves. Kissing her. Touching her. It could never be enough. I could get drunk on the way she tasted, high on the breathy sounds she made as my fingers slid over the bare skin of her belly, forget the world because of the way she wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight, and live off how she felt beside me, under me.

I pressed her down, carefully settling my weight over her. The kisses took on a harder, deeper quality. She curled her leg around mine. Her fingers tugged on my hair, and when she moved, my name was a gasp on her lips that nearly broke me.

“I need to stop,” I said, voice rough to my own ears. Kat and I had been on the verge of taking everything to the next level, to that level, for a while now. But moments like this, when we were so close, when I knew she was as ready as I was, I was seconds from doing something stupid. Like getting her out of her clothes in the middle of the woods, and man, that was so not where our first time should take place. Or losing myself completely without us even getting to that part, because damn, I was close. “Like right now.”

Kat threaded her fingers through the hair at the back of my neck. “Yeah, we should.”

Good idea. Great plan. We did need to stop. Like right now.

I kissed her again.

And Kat held me tighter, sliding her hands down my back until they were under my shirt, and that kicked up a whole new riot of sensations. She arched her back, pressing her chest into mine, and I could feel her heart beating at the exact rate as mine. Our breaths were coming fast as my fingers brushed over the delicate lace of her bra.

A shiver of awareness skated over my skin. I stiffened a second before I heard my sister shriek, “Oh, dear God and baby Jesus in the manger, my eyes!” Dee shrieked. “My eyes!”

Kat’s eyes flew open as I lifted my head. Dee stood a few feet away from us, arms folded across her chest, staring at us like she’d just walked in on us engaging in wild animal sex.

Kat yanked her hands out from under my shirt as she whispered, “Oh my God.”

“Dee, you didn’t see anything.” And then I added much lower, “Because you have impeccable timing.”

“You were on…her and your mouths were doing this.” She unfolded her arms and smushed her hands together repeatedly. I frowned at the gestures. That was not how Kat and I looked. “And that’s more than enough I want to see. Like ever.”

Kat pushed at my chest, so I rolled off her. She sat up, twisting around.

“What do you want, Dee?” I asked.

She huffed, pressing her hands on her hips. “Well, I don’t want anything from you. I wanted to talk to Katy.”

Kat stiffened with tangible surprise. “You do?”

“Ash and I were going to this new little shop in Moorefield Saturday afternoon. They sell vintage dresses. For prom,” she added.

“Prom?”

I looked over at Kat. The way she said “prom” was like it was a totally different language. While our heads hadn’t been wrapped up in all things prom-related, it was a given that we would go to it. I didn’t care what anyone had to say about it, I’d be damned if she didn’t get to experience her senior prom.

“Yeah, prom’s at the end of the month.” Dee looked over at me. “And most of the dresses are going to be gone. And I don’t know if the place has anything, but Ash heard about it and you know how she is with clothes, so she’s in the know. Like a couple of days ago, she found this really cute cropped sweater that—”

“Dee,” I said, a small grin tugging at my lips.

“What? I’m not talking to you.” She faced Kat, exasperated to the point I wanted to laugh. “Anyway, would you like to go with us? Or have you already gotten a dress? Because if you have gotten a dress, then I guess the trip is pointless, but you could still—”

“No. I haven’t gotten a dress,” Kat said.

“Good!” Dee gri

“Wait,” she said. “I wasn’t pla

“What?” Dee’s mouth dropped open, and my brows flew up. “It’s senior prom.”

“I know, but with everything going on… I haven’t really thought about it.” And that had to be a lie, because the entire school was plastered with prom flyers.

Dee’s incredulous expression grew. “It’s senior prom.”

“But…” Tucking her hair back, she glanced me. “You haven’t even asked me to go.”

I smiled. “I didn’t think I needed to ask. I assumed we would go.”

Dee rocked back on the balls of her feet. “Well, you know what they say about people who assume.”

My grin faded, because Kat was staring at me like I grew a second, not nearly as attractive head. “What, Kitten?”

She blinked. “How can we go to prom with everything going on? We’re so close to having enough tolerance to go back to Mount Weather and—”

“And prom is on a Saturday,” I said, pulling her hand away from her hair. “So let’s say that in two weeks we’re ready to go, it will be Sunday.”

Dee hobbled around with excitement, and it was really weird to see. “And it’s only a few hours,” she insisted. “You guys can halt the self-mutilation for a few hours.”

I could see the indecision on her face, and I knew where it was coming from. It didn’t have anything to do with practicing with the onyx. I slipped my arm around her and leaned in, keeping my voice low as I spoke to her. “It’s not wrong, Kat. You deserve this.”

She closed her eyes. “Why should we get to celebrate when she can’t?”

Hell.

I rested my cheek against hers. “We’re still here, and we deserve to be normal and do normal things every once in a while. It’s not your fault.” I kissed her temple. “Will you go to prom with me, Kat?”

Dee shifted some more. “You should really say yes, so we can go dress shopping and so I don’t have to witness a really awkward moment of you turning my brother down. Even though he deserves to be knocked down a peg or two.”

Kat laughed as she glanced at Dee. My sister gave her a small smile, and I hoped that smile was a white flag. Five months of each of them circling each other was enough time.

“Okay.” Kat took a deep breath. “I’ll go to prom—only because I don’t want this conversation to get awkward.”

I tweaked her nose. “I’ll take what I can get for as long as I can get it.”

Kat was acting a little weird after school on Thursday. She was quiet and tense. I picked at her until she relaxed, and by the time we left the post office and made it to her house, she was smiling more than she was frowning, so I considered that a win for the day.

Once inside her house, she opened a window in the living room while I helped myself to a glass of milk. When she walked back into the kitchen, her appreciative gaze was hard to ignore as it roamed all over me.

My head immediately went to a happy and fun place, but I had a surprise pla