Daring the Wild Sparks (29 page)

Dragging my fingers through his hair, I watch the strands shimmering from brown to gold in the afternoon, cloud-filtered sunshine. “I thought you were going to go find another girl?”

His head shakes under my fingers. “I can’t. Not when I’m so hung up on you.”

I dig my fingers back into his hair and lightly pull it again. His hands tighten on my hips and I smile, knowing I’m turning him on. I tip my head and look into his heated gaze. “Do you write my name in your notebooks, whisper about me to your friends and stare at me in the halls?”
His eyes burn with exhilaration. “Fuck, yes.”

I bend closer so that our noses touch. Letting go of his hair, I grasp the top of his gray jacket. “Wow, Finn Wilder. Sounds like you have it bad for me.”

The exhilaration sparking behind his glasses ignites into something hotter, and he replies again with, “Fuck, yes.”

I giggle and lean my forehead down onto his and whisper, “Yes, I’ll
go with you
. You know, be your girlfriend. I’m yours.”

Finn pulls his head back and smugly grins. “I knew you couldn’t say no to me.”

Rolling my eyes, I retort, “Don’t be cocky, Wilder.” I purse my lips and raise an eyebrow, praying I don’t smile.

He shakes his head. “You
like
me cocky.”

“Cockiness will get you nowhere,” I counter, futilely shamming disdain.

He squeezes my ass. “Oh yeah? I think it’ll get me in your pants.”

I point at his chest. “Don’t you
dare
get overconfident and think I’m going to sleep with you. I’m saving myself for my epic love. My one, true love.”

He smiles his sexy, crooked grin. “I’m here. And you’re already falling for me. It’s okay. Everybody loves me.”

Desperately straddling the line of trying not to laugh or to kiss him senseless, I scoff, “We’ll see about that.”

Unexpectedly, Finn moves his arms under my butt and swiftly picks me up. Grabbing onto his shoulders, I wrap my legs around his waist, and gripping onto his hoodie jacket, I pull it until his lips are on mine.

His lips move avidly over mine, and he choppily says, “That. Was. So. Damn. Hot.”

Wrenching my mouth from his, I ask, “Which part?”

“All of it. I could take you right on home plate.”

I cringe. “That would be dirty.” Literally, dirty. Not a turn-on.

He proudly smirks. “Oh, baby, you like me dirty.”

Diving in for another kiss, I laugh against his mouth, pulling away to nod over his shoulder. “There are people here walking the track, so that’s not going to happen anyway.”

He tips his head back in mock defeat. “Shit.”

Giggling at his playfulness, I say, “I guess you’ll just have to show me what you looked like when you were playing ball, hot shot.”

Finn raises his head and boyishly smiles. “Okay.” He gives me a quick kiss and sets me down on the bench. Before he can walk to the diamond, I ruffle up his hair and tell him, “The messier, the better.”

He shakes his head. “You’re crazy, baby,” he says with a lilted smile.
For Finn Wilder? Hell, yes.

When he turns and makes his way to the field, I quickly shrug out of his jacket and lay it on the bench behind me. I then unzip and take off my black hoodie, throwing it on top of his jacket. I straighten out my shirt. I had asked Julie to help me make a “jersey” for me on the fly. She found a spare, white T-shirt of Jack’s and pulled out a photo album since she couldn’t remember what number Finn was. I barely could concentrate on making the shirt after I saw the picture of him in his baseball uniform.
Yum
. I definitely would’ve been crushing on him. I wonder if he still has his uniform. If not, he’ll have to get one so I can have sex with him while he wears it. Especially with the cap.

Julie and I had to be fast because I had no idea where Finn was for the time being. On the front of the shirt, I used a blue marker Simone had and wrote a huge
11
in the middle and in the upper corner:
I love Finn
. On the back, I wrote
Wilder
across the top, an
11
in the middle and then at the bottom corner of that,
Sparks’ Girl
.

Simone had actually loved the idea. While I did the shirt, she found paper and made me a sign, printing bold letters with a black marker. The first three she had to throw away:
Bite me. Do me
. And then
Marry me
. I picked the fourth one she made.

I grab the sign from my pocket and unfold it as fast as I can. When Finn reaches first base, I start cheering and bouncing excitedly on the bench.

He spins around to see what I’m doing and his eyes nearly fall out of his head.

I guess he notices my shirt and sign.

Paws off, bitches!

Wilder is MY man!

Go, Finn!

“Go, baby!” I shout and giggle.

A slow smile creeps across his face and he puts his right hand over his heart. I blow him a kiss and jump off the bench. Striding to the chain link fence, I peer at him through the metal diamonds as he walks from first base to meet me.

He checks out my shirt through the fence. “What did you do?”

“I wanted to show you that I’m your biggest Finnatic.”

Finn’s smile is smooth. “And my favorite.”

“You look so sexy out there. You make me want to jump you on the dugout bench.”

“Well, if you were wearing shorts or a skirt, we’d definitely be in there.” He nods his head to the nearest dugout. “We can still go in there. Come on.”

“Hold on. I want to grab the jackets.”

I pick them up from the bleachers and walk around the fence to the dugout he disappeared into. When I take a seat next to him, he wastes no time kissing me. As we kiss, rain begins to hit the roof and we break apart.

He grumbles, “Shit. Well, I guess we can run for it.”

“We can sit here for a little bit, can’t we?”

Looking at me doubtfully, he says, “If you want to sit in a dugout.”

“It’s with you and it’s where you used to sit during games.”

Smiling, he states, “I never got to see your shirt. Turn around.” I stand up and pull my ponytail to the side so he can see the back of my “jersey.” Facing him again I ask, “Do you like it?”

A brilliant white smile lights up his face. “I love it, Becks.”

“I have my iPod.” I grab my jacket and find my white iPod in the pocket, a gift from Finn last Christmas. Without planning it, we had given each other the same thing, only different colors. Sitting down, I state, “You never know when you’ll have a music emergency.”

His expression is perplexed. “What?”

I scroll through my music as Finn leans on my shoulder to look at the screen. “A
Rod
ism.”

“He really says that?”

“Yes. Do you know something I realized today?”

He distractedly asks, “What?”

“We don’t have a song.”

He argues, “Yeah, we do.” That’s news to me.

Without looking up from my iPod, I warn, “Do not say, ‘The Eye of the Tiger’ or I will punch you in the face and break up with you right now.”

Finn gasps and mutters, “Damn. Well, what do you have on there? Any MC Hammer?”

I whip my head to him, almost knocking his glasses off his face. “You’re joking?”

Finn teasingly smirks. “Hell, no.”

Narrowing my eyes at him, I ask, “You really don’t want to kiss me again, do you?”

He leans his weight onto my arm, his breath floats down my neck and his cologne smells even sexier mixed with the damp air. “Oh, baby. You won’t be able to keep your hands off me for too long.” He’s so right.

I look back to my iPod. “You’d be the one begging
me
to kiss you. You couldn’t even keep your hands off me this morning.”

Dipping down, he kisses my neck, sending tingles through me, heightening my desire for him. “You’re absolutely right, Becks. I honestly can’t get enough of you. I want to nail you in my bed again before we leave tomorrow.”

I shake my head and tease, “I told you, I’m waiting for my true love.”

He sits up, turning my face to look at him. “Well, I know that you’re mine. You definitely would’ve been my first, along with being my last.”

“Same here, Sparks. I would’ve given it to you…eventually.”

“I would’ve waited,” he replies with sincerity.

“I know you would have.” Leaning in for a quick kiss, I smile at him and stroke my fingers through his stubble. I pick Paramore’s “The Only Exception” and stand up. I set my iPod down on the bench and offer my hand to him. “Will you dance with me?”

Finn stands and I put my hands on his shoulders as he winds his arms around my waist.

“This is my song I pick for you. I picked it because you are the only one that I will ever love. There’s no one else for me. You’re the one I’ve been waiting to love.”

“Same here, baby. There will never be anyone else for me.”

I pull on his sweatshirt jacket and bring his mouth down to mine. My hands instantly go to his hair—my specialty.

Shifting back, stretching my arms with him, he asks, “So, have you figured out where you want to go on vacation?”

“No. Have you?”

He shrugs. “We could go to a beach in a couple weeks when it’s warmer or we could get a cabin in the mountains.”

My eyes light up. “I like the cabin idea because we just were at the beach, and then I’ll be at another one again for Morgan’s wedding.”

“Okay. It doesn’t have to be the mountains. We could get a cabin at a lake. Wherever you want to go. We’ll even one with a hot tub. How’s that sound?”

“Like heaven. I just don’t want to get eaten by a bear.”

He tightens his arms around me, pulling me close. “I’ll protect you. I’ll keep you by my side the whole time. I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Do you think you can take about four, maybe five days off?”

“That’s about all the days I have left since I took sick days plus a week’s vacation when I had pneumonia in January. I get more time added each month, though.” Finn had called off from work a couple days when I was at my worst to take care of me, camping out on my bed next to me, watching me nap, helping with breathing treatments, and giving me my meds. Another time I fell even more in love with him.

He contemplatively nods. “Okay. I’ll look into some places.”

“You want to be stuck with me in a cabin for that long?”

Finn scowls. “Do you really expect me to answer that?”

I smirk. “What ever will we do? I can bring some games and you can bring some movies.”

He grins. “Now you’re talking.
Rocky
and
Die Hard
.”

“I didn’t expect anything less. I guess that means you’ll watch
Dirty Dancing
and
Pretty Woman
with me?”

Plastering a horrified expression onto his face, he asks, “What am I getting myself into?” I giggle as I clutch the side of his face and kiss him.

Instead of letting up, the rain begins to pour harder. I groan. “I guess we will have to make a run for it.” I put my black jacket on and shove my iPod and sign into my pocket. I pull my hood over my head and then slide into Finn’s jacket. He doesn’t even bother with his hood. Men.

Finn takes off his glasses and stuffs them into the pocket of his hoodie before he grabs my hand, hurriedly towing me behind him. His legs are too long and he’s way too fast to drag me at his speed.

We make it halfway to the school and Finn’s vigorous pace increases until we’re running, but I can’t keep up. “I can’t run that fast!”

Finn abruptly stops and I run into his back. He stoops. “Hop on!”

I instantly jump onto him and hold tight; however, he doesn’t make a move. Instead, he turns his face and shouts, “I always liked the rain!”

I yelp, “Finn, I’m getting soaked!”

“The wetter, the better!” He can’t even stop stealing my lines in a downpour.

Suddenly, he twirls fast and I squeal as I tighten my arms around him. “What are you doing?” I squeak, hoping I don’t fly off of his back.

“Playing with my good luck charm!” he yells over the rain.

I bury my head in his shoulder to drive away the dizziness. “I’m going to puke!”

Mercifully, Finn halts the spinning and I raise my head. He reclines his head so my face is in his. “Sorry. I got carried away,” he sputters in the drizzle.

I plow a hand through his soaked hair, flicking more water droplets. “That’s okay. At least I get to see you in some kind of shower this weekend.”

I move to kiss him, but he unexpectedly stoops again and I slide off. “What’s wrong?”

Turning around, he hastily picks me up. “Nothing. I just want to carry you this way.”