Nate stands
near the edge of the bathroom, facing the window, head down between his
shoulders, hands firmly planted on the windowsill, fingers sprawled but
crooked, as if he’s trying to crack his nails against the stone. A picture I
could paint in a heartbeat.
“I know
you’re there,” he says, his voice gravelly, painful. As though he’s wounded and
ready to lash out.
I should
run and hide. Take my pride and stride while I still own it. He could strip me
bare of everything I am and throw me to the masses to be ridiculed. He’s Falcon
Elite’s star athlete; a guy with a promise of a bright future. A person with so
much baggage you don’t dare touch them.
But I do.
My hand has
already reached for him and grazed his shoulder.
He
immediately turns around.
I take a
few steps back.
“Are you
stalking me now?” he growls,
snorting. “Pathetic.”
He
breathes, walks, and talks like a monster. A man obsessed with one thing and
one thing only. Me.
“I’m not.
You started it,” I reply, still stepping back until I’m backed into a corner of
the toilets with no escape. He’s already blocked the door with his huge frame.
The only way out is by passing him. Shit.
He leans in
and traps me between him and the wall. “Why did you follow me?”
My heart
beats in my throat and I swallow away the lump in my throat.
“I … wanted
to know.”
“What? How
a guy like me can stoop to that level? Why I even try? If I’ll give up?” He
looks into my eyes like he’s trying to search for the truth but I don’t have it
for him.
“Tell me,”
he says.
“Why you
said you thought my painting was beautiful.” It sputters out of my mouth before
I realize it.
I don’t
mean to be so forthcoming, but when he looks at me like that with those
penetrating eyes it just happens. And something about the way he clenches his
jaw and then bites his lip undoes me.
“Because
it’s the truth,” he says with such a serious face that I find it hard not to
believe him.
He snorts.
“But you’ll obviously think that’s a lie.”
“No,” I
respond.
His eyes
narrow. He brings one hand to his face and rubs his jaw. “Liar.”
The silence
is overpowering. Seconds feel like minutes as his breath slows, but I can feel
every one of them prickling on my skin.
“Is this
really all about the pictures?” I ask.
He cocks
his head, and leans in even further until his breath is against the side of my
cheek and my whole body is covered in goose bumps. “That’s for me to know and
for you to find out.”
A gasp
escapes my mouth when his lips briefly brush past my ear.
“Tell me …
are you scared of me?” he whispers.
I want to
answer, but my throat feels numb and my head dizzy.
When our
eyes connect, the tension is like lightning electrifying me from the inside
out. This can’t be happening, it can’t
be that … I can’t want this.
A devious,
sexy smirk appears on his face. “Thought so.”
Then he turns
around and walks out, leaving me out of breath … and with my heart lost to a
boy I shouldn’t ever crave.
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