Boys Like You(28)

The swans protested and took off, their large graceful bodies slicing through the air as they landed on the soft grassy bank, honking their annoyance.

Treading water, I turned around and I think I might have yelped when I spied Nate so close to me, his head above water as he watched me intently.

I wished he didn’t make me feel so nervous. I didn’t like nervous. It meant that I wasn’t in control, and ever since that awful night, the one I don’t like to talk about or remember, I was all about being in control.

“Feels good,” he said softly. It wasn’t a question.

I nodded, my eyes not leaving his as he floated closer. Wet, his hair clung to his neck and disappeared into the water, while a slow grin swept across his mouth.

I began to move backward. I couldn’t touch the bottom where we were, and I had no idea how long I could tread water before I’d begin to tire.

I moved back maybe ten feet and he kept pace, his eyes still on mine. Still making me nervous.

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“What are you doing?” I said roughly, eyeing the bank but thinking the swans wouldn’t be happy if I hauled my butt out onto their territory. Did swans attack people? Should I chance it?

“What do you think I’m doing?” he asked.

I thrust my chin up and made a face. “I don’t know. That’s why I asked.”

I refused to keep playing whatever game this was, so I continued to tread water, and even when he floated so close I could see the drops that clung to his eyelashes, I refused to budge. I wasn’t used to these kinds of games.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

I said nothing because I had no idea what to say, so I shrugged, which was kind of hard to do while treading water.

“I’ve been thinking about kissing you since yesterday.”

Holy. Hell.

“Really,” I managed to say, glad to hear the tinge of sarcasm I was going for was present.

“Yes.” His finger grazed my thigh, and I swear my heart was going to beat out of my chest. “Really.”

He rose up in the water an inch or so, making me suddenly aware that even though I was treading water, he was tall enough to stand.

“Well, what are you waiting for?”

Holy shit. Did that just come out of my mouth? Was I crazy?

Uh. Stupid question. I’d been seeing a therapist for over a 114

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year and I’d slit my wrist. Sure, it had been a lame, half-hearted attempt, but still…I was pretty sure that passed as freaking crazy in anyone’s book.

A heartbeat passed.

And then another.

His dark eyes glittered. His hands rolled over my shoulders, and he pulled me so close that I felt the heat from his skin on mine. It seared through the cool water, and I felt it like a hand-print as his fingers moved down my thigh, coaxing my legs up until I wrapped them around his waist in such a way that it made all kinds of hot, needful things erupt inside me.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

I was awash in sensations and feelings, and for once, I didn’t turn them off. I let them roll over me. I let them roll into me.

Because they felt so damn good. Because they made me feel alive, and for once, I was just going to let them be.

I wanted to let them be. I wanted to feel again. Was that so wrong?

And when his mouth rested near my ear, my hands slowly crept up until I clung to his shoulders like a child afraid to fall.

“I was waiting for this,” he said.

My eyes squeezed shut, and I loved the feel of his hard body against me. He was real. Solid. Alive.

I might have groaned or made some other equally embar-rassing noise, when I inhaled sharply, hot fires burning every-where inside me as his hand moved to my butt and he held me 115

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even tighter against him. It had been so long since I’d let anyone touch me, let alone hold me like this. Like we were already a part of each other.

“Are you done waiting?”

“Yeah,” he said throatily. “I am.

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Chapter Fourteen


Nathan


I had never wanted to kiss a girl as badly as I wanted to kiss Monroe Blackwell. Never.

Not even that first time, when I’d pressed myself against Rachel and she’d opened her shirt so that I could see her boobs.

I knew I was gonna get a hell of a lot more than a kiss from Rachel, but even then, I didn’t feel like I did right now.

Like I was coming apart. Like if I didn’t hold Monroe as close to me as I could, I would explode.

I was hot and tight and hard. And I knew that if she moved an inch or so lower, she would know just how hard I was. It wasn’t like I could hide it.

She made this noise, this almost painful-sounding noise, and my hands clutched at her, holding her in place, because suddenly I was afraid I was gonna lose it big time. I’d gone from zero to freaking one hundred in less than a minute, and I didn’t know if I could control the shit that was going on inside me.

I was so afraid of scaring her off that I nearly let her go. I BoysLikeYou.indd 117