Page 113 of The Risk Taker

He scoffs. “Pretty sure I just fucked the broodiness out of you.”

I laugh into his mouth and kiss him again. Then again. I could kiss him forever.

He gives me a tired little smile when he pulls back and settles against me. I drag him closer until his head’s on my chest, my fingers drifting through his hair. “Go to sleep before my dad wakes up.”

“Oh, look, my babysitter’s back,” he mumbles against my skin.

I roll my eyes, tug him in tighter, a quiet laugh slipping out.

He doesn’t say anything else, just tucks his face against my neck.

I stay there, listening to his breath even out, and think about how fast everything’s changed.

How right this feels.

And how fucking terrifying that is.

28

LOGAN

“Where the hell are you taking me?”

Nathan sounds exactly as he looks. Suspicious, annoyed, and hot as hell in the hoodie I definitely want to yank off him.

I glance over at him, fighting a grin. “Relax,” I say, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel. “You’re gonna love it.”

He side-eyes me from under his hood, arms crossed tight over his chest. “Not sure how I feel about you showing up at my room at two in the morning and telling me to get dressed.”

“And yet…” I shoot him a look as I take the turn onto the side road I scoped out earlier, the tires of Austin’s truck crunching over snow. “You still came.”

His mouth presses into a flat line. “Only because you dropped to your knees and said please.”

I glance at him, smirking. “I seem to recallyousaying please.”

He glares out the window, but his ears are pink.

Outside, everything’s white and still. I love this time of year. Kinda makes it feel like the whole world is holding its breath.

We only got back from his parents’ house yesterday, and it feels like we’re still there, in his childhood bedroom. Something shifted between us since then, but neither of us have brought it up.

New Year’s Eve won’t stop replaying in my head. We decided to go out to some random countdown downtown, packed with strangers, loud music, and overpriced hot dogs.

None of our friends were there. No one knew us at all. Which meant, for a few hours, we weren’t Logan and Nathan. We weren’t a secret. We were just two people in a crowd. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder as the countdown started. Ten. Then five. Then one.

And when the fireworks went off, he turned to me, tugged me in by the collar of my coat and kissed me.

Right there, in the middle of the crowd. Like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like he didn’t care who saw. Like maybe—for that one, heart-stopping second—he wasn’t scared.

And when he pulled back, he looked at me like he was feeling everything I was and whisperedHappy New Yearagainst my lips.

I almost told him I loved him, then.

Almost said it at Christmas, too.

And I’ve been trying like hell not to say it again ever since.

He stares out the window as the lake comes into view, a broad stretch of frozen white framed by pine trees shining under the moon. It’s quiet out here. Peaceful. Just a couple benches, a rough parking lot, and us.