Page 98 of Reckless
“I’m telling you what I felt.”
I got off the rock before I could talk myself out of it, pacing two steps toward the water and then back because the cove had become too small to contain the conversation and my body at once.
The wet sand was cold under my feet.
I crossed my arms and looked out at the black line of the Atlantic and said, “This is why fake dating is such a stupid idea.”
“I realized I had miscalculated.”
“Miscalculated what?”
“How difficult it would be to pretend I didn’t want you in a house full of people who notice everything.”
“You are not allowed to say things like that in a cove.”
“Where would you prefer I say them?”
“Nowhere.That’s the whole point.”
He stood too close now.“Yes.”
I looked at him for one long second and then, because maybe the ocean makes people stupid or maybe I was already there, I told the truth.
“Because I wanted to be chosen beside you.”
The words came out too fast to stop and my skin went hot all over.
Xerses went still in that sharp, devastating way he did when something mattered too much.
I should have looked away.
I didn’t.
“I know,” he said softly.
That should not have made me want to cry and kiss him and hit him all at the same time.I hated crying.“What do you mean you know.”
The wind moved my hair across my face and before I could brush it back, his hand lifted.
I should have said no.
Instead I stayed still and his fingers brushed the hair back from my cheek.
The lightest possible slide of skin and warmth and attention.
And that was somehow the final blow.
I lit up under it.Heat racing hard.Heart stuttering.Skin zapping me everywhere at once.The world narrowing to his hand, my face, the wind, the sea, and the terrible quiet between us.
His breath changed and he was close the darker ring around his irises, the slight part in his mouth was my every focus.
No one had ever watched me like that and made me feel simultaneously wanted and asked.
“Kelly.”My name in his voice sounded like a line I should not cross.
I crossed it anyway.I took a half a step and tilted my head.
His hand slid from my cheek to the side of my neck.
