“Don’t,” I say, pressing my hand against his chest and trying to push him back. “I can’t do this again. Can we please just…focus on the tire and forget this ever happened?”
“Courtney,” he whispers.
I look up into those bright blue eyes that have kept me captivated since the beginning of senior year and will myself not to cry. “Please?” I beg.
Puck watches me for a beat with hurt flashing behind his eyes as he refuses to step away despite my hand on his chest. After what feels like a lifetime, he dips his head and steps away, leaving me gasping for air.
How does it still hurt like this? We weren’t even together.
Puck instantly gets to work. He gets the spare out of the back and finds a little bag of tools that I probably couldn’t have found in a million years. I bring up my flashlight app once again and try to help him the best I can.
Each nut removed from the tire gets tossed on the road behind him and I swiftly pick it up, knowing if they get lost, I’m probably even more fucked than when I started. I hand him tools while he chats and flirts and I try my best to hold back my smile.
This is nice. It shouldn’t be, but damn it, it is.
Puck gets the flat off the car in record timing and I watch him in awe. How is it boys just know how to do this shit? Is there some kind of ‘how to be a boy’ textbook that they keep hidden from the female population? Who knows, but watching him do this out of pure kindness has me desperate to ease the ache building between my legs.
Puck gets the new tire onto the car before grabbing a wrench. Seeing that he’s ready to put the nuts back on, I lean in to hand him one when he turns to find them. My forehead slams hard into his, instantly bringing tears to my eyes. “Oh, fuck,” I screech, throwing my hand to my head.
Puck’s eyes go wide. “Shit, babe. Are you alright?” he demands, getting to his feet, only in doing that, it forces me back a step and naturally, I trip over the damn curb.
A gasp sails out of me as I fall back to my ass. Puck dives for me. His arm curls around my waist as he tries to break my fall. He comes down on top of me, but the added weight has my ass slamming down onto the concrete, no doubt leaving a nasty graze.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I cry as Puck stares down at me in horror.
Puck searches my face with his eyes constantly coming back to the lump I feel already coming out on my forehead. “Are you okay?”
I nod, letting my head fall back into the grass as I mentally take note of each of my body parts and apart from my ass and forehead, I think I’m actually doing alright. “I think so,” I tell him. “But the same can’t be said for my ass.”
“Trust me, babe,” he says with a grin slowly spreading across his face. “Your ass is more than fine.”
I burst out into laughter as my hand comes up and rubs against my sore head. “Seriously though, how bad is it?”
Puck shakes his head ever so slightly as though my question is absurd. His eyes drop to mine with a tenderness that would knock me on my ass if I wasn’t already there. “It’s fucking perfect, Courtney.”
I place my hand against his strong shoulder and instead of pushing him away like I should, my hand skims across the back of his shirt until it’s wrapped around his neck.
His eyes drop to my lips and I see the hesitation in his eyes, but after knowing just how good his kiss can be, I can’t possibly deny myself the opportunity. I pull him down to me, raising my head off the ground to meet his just so I can close the gap quicker.
Our lips crush down on each others with fierce desperation which has me positive that I must have hit my head a little harder than I thought. This seriously can’t be happening. The only logical explanation for this is that I’m imagining it, but hell if I’m imagining it, I’m not about to do something stupid and wake myself up.
His lips on mine are euphoric, but more than that, it feels right. What the hell have I been doing holding back from him these past few weeks? I should have been going after what I want instead of running scared. How could Puck deny that this isn’t meant to be?
My hand slips up the back of his shirt and explores the strong muscles of his back and damn, I’m not disappointed. He’s just as sculptured as I had always thought he’d be. Puck takes my waist as my legs fall open and hook around his hips and within the next second, he’s lifting me off the dirty ground and laying me down in the backseat of my car, not once taking his lips off mine.