A Five-Minute Life

His mouth was grim. “When your safety is on the line? Yeah, I do.”

“What does my safety have to do with you and me on a date?” I gave him a flirty smile. “Are you dangerous?”

I already knew the answer to that. To anyone who would hurt me, Jimmy was dangerous. But not to me. Never to me.

“They want to keep an eye on you a little longer.”

My smile collapsed. “And I should be reasonable and just go along with it, but I feel like I’m squandering this gift I’ve been given every second I’m in here.”

“I know, but it was hard for us too,” he said. “Hard for Delia, I mean. Seeing you trapped in that five-minute loop. The absence seizures.”

“But everything’s different now. I’m here. I’m awake.”

He looked about to say something, then changed his mind.

“She got to you, didn’t she?” I

asked. “What did she say?”

“She told me I shouldn’t take advantage of you. And she’s right. It’s not professional. It’s…”

“Wrong? Because I’m a mental patient who can’t make decisions for herself? And let me guess, she threatened to have you fired.”

He nodded.

The fight started to ebb out of me. “Honestly, part of me wants you to get fired. So you’ll go back to school and follow your dreams. You’re not trapped here, Jimmy. You can leave at any time.”

He shook his head. “Someone has to watch out for you.”

Another flush of warmth surged through me. “I don’t need protection anymore.”

“I know,” he said. “But for so long it’s what I’ve been d-d-doing…” He broke off, carved his hand through his hair and took a step away from me. “Goddamn, this f-f-fucking stutter…”

I pulled him back to me. “You only stutter when something is important to you.”

Jimmy nodded, his brown eyes darkening. “You’re important to me.”

He stepped closer and I felt the pull between us, inevitable and potent. My body trembled now, wanting his touch so badly. I’d been so cavalier about being held by him a few days ago, but things between us felt deeper. More. Touching him now would be different.

It would be everything…

“You’ve been important to me for a long time,” I said. “I’ve always felt close to you, Jimmy. No… connected. Do you feel it too?”

“Yeah, I do.” His hand came up and his thumb brushed my chin and then slid along my cheek. “I shouldn’t be doing this.”

“I want you to. So badly.” My eyes fell shut at the sensation and I pressed my cheek into his hand. “In my Cleopatra story, you were my Antony.”

“God, Thea.” His voice hoarse with need and raw emotion.

I opened my eyes and he was right there, breathing my breath as I inhaled his. I could feel his body along every part of mine, a vibration running along the length of me. My cheek where he touched me, down my neck, down to the tips of my breasts that ached and hardened. My hand came up to hold his wrist, and I tilted my chin up to him.

“My Antony…”

His lips brushed mine. The lightest touch, yet the sensation drew a moan from me and an electric current wrapped around my heart. It pulsed as his kiss came again. He captured my upper lip briefly, then the lower, sucking lightly. Exploring.

I clung to him, hardly able to keep my feet, as his hand slipped into my hair, angling my head. My lips parted, ready for him. He made a sound deep in his chest, and his mouth took mine completely, pushing in—the sweetest invasion—and I opened to take it all.

Another moan rose in me at the first taste of his tongue sweeping along mine, and I sank against him. His kiss gave me every part of him—the lust and raw need wrapped around a core of reverence. He kissed me completely, as if his every intention was pouring into my mouth. To take care of me. To cherish me.