I take that in. “I didn’t realize.”
“Your coach will probably tell you tonight after the team is set.”
“That’sifI make the team,” I remind him.
“There is not a doubt in my mind that you will make it.”
His confidence builds my own, and I can’t help my smile. “Thanks.”
He smirks. “I’m not buttering you up just because you're my girl. I’m telling you objectively you have nothing to worry about. You’re better than every girl from last year’s team.”
His words are life-giving and motivating after the difficult week last week. I reach up on my tiptoes before I think about it and kiss him on the cheek, balancing myself against his chest with my hands. I feel him go still beneath my touch, and I pull away a moment later. “Thanks.” I take a step away, worried I’ll do far worse if I touch him any longer. “And yes, I would love to be your date. Just let me know when it is.” I stop walking. “Is it really dressy?” He nods. “Hmm. I’ll have to look through my dresses.”
“Wear the red one you wore to prom last year,” he says in a low voice.
I feel my eyes go wide. “And how do you know what dress I wore to prom last year?”
He closed the distance between us. “You should know that I am obsessed with you. I have been for a long time. I know every guy you’ve dated, every dress you’ve worn to prom, every guy that’s tried to push his luck with you.”
“Okay, you know that just put you in creepy territory, right?” I expect him to smile, but he doesn’t.
“I have had to watch you for three years and not let you know who you are to me. Three years of not touching you, not even thinking about you...not that it was possible. But it’s been a long three years.”
I stare up at him and take in what he’s saying. I can’t imagine how hard it’s been. I can’t imagine what I would do if I couldn’t talk to Reid for the next three years, if I couldn’t be around him. A shudder runs through me thinking of him with another female. I feel my body tense, and my wolf growls inside me. “I can’t imagine,” I finally say. “Thank you for waiting for me.”
He reaches out and drops a hand to my waist and then behind my back and pulls me close. “I would wait forever for you.”
“Reid, you can’t say stuff like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it makes me want to do things with you.”
“Like what?” his voice is so low, I barely hear it.
“Like kiss you,” I tell him simply.
He groans. “Go. Go inside before I take you up on that.” I continue to stand there, not wanting to leave him. “Go, Baby, because if you continue to stand here, Iwillkiss you; and I doubt you want our first kiss to be while we’re both sweaty and need showers.”
His words snap me out of the trance I’m in. “Hey,” I push his chest lightly. “Are you saying I stink?”
His eyes bore into me. “Don’t ask me a question you don’t want an answer to.”
“Okay, you’re making me really self-conscious here,” I tell him, only partly teasing. “Do I really smell that bad?”
He snags my wrist and pulls me close, so that we’re only centimeters apart. “When you sweat, it just makes your scent stronger,” he explains in a low voice as his thumb rubs circles over the inside of my wrist. “There are very few things I wouldn’t do to smell that scent.”
I swallow hard, and my heartbeat picks up speed. Now that I think about it, he’s right. His scent is always so much stronger when we run together. “Yours gets stronger too,” I whisper, and my eyes drop to his lips.
“Go.” His voice is full of his wolf. “I have to be in the gym before my first hour class, so I won’t see you until tonight.”
“Okay.” I take a step backwards. I swear it’s like walking through drying cement. I force myself to turn around and head inside, even though everything inside me, including my wolf, is crying out to go back to our mate. Somehow, I manage to make it back to my room and get ready for class.
My classes are pretty much a blur; I’m so nervous about this afternoon. As soon as my last class is finished, I book it over to the gym. I hope what little lunch I ate somehow stays in my stomach. When I get there, Star reaches the door at the same time. “Have you seen anything yet?” I ask.
“No.” She looks just as sick as I do. “You?”
“Nope. Want to go look together?”
