Breathless: A Firelight Novella (HarperTeen Impulse) by Sophie Jordan Read Free Book Online Page A

“Did you swim all the way from there?”
    “Yeah.”
    He whistles and winks.
    “I can swim well.” I turn and start for home.
    He glides alongside of me. “Yeah. I know that.” Water-coated and bathed in the fading sunlight, he’s even better looking than I remembered. His arms and shoulders tantalize me and I struggle to keep my gaze forward, not wanting him to catch me ogling. “It’s just that this time of day visibility is tricky … and boats really fly through here fast sometimes.”
    He’s lecturing me? I’m both annoyed and flattered. I already get this from my parents.
    “I’ll be okay.”
    “I’ll just swim with you the rest of the way.”
    I shrug. Together we fall into an easy rhythm crossing the lake.
    “So why swimming?” I hear myself ask. “Why not football?”
    “I guess it’s because of my mom. She loved to swim. When she was alive, we always went to the beach. At least once a year.” As he talks I notice he reaches up to stroke a small shark tooth necklace, almost as if to make sure it’s still there.
    “Did she give you that?” I nod at it.
    “It was hers. When she was a little girl, she actually found the tooth on the beach, when she was making a sandcastle. What are the odds, right? She always said it was a good-luck charm guiding her through life. She was a great swimmer, too. She wanted to go professional.”
    “What happened?”
    He shrugs. “She did all right. Swam in high school.Taught little kids to swim at the Y for a while after she graduated, before she married Dad. She liked teaching the little kids. My sister. Me.”
    She wasn’t good enough to make it. He doesn’t say it, but I hear it just the same.
    “She must have been proud of you.”
    His hand brushes the shark tooth again. The gesture is so tender … as though by touching it he is connecting to his lost mother … as though she’s still with him. My heart squeezes a little for this boy. I only just met him, but I’ve shared more with him than any boy back home. It’s wrong, but undeniable.
    Looking up, I see we’re almost to my dock.
    “So. We’re still on for tonight?”
    “I didn’t say yes.”
    “But you want to.”
    I shake my head. “Now you’re just arrogant.”
    “No, I’m perceptive.”
    I splash him with some water, and he catches my hand, pulling me so that we tread water directly in front of each other. I feel the imprint of his hand on my water-slick skin.
    We’re so close I can examine every glistening bead of water on his olive-hued flesh. The urge to lean forward and taste the water dotting his jaw overwhelms me. Longing eddies through me, pooling in my belly.
    Mortified at the impulse, I start to swim away only to be pulled back by that hand on my arm.
    His gaze sinks into me. “I really want to see you again.”
    The water surrounding us feels suddenly hotter, thicker. Ripples of current swell around us and I know this is me. My emotions … my desire manipulating the water.
    He’s bound to notice if I don’t put some distance between us.
    “Az?” His eyes are on me, devouring, intent, questioning. “Tonight …”
    I shake my head, my gaze riveted to his lips. Too beautiful, too well carved to resist.
    The current around us intensifies. He notices it then. Still holding on to me, he frowns and looks down.
    Panicked, I don’t think, I simply act. Surrender to the impulse rushing through me like flood waters. Unstoppable.
    My free hand clasps his shoulder. Using it as a handhold, I haul myself against him and press my damp lips to his. There have been a few other kisses in my lifetime. Pecks. A few longer ones behind the meeting hall. Nothing that compares to this.
    My lips taste him, sunlight and water and strong … male .
    I sigh, deepen the pressure of my mouth on his. Then I gasp as he reacts, awakes to my lips. His hands close over my back, where my skin quivers—my wings pushing and swimming beneath the surface, eager to break free.
    Terrified, I jerk away with