AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You can just go home if you want to, Nathan,” Kace said, helplessness in his voice, his baby blue eyes like stormy oceans, reflecting the pool.
“Tell me you’re okay,” I said softly. “I thought I was helping, and then—”
“Listen, you couldn’t even hug me with your brother and friend nearby,” Kace said, his eyes going wide, confirming all of my suspicions. “You’re so grossed out by me that you can’t be seenhugging?I just lost most of my family when I came out. If you aren’t going to be there for me—reallythere—then I can’t hang, Nathan. As friends or anything else.”
I felt like my stomach had just been flipped upside down.
Kace thought thatIdidn’t want to be seen touching him? For fuck’s sake, he thought that I wasgrossed outby anything we’d done?
Something snapped into focus inside me, a jolt of adrenaline rushing into my veins. I glanced around, looking at the party surrounding us and the camera crew right there, just waiting.
“Feel free to film this,” I told one of the guys, letting go of any remaining shyness inside me.
I took a step closer to Kace and leaned in to kiss him, right there in front of everyone.
He gasped against me. But he didn’t pull away. He started to kiss me right back, not turning away at all.
And for the first time in a long, long while, I felt completely free.
18
KACE
The crowd around us erupted into whistles and a few low cheers.
“Oh God,” Nathan said against my lips, resting his forehead against mine for a moment. “Kace. Youareokay with this, right? I didn’t just ruin absolutely everything for your reputation, did I?”
I felt breathless. My heart was slamming inside me.
As if I gave a singlefuckwhat anyone else thought right now.
Nathan had just knocked me on my ass, snapping something back into place inside me that had felt wrong for way too long.
“If people don’t like seeing me kissing you, they can get used to it.” I let out a low growl, leaning in close to kiss him again. “I kind of want to get used to it, too.”
I pulled his body in closer to mine, letting him know that I wanted every goddamn minute of this. The TV cameras were rolling, and I let them. People were probably pulling out their phones, but I couldn’t give a fuck less when Nathan’s tongue was sliding against mine. He didn’t pull away. He let his hand come up, his fingers getting lost in my hair.
It was the smallest thing. In the scheme of my life, I’d been kissed so many times, and even many times in public, in front of people, just like this.
But no kiss before this one had ever felt like coming home.
And it had been a long, long time since I truly felt I could be at home with someone else. Years of hurt had bubbled up in me tonight—hurt that I’d shoved away for so long I’d fooled myself into thinking it wasn’t there. Years of pretending to be someone I wasn’t, anytime I was with family. Then a whole year of pretending I didn’t care that they hated me now. Nathan saw me as a famous, hot football player, sure. But he also saw me as so much more.
Turned out that no matter how fun it could be to be treated like a god, I preferred being treated like aperson.
I wasn’t perfect. But with Nathan’s arms around me, I sure felt like my world was perfect, just for a moment.
“Whoisthat?” I heard some low voice say from the other side of the pool. By now, I was used to being a public figure, constantly subjected to having other people critique every aspect of my life. But I knew Nathan wasn’t.
“You doing okay?” I asked low near his ear, my heart still pounding in my chest. There were actual camera flashes going off now, and I knew we’d be on the internet as a new piece of gossip within seconds, if we weren’t already.
“I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do to my parents, but I’m going to go ahead and say it’s worth it,” Nathan said. He had a smile on his face like he couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Like he’d just gone on a roller coaster and was still enjoying the drop. “Kace, when you said you want to get used to it—get used tome—does that mean what I think it means?”
I leaned back a little, looking at him in the eyes even though the world around us was starting to erupt into mild chaos. “I sure hope it does. Are you asking if I want todateyou, cutie?”
He snorted. “I think I might be. No matter how weird that sounds.”
“It doesn’t sound weird to me,” I told him confidently. “I think you’d make a pretty fucking killer boyfriend, Nathan.”
