Read Online Everything Between Us by Mila Ferrera - Free Book Online Page A

like this change in routine.”
    She takes a full step back from me, her arms rising to wrap around her middle. In the moment it takes for me to mentally kick myself, her eyes drift back out to the lawn. “I’m sorry for being so mean, Daniel,” she says to the glass. “You didn’t deserve that at all.” Then she sighs and returns to her chaise.
    I stand there, stunned. That was an honest to God peace offering if I’ve ever heard one, and I’m shocked at how much it means to me, how happy I am to hear it. “I’m sorry for being so callous,” I reply.
    She gives me a questioning look, but I don’t know how to explain how bad I feel about drawing her at her worst and shoving it in her face. I don’t know how to apologize for dismissing her fear. I’m afraid if I try, I’ll make her feel worse. So instead, I stride over to my toolbox and pluck an extra charcoal pencil from the case. I grab my sketchpad and sit down on the end of the chaise. She pulls her knees to her chest, but she keeps her head up and her eyes on me. I put the large pad of paper between us.
    “When you first start a sketch,” I begin, “keep your strokes light. It’s just an outline. A shadow of what’s to come.” I hold a pencil out to her, working hard to keep my hand steady. My heart’s thundering, enough for me to feel it through my whole body.
    Stella gazes at the pencil. Taking it means she’s giving in, and she knows it. Her tongue darts out and wets her bottom lip, which she catches between her teeth a moment later. I wait, wondering why it means so much to me, why I want her surrender more than I’ve wanted anything for a long time. Is it just the idea of winning? Because this doesn’t feel like a game.
    Her fingers twitch around her ankles. Her eyes meet mine, full of questions, pleading almost, for what I don’t know. Her fingers brush mine as she takes the pencil, and that tiny touch is seismic.
    I want her .
    I want to run my hand up her leg and feel the curves and dips of her muscles and sinew, her skin beneath my palm. I want to see the look in her eyes, and if it changes when I do that to her. I want her to feel as naked beneath my touch as I do beneath her gaze.
    “I don’t know what I want to draw,” she says, her raspy voice punching straight through the haze of my fantasy.
    I hunch, my elbows on my knees, because I’m so fucking hard right now that I could drive nails with my dick. “Ahh, how about that tree?” I ask unsteadily, flailing toward a patch of woods at the edge of the lawn.
    She squints. I breathe. She nods. I relax a little.
    “So am I just supposed to …” She waves the tip of her pencil over the blank page.
    “Yes. I’ll draw one, too.”
    She chuckles. “Okay, but you’re my teacher, so you’re not allowed to laugh, right?”
    “Right,” I say firmly. I glance over at her and her smile does it to me all over again, so I turn back to my paper. “Let’s get to work.”
    I draw a tree, and she draws something that looks vaguely like a tree. I give her a few pointers about perspective, and she actually listens. She’s not exactly a natural, but she’s not hopeless, either. I get a little distracted watching her hands move, so I force myself to focus on my own sketch, adding foliage and branches to keep myself occupied. I’ve never really done this, sharing a paper with someone else, side by side, building something together. I’ve always done my own thing, because I wanted to control it. But this is kind of fun. Her shoulder is almost touching mine. She smells really good, like vanilla with a hint of cinnamon. It makes me want to press my nose to her skin.
    I need to move away from her. I get up and pretend to be looking through my box for something, just to give myself a chance to calm down. Now that I know what this is, maybe I can control it. I can’t afford to be this attracted to Liza’s daughter. And even if I can’t control that, I can control what I do about it: