Free Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen

how you get a song stuck in your head?” he says, letting out a quiet breath. “And no matter how hard you try, it just keeps playing over and over again until finally you just have to start singing it aloud.”
    I smile as I finish the set of lyrics. “Yeah.”
    “Well, that’s why I’m drawing you.”
    “Because I was stuck in your head?”
    “Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he says, and I pretty much stop breathing. “It’s actually been that way for a while now.”
    I’m wary to ask, but I have to know. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Because sometimes when a song gets stuck in my head it can get kind of annoying.”
    He pauses and I wait for him to start teasing me and make a joke about me being a pain in his ass. But he doesn’t say anything, and the sound of the pencil scratching against the paper stops. I want to tip my chin down so I can see what he’s doing, but I’m too nervous, so I lie there, singing under my breath.
    Seconds later, he’s climbing over me with a small, but diffident smile on his face. “It’s not annoying at all.” He props an arm on each side of my head and positions his body over me. I don’t move, don’t breathe, and I’m pretty sure my heart stops beating. “You’re like my favorite song, Nova. The one that I never want to forget. That I want to play over and over again.”
    I try not to grin because it sounds like a line. But Landon’s never been the kind of guy to feed girls cheesy pickup lines. In fact, he hardly talks to girls except me, and the fact that he’s using a music analogy says how much he knows me. “Would you put me on repeat?” I ask like a dork, because he’s too close and it’s making me nervous and stupid, apparently.
    He bites at his bottom lip, confining a smile. “I do… you’re always in my head…” He leans toward me, and I wonder if this is the moment when he’s finally going to kiss me, instead of almost kiss me. “Always.…” Right before our lips touch, I detect a flash of sadness in his eyes, heavier than what’s normally there, but it vanishes the instant our lips come into contact.
    I suck in a slow, shaky breath as warmth spreads throughout my body and his tongue slips over mine. He tastes like spices I’ve never dared taste before. I know it’s not his first kiss, but he knows it’s mine. I wonder what he thinks about me. Why he’s kissing me. I’m thinking a lot of things.
    “Nova,” he whispers, and I realize his lips are no longer touching but hovering over mine, his breath warm against my skin. “Do you want me to stop?” he asks.
    My chest is heaving and every time it rises up, it brushes against his. “No.”
    He wets his lips with his tongue, and then runs his eyes over me, shifting his weight to the side so he can brush my hair out of my eyes. “Relax,” he says, and when I nod, he reconnects his mouth to mine.
    I try to do what he says and relax, but when his tongue enters my mouth again, I start to panic, wondering if I’m doing everything right. But the longer his tongue massages mine, the more my muscles start to unravel. I become a little daring and bite his lip, which he seems to like, because he shudders. My hands are still lying motionlessly at the side of me, but his are all over me, feeling my sides, my waist, my hips. His fingers start to sneak underneath the bottom of my dress and I tense, deliberating whether I should tell him to stop. But as I search for a reason why, I realize there’s not one and that I want him to touch me.
    I loosen up and move my hands up to his chest, taking the opportunity to feel the lines of his lean muscles. His fingers graze the bottom of my panties, and for a second the weight of him falls against me. I arch my body into his, knowing that our friendship that once existed is no more, but I don’t care. I want this—want him.
    Our slow kiss starts to heat up as his tongue explores the inside of my mouth, and then I gasp for air as he