Falling from gravity, p.8
Falling from Gravity, page 8
I stroked his cheek, memorizing every strong line of his face and loving the smooth texture of his skin as he kissed my palm. His lids closed at my touch.
Turning my head, I let my eyes flicker to the moon outside the double doors. I pulled in a deep breath. The exhale was cleansing, and for a moment, I forgot that the countdown to our end was ticking in the distance.
When I was with him, I didn’t want to think about him leaving for basketball and me leaving for dance. I wanted to spend every minute making up for lost time. Tobias and I had known each other since we were kids; he was my neighbor as well as my best friend’s older brother. But I never really knew him, not the way I wanted to know him now.
“What would you have studied if you didn’t have basketball?”
He appeared to ponder that for a moment before propping up on his elbow. When he spoke, he ran his finger along the edge of my waistband. “That’s easy. Sports management. I don’t know if I ever saw a life for myself without basketball in it. But even thinking about my future—once I retire from the NBA—I’d love to teach or coach.” His eyes flickered to mine. “What about you? What would you want to study if you didn’t have your sights set on being an NBA dancer?”
I ignored the wings in my chest that fluttered at the mention of my dream. Dancing in the NBA had been all I’d wanted since I was a little girl. “Something in physics, I think.”
He pulled back, an amused gleam in his eyes. “Really?”
Shrugging, I pointed at my window, where the moon hung perfectly centered in the frame. “I’ve always been fascinated with nature and the mechanics behind it all. My parents got sick of me always asking ‘how’ and handed me a set of encyclopedias.” I laughed, knowing how that sounded. “Yeah, encyclopedias. For extremely liberal parents whose careers relied on communication media, they had a thing against overstimulation before the age of thirteen. Whenever I had a question, I’d pull those suckers out and go down the rabbit hole of theories.”
“Theories, huh?” He bent his head, bringing his nose to my neck, running it along my sensitive skin before placing a gentle kiss there. “What’s your favorite one?”
I smiled. “The misconception of the moon’s strength. The moon may be small, but it’s powerful enough to move oceans.”
He shifted so he was looking into my eyes. “Really?”
Nodding, I ran my fingers up his arm, hating that nagging reminder in the back of my mind that one of these nights would be our last. “How do you think the ocean tides are formed?”
He pitched a brow. “From the moon?”
“Close. From earth’s gravitational attraction of the moon.” I smiled. “I think it’s kind of magical how powerful the moon’s pull is. How a black piece of rock in the sky can move oceans, light up the midnight sky, and stabilize the rotation of the largest terrestrial planet in our solar system.”
A strand of hair fell into his eye during my geek out. I was moving it away when his lip tipped at the corner. “Did you just use the term ‘terrestrial planet’?”
I pushed against him with a laugh. “Yes, kinda like you use the words ‘drive penetration,’ ‘pin downs,’ and ‘shooting fundamentals.’” I cringed at my choice of terms as Tobias threw his head back and laughed.
Growling, I pushed him onto his back and moved to sit up. He caught himself on his elbows, shot his arms out for me, and pulled me onto his lap. His chin tipped up. Mine tipped down. And our lust-infused smiles met.
“How does it feel to be the short one?” I teased.
His hands were skimming the tops of my thighs. “Feels damn good.” He continued his ascent until his palms were cupping my ass through my yoga pants. “Glad you asked.”
Laughing, I leaned down, teasing his lips with mine. “You know what else feels good?”
His blue eyes darkened. “Oh, I have an idea.”
Gentle fingers plucked at the hint of pink fabric peeking out from my pants. Pinching back a smile, I wiggled above him.
His nose flared as he growled and pulled me closer. With my knees wrapped around him and my chest pressed to his, he buried his next words in my neck. “You tease me like you don’t think I’ll rip these clothes right off you.”
My entire body heated as I tripped on my next breath. “You threaten me like that would be a bad thing.”
The corner of his mouth curled with what I hoped was wicked intention. “You’re sassy when I interrupt your sleep. I think I like it a little too much.”
“I think you like me a little too much.”
He shrugged, his eyes slipping from mine and moving down my neck. “You might be right. Doesn’t change anything, though, does it? We decided to keep things between us a secret.”
Detecting something new in his tone, I pulled back to look at him. “We did. And it was the right thing to do.”
His brows crinkled, and I couldn’t help wondering if he was having second thoughts. But why? We’d talked about “what came next” a dozen times after coming home. It was a mutual decision to keep things between us on the downlow.
Eventually, he nodded. “Yeah, Trin would be pissed.”
That was an understatement, and we both knew it. Trinity, Tobias’s younger sister and my best friend, had always been protective of her older brother. Sick of all the girls who had befriended her just to get to Tobias, she had threatened me years ago, telling me I was dead to her if I so much as flirted with her brother. I’d spent years honoring her wishes until not a single wish on earth could have saved me from falling for the boy next door.
At times, I thought she couldn’t possibly feel the same way that she had when we were thirteen. We were old enough to freely choose who we wanted to get involved with.
But I saw the way Trinity guarded Tobias like he was a forbidden Egyptian tomb. And how she talked about him like he was a troubled Lost Boy whom only she could ever understand. This past year, especially, had been the worst. It wasn’t until Tobias filled me in on the big family secret, during our spontaneous spring break trip, that I began to understand the change in my best friend.
Tobias had been adopted as a baby, and their parents hid it from everyone, including their children. When he’d stumbled upon his adoption papers last year, it changed the path of everything Tobias had been working for since he was a kid. His dreams of getting drafted shattered in the blink of an eye. He couldn’t focus on school, basketball, or anything besides the lie he told himself—that he no longer belonged. He referred to it as his spiral.
“It’s more than Trinity’s ego I’m worried about,” I said with a sad smile. “We can’t get all wrapped up in feelings. It would be so easy to—” I forced out a sigh.
His eyes pleaded with mine. “What were you going to say?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, knowing I had to tread carefully. Any talk of feelings would be dangerous territory. “You’re entering the draft. You’ll end up moving to who knows where, and—”
“Back up, Amelia. Hopefully, I’m draft eligible, which doesn’t guarantee me a job. I sent in my letter a few days ago, and I won’t be getting any kind of response for at least another week. With my history, dropping out of college ball before the championship, they probably won’t even consider me for the combine, which makes my chances shoddy at best.”
“Combine?”
“It’s like a showcase where teams measure the skills of top-level prospects. Only a select bunch make it through.”
My jaw dropped. “You have that agent now. Aaron Wells. He knows the scouts. He helped you explain why you had to drop when you did. And you still have your stats from when you did play. You’ll get in. You’re meant to play ball. Aaron came to you for a reason. So, when you do get invited to the combine, who knows where you’ll end up after the draft. And I’ll be in LA.”
His brows pulled together. “It sounds like you’ve been giving this some thought.”
“Haven’t you?”
He didn’t even hesitate to nod. “Yeah, actually. I have. I meant what I said in Big Sur. I want to take you out on a real date. Dinner. Movies. The beach. We don’t have long before one of us leaves, and honestly—” He swallowed. “The more time we spend together, the more I want to tell Trin.”
Panic clutched my chest, breaking my heart in the process. “We can’t.”
“Why not? I could get picked up by the Lions. Then I’d be in LA, too.”
I sighed heavily. “And if you don’t? What if we tell Trinity about us and she hates us for it? It will ruin whatever time we have left. Is hurting Trin really worth it if you do leave?” Maybe it was selfish of me, but I didn’t want Tobias to have to choose between his sister and me. I worried it would come down to that.
His eyes moved between mine as his jaw tightened. “I see you’ve got this all figured out already. Thanks for consulting me.”
I cupped his face in my hands. “Stop. I don’t want us to do anything we might regret later. Being together feels right, but once you’re gone—”
“I only play ball five months out of the year.”
“Yeah, and then there’s preseason and off-season practice, training, promo. You think you’ll have time for me? You think you’ll even remember me?”
“Amelia—”
I shook my head, cutting him off and swallowing my emotion. I refused to let either of us dwell on the what-ifs. “Let’s just wait another week. The draft is in June, right? You’ll know where you’re going at that point.”
He stared at me for what felt like forever, his eyes swimming with so many words I wanted to probe out of him, but I knew there would be no turning back after hearing them. Things were so new between us, I didn’t want either of us regretting a single decision. Giving us time to make those decisions felt right.
I gave him a small smile in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Just think. We could both be joining the NBA in a couple of months.”
Tobias didn’t smile, which made my insides stir, but he started to nod slowly. That slight acknowledgment was enough to give me my next breath. Then his eyes dimmed as he tilted his face up, pointing his mouth toward mine.
I leaned in, brushing my lips against his, desperately wanting him to respond with the eagerness he had walked in with.
A happily ever after wasn’t in the cards for us anytime soon, but for now, he was mine, and I was his. And every stolen moment was one I would attempt to stretch for as long as possible.
Want more? Read Defying Gravity HERE
BOOKS BY K.K. ALLEN
Contemporary Romance
Center of Gravity
Falling From Gravity (Short Story)
Defying Gravity
Romantic Suspense
Waterfall Effect
New Adult Romance
Up in the Treehouse
Under the Bleachers
Through The Lens (Release TBD)
Rock Star Romance
Dangerous Hearts
Destined Hearts
Young Adult Fantasy
Summer Solstice Enchanted
The Equinox
The Descendants
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ABOUT K.K. ALLEN
K.K. Allen is an award-winning USA Today Bestselling author who writes heartfelt and inspirational contemporary romance stories mainly about “capturing the edge of innocence.” K.K. graduated with a degree in interdisciplinary arts and sciences from the University of Washington and currently works as a digital producer for a leading online educational institution. She resides in central Florida, and is the mother to a ridiculously handsome little dude who owns her heart.
K.K.’s publishing journey began in June 2014 with the YA Contemporary Fantasy trilogy, The Summer Solstice. In 2016, K.K. published her first Contemporary Romance, Up in the Treehouse, which went on to win the Romantic Times 2016 Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best New Adult Book of the Year. With K.K.’s love for inspirational and coming-of-age stories involving heartfelt narratives and honest emotions, you can be assured to always be surprised by what K.K. releases next.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About K.K. Allen
K.K. Allen, Falling from Gravity
