After the Rain Read Online Free PDF

The smile that lights up her face assures me that she’s okay.
    “Hey,” she says as she hops up into my truck.
    Not wasting a second, I close the space between us and grab her face in my hands. I kiss her like I haven’t seen her in months, using my tongue to press through the seam of her lips, tasting her slowly. There isn’t one bit of her mouth that I leave unexplored.
    By the time I pull away and rest my forehead against hers, we’re both having trouble catching our breaths. “What was that for?” she whispers.
    Her heart is beating so hard that I swear I can hear it. “That was I missed you,” I say, kissing her one more time before moving back into the driver’s seat.
    “You saw me just two minutes ago.”
    “That was long enough to miss you.”
    As I drive to the dorm, I see her touch her lips with her fingertips out of the corner of my eye. She catches me about the fourth time I look at her, and her cheeks turn pink. “What?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
    “I like watching what my kisses do to you.”
    If she thinks I didn’t see how she rolls her eyes as she turns her attention out the passenger side window, she’s wrong. I feel myself relaxing. This isn’t the same Kate I knew back in Carrington.

Three Months Later – December 2012

    I MANAGED TO AVOID PARTIES my first three months of college, but now that the semester is over, it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to avoid them much longer. I’ve come a long way, and this is another step toward normalcy. Most of all, I think I’m ready to do it.
    Every weekend there are huge parties on and off campus, and I think it’s safe to say that Cory and Rachel haven’t missed a single one. They asked us to come with for the first few weeks and then gave up when we turned them down every time. This week they couldn’t stop talking about the huge end-of-semester party at the campus’s largest frat house. When they asked us to go, Beau looked over at me, and I couldn’t say no. I’m not going to hold him—or myself for that matter—back anymore. Beau seems to think that attending a college party is something I should try at least once in my life. I hope he’s not wrong—he rarely is.
    I pull on a pair of jeans and a fitted black turtleneck sweater before spending some time adding a few loose curls to my hair. By the time I hear a knock at the door, I’m ready to go. I may even be a little excited about it, if I’m being honest with myself.
    I haven’t seen Beau since earlier this afternoon, and that’s way too long for me. As soon as the door is wide open, I jump right into his arms.
    “Did you miss me?” he asks, his lips brushing against my hair.
    “Every time I’m not with you, I miss you.”
    “I’m here now.”
    He wraps his arms around my lower back and pulls me tightly against his body. I melt into him, slowly moving my lips up his throat until they reach his mouth. His hands run up my back as he drags my bottom lip between his teeth. He doesn’t kiss me like it’s our first kiss or our last … he kisses me like I’m the air he needs to breathe. And when he does, it makes me feel alive. From my head to my toes, I feel him.
    His fingers tangle in my hair as his tongue slips past my lips. I’m so caught up in him that it doesn’t register that my back is against the wall. It’s the only thing holding me up because my knees are too weak to do the job, especially when his thumbs run against the tender skin below my ears. He knows what drives me crazy, but he always moves slowly. Maybe he’s afraid I’m still breakable, or I’ll run if he moves too fast.
    It’s not like that anymore. I’m not a fragile crystal dangling from a thin chain. I’m strong now—maybe stronger than I ever was before. My legs part, allowing him to step closer, and instead of feeling scared, I feel safe. The amount of trust I have in him allows him to be my comfort and security. He’s also the guy who can ignite a fire