The Trouble with Kissing Connor

Chapter 44- Connor

I woke up tangled in Sadie's arms. We were both still naked and had slept like that the whole night. Her skin felt warm and soft against mine, and slightly sticky. We'd held each other so long and tight that our skin felt glued together. She was still fast asleep and I took a moment to study her.

I felt like a total pervert when I lifted the blanket just a little, just enough to look at her once again —in case I didn't get to see her like this again...

If I thought I'd loved her yesterday, well, that was nothing compared to now...It was nothing compared to how I'd felt about her when I'd been inside her. In that moment when I'd looked into her eyes and held her face between my hands I had decided that it was the only place I was meant to be.

When it was over, she'd fallen asleep on my chest, which was about the best feeling ever. I lay there unable to sleep and stared at the walls of her room and smelled her hair over and over again. And it was in that moment that I realized I had to go. I had to leave. Her walls were still covered in pictures of far off places and the adventures that she wanted to have—that she would have.

She'd loved me every day for the past ten years, and, in a way, had put her entire life on hold for me. I knew I needed to let her go. Sadie needed to be free from me so that she could fulfil her destiny. I smiled a bit as I pictured her trekking through some jungle or beating off wild animals with a stick, but a tear formed in my eye as I thought about her being so far away,

I slipped out the bed and picked my clothes up off the floor. I dressed quickly as I heard a sound coming from somewhere in the house. The last thing I needed was to bump into Mr. Glover like this. I knelt at her bed and stared, mesmerized by her face. She was sleeping so soundly that I didn't want to wake her. If she woke up, it would just make leaving that much harder. I feared that if I looked into her eyes again and heard her voice, the epiphany I'd had the night before would leave me.

I leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. I kissed her on the forehead and then took her hand and held the back of it against my check.

"I love you," I whispered softly, before getting up and climbing out the window and walking towards my new life.