I'm with the Band

Chapter 20: She's With Me

The first kiss was hesitant. Like we were both still trying to understand each other past the new revelations. His soft lips brushed against mine and paused there, not daring to push further as if I would break if he pursued me. My lips paused for a moment as well. And there we sat in the red hue of the LED tour bus lights, with a kiss that felt like a whisper, worthy of any Korean drama kiss filmed in the mid 2000's. 

My heart pounded in my chest at his touch, I wanted more but was afraid to initiate. I didn't want to break what we had just built up. The understanding, the communication and the new found trust. I was extremely aware of Leighton's completely bare upper half, and the thought of his muscles rippling under my touch made my ears burn red and something inside me run dangerously warm. 

I pulled away from the kiss, seemingly already out of breathe. His lips followed mine briefly before the connection was broken. 

Silence. 

The world had completely stopped around us. Leighton stared at me intensely. I was hopelessly lost in his sharp black eyes, searching for permission to continue, to push me further. How long has it been since he kissed me? How long has it been since I felt like this? Never. I have never felt like this; So full of dangerous desire that I was struggling to contain. Nobody has ever made me feel this way, except for him. Except for Leighton. 

The mood shifted further inside the bus as if an ancient sundial somewhere in the world had forecasted the darkest midnight. 

"We don't have to," Leighton managed to get out in a raspy whisper. He swallowed once, his throat probably just as dry and nervous as mine. "If you don't want to." 

I shook my head, allowing myself to inhale the scent of too much hair gel. The familiar scent spread even more warmness throughout my body. I wanted to do this. I was only holding back for him, but I wouldn't anymore. I couldn't anymore. 

"Okay," he breathed. "I'm done holding back." 

Urgently but delicately, he took my face in his hands and brought me to his lips again. This time was different. His hands fell to my waist, leaving traces of goosebumps across the exposed flesh of my stomach and back. Has his hands always been this big, this warm? My hands instinctively found his hair, the fingertips raking through the hard gel and leaving strands sticking up in different directions. He tasted like the faint tears of yesterday, yet there was a sweetness to him. I was the one that slipped my tongue in first this time and he reciprocated with a slight pressure push on my waist, urging me to lie down on my back. My body responded immediately to his touch, leaning back while maintaining a kiss that had started slow and steady but had now built into an urgent want and need. 

My back was pressed against the couch cushion now, Leighton straddling me with his hands beside my face, desperately immersed in our unbreakable kiss. My cheeks flushed red, my body trembled every time he caught my lower lip in his. I wanted to be closer. I wanted more. 

Skillfully he lifted his left hand from the cushions zipping down the leather under bust corset and tossing it to the side. It landed with a thunk against the opposite curtained window but neither of us noticed. His hands found the hem of my white off-the-shoulder blouse and he tried to push it up my body stiffly with poor results. On the second time I grabbed his hand and pulled it away. 

"Wait." I whispered out of breathe. He looked at me with his black eyes but leaned back away from me obediently. I sat up slowly, grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head, tossing it to the other side of the tour bus as well. Leighton's breathe slowing to a shallow ragged pulse. He sat there, waiting for me to give him permission to continue. His eyes refusing to leave mine. I felt as though I could hear my heartbeat pounding in the air beside my ears. I wonder if he could feel it too. I wonder if he heard his own heart beat.