“Because, believe it or not, what you want is what matters to me. Do you want me, Trouble?”
The tip of my tongue darts out to lick my bottom lip. “Yes.”
His hips grind against me at my words. His lips descend on mine with bruising force, and I open up to him.
It’s a furious, violent, intense kiss. “Then why?” he pants, nipping at my bottom lip. I can feel him pulsing against me through the fabric of our clothes.
“I want them too, Nash.”
“Fuck.” He steps away.
Without his hand and his body keeping me upright, my hands grab the rough tree trunk behind me. “I’m sorry if that isn’t what you wanted to hear. But I’m never gonna lie to you.”
His hot stare turns into a glare. “You know what, Taryn? I don’t think it matters who you want. Unless you want to quit the team.”
Taryn, not trouble. For some reason that hits me harder than the vitriol in his words.
But he’s right. “I don’t want to quit the team.”
For a second, he looks as sad as he is angry. “Well, fuck. Then I guess if I lost you, they did too. End it with them before it’s too late.”
Nash walks away.
As I watch his broad back, my mind is reeling.
End it with them.The same words in that text message. Could those texts have come from Nash?
I don’t want to think that’s possible. But is it a coincidence that I was with Nash right before I gotthat first text message the other day? And now Nash appears right after I got those texts.
A shuddering breath escapes me as I think about it. You don’t have to be close to someone to text them. But I can’t ignore the fact that he was with me before I got the first one and then again today.
If that’s the case,I know what you did this summercould be referring to Tucker and Colsen, but it could also be about Tim.
Maybe Nash remembered that I definitely was at that party. Maybe he saw me following Tim to his room.
Could he have been watching me then, like he has been now?
“I spent a lot of time thinking about you.” His words from when he admitted that my crush on him wasn’t one-sided echo in my ears.
“I might have been stalking you here and there since we had that class together.”
What if Nash’s stalking means that he knows I was with Tim that night? And even worse, what if he saw me and Jodie leave the Gamma house in the morning?
Am I reading too much into this? It could still very much be Gen who sent those texts.
She’s obsessed with me.
But so is Nash.“I might even be a little obsessed with you.”
Maybe I should tell Jodie and see what she thinks. I shake my head when I think about how much she’s gonna freak out.
She put everything on the line for me, and I wasn’t able to stay out of trouble for more than a couple of weeks.
Before I tell my best friend anything, I need to know if those texts have anything to do with Hemlock Beach.
I need to get back so I’m not late for class.
From the outside, I look like I’m just walking to the main building. On the inside, however, I’m spiraling. I hope I won’t have to find out who wants to mess with me.
