Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 128742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
The statement just further adds to my mystification that he and Yvonne ever found themselves in a conversation long enough to learn each other’s names. The sex must have been amazing.
“What?” Nate asks roughly. “What are you thinking about?”
“Sex.”
“Oh.” He closes in on me.
“Academically.” I dodge him, crossing the room to the small window bench.
“Of course.”
Tired of stalking me around the room, he sits at the foot of my bed.
“Don’t take that to mean I’m not interested in hearing more compliments.”
He’s a good sport, laughing huskily. “To be honest, I thought you were fit the first night we met.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
My nerves go a bit haywire, losing their composure. It’s like that startled feeling when you’re about to fall but both feet haven’t left the ground yet. On my window bench, I pull my knees up to my chest because if I don’t hang on to my legs, they’re going to carry me over to that bed, and then I can’t be held responsible for my actions.
Nate scrutinizes me with a narrowed gaze. “It’s okay to feel this.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means…” He stands and strides toward me. Takes a seat beside me. “You’d rather make jokes than be present.”
I swallow hard, my head a bit foggy with the slightest scent of motor oil that follows him. It’s the dumbest thing but I can’t get enough of it.
“Because I don’t know how we do this,” I confess.
I also don’t have a filter where it comes to Nate. Not now anyway. He’s overwhelming. My entire body is scrambling to cope with the effects of him, both excited and terrified of where we go from here.
“Are you afraid of me?”
Yes, I almost say out loud. I’m afraid of letting myself fall for him. Of making a terrible mistake. I’m afraid of the untethered, unknowable next.
I bite my lip and say, “No. Well, maybe a little.”
“Should I go?”
I shake my head. If he leaves now, I’ll lose my nerve. And then spend the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I’d worked up the courage to not overthink it. To take a leap and find out what’s on the other side.
“You haven’t said if I’m making an ass of myself here.” Nate inspects the ink stains on my fingers from rummaging through the box of papers. He softly drags his fingertips across mine. “You’ve got me at a disadvantage.”
I’m not sure that’s true.
“Not a total ass, no,” I answer, smiling.
The simmering anticipation is too much to tolerate sitting still. I get to my feet only to have Nate catch my hand. When I spin around, he captures my hips and presses me to the wall.
“Last time we were here…” he says.
“Things were a little different.”
The heat in his eyes is unmistakable. So is the hard ridge straining against his zipper.
“I want you,” he says roughly. “But it’s your decision.”
There’ll be consequences, I know this. The only uncertainty is the magnitude of the fallout.
But right now, I can’t bring myself to care.
Instead, I run my finger through the soft strands of hair at the nape of his neck as I pull him toward me to place my lips against his.
When we kiss, something inside me snaps open. A sort of delirious haste to grab for as much as I can get. Nate’s thumbs push under my shirt to touch bare skin, and I forget everything but wanting to feel more of him. I strain into his hands, begging him to feel his way across my body. I’m not interested in a slow burn. I want to chase the high. Burn it down to the quick.
Nate breaks away just long enough to peel off his sweatshirt and toss it to the floor. I get one fleeting glimpse of his smooth muscular chest, and then his mouth is on mine again as he hikes my thigh up around his hip. He’s hard between my legs. A jolt of heat sizzles through me. My hands travel the planes of his shoulders, down his back, over every ridge of lean muscle. Memorizing him.
I want him. More than I thought I could when I imagined what having him would feel like. The hunger catches me off guard, this ravaging, insatiable need to consume every exhilarating ounce of pleasure from him. When his mouth explores my neck, I’m already impatient for his lips to travel lower. A noise escapes me, urging him to satisfy the desire burrowing through me. I reach down and yank my shirt off.
Nate lifts his head. He bites his lip at the sight of me, then reaches back to unhook my bra.
I’m uneasy for a moment at being exposed, struck with that ingrained hesitation of being naked in front of someone for the first time. I try not to think about my right boob and that jerk in high school who informed me it was bigger than the left one, but the insecurity is there.