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“Settle, baby. I don’t want you to fall.”
Her breath hitches. “That was a dirty rotten trick.”
“Coming from you, that’s a good one. You live for tricks.” I chuckle in her ear. Her fingers sift through the scruff on my cheek, and I close my eyes at her touch, fighting back a groan.
“Not that kind. That kind could give someone a heart attack.”
“Why?”
Pulling back a fraction takes my face out of her neck and in front of hers. Her brows pull together at my question.
“What do you mean, why? It’s obvious.”
“Explain it to me.”
Frustration paints her cheeks in an extra layer of red. By the way she rolls her lips between her teeth, I can tell she’s mulling over either a sassy response or a mature one. I never know which I’m going to get with her. One of my favorite things about her is how easily she keeps me on my toes. She makes life exciting and flavorful by simply being who she is at the core.
“Besides the obvious that, in this age of the internet, someone could have seen and made it go viral?”
I squeeze her waist. “Do you see anybody here?”
“Well, they could have,” she huffs. She’s so fiery it’s a wonder she wasn’t born a redhead.
“Is that all you got?” I don’t know why I’m pushing so hard, but I know I’m seconds away from having to back off before her temper boils over. Maybe because I want her to admit she feels something here too, even if we don’t know exactly what that is yet.
“Because we’re friends, Nathan. Because maybe I don’t want to hurt you, and that would hurt you. Because I can’t imagine my life without you, but the only way to stop you from falling in love with me is to put distance between us, and I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be forced to detach myself from you.”
Well, fuck.
Am I reading her wrong? I know she believes we’re better as friends, but her actions speak differently. Not just about the sex and stolen kisses, as incredible as those are, but also the way she leans into my shoulder when she’s tired speaks volumes. How she snuggles in closer during a back rub. She holds my hand without a single objection and hugs me with abandon.
Does she not realize we didn’t do those things as friends? Sure, a flirty brush here or there would occur. We’d hug to say hello or goodbye when it’d been a while and trade innuendos over happy hour. Those things have ramped up tenfold in the past six months.
Is this denial, or does she not see it?
I rub my chest briefly over my heart, suddenly remembering the object clenched in my fist.
It feels so stupid now.
17
Kiersten
A weirdness blankets this conversation that I can’t place. Nathan fists his hand over his chest almost as if he’s in pain.
But what do I say? Do I confess my stomach swooped like turbulence on an airplane when I saw him down on one knee? That even though I drew the line, the first thought I had was if I was crazy enough to say yes?
Goddammit and goddamn him.
I open my mouth to tell him just that, but he beats me to the punch.
“Don’t worry. I’m not falling in love with you. I mean, I do love you but as a friend. That’s all we’ll ever be.”
Ouch.
“Be more blunt about it, please. I don’t think that stabbed me deep enough.”
His face morphs to a puzzled expression.
