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

a splash. Without glancing at him, I swim for the dock.
    “Az! Wait!”
    I don’t wait. I don’t look back. I haul myself up onto the dock, snatch up my towel, and run for home.

7
    A t ten minutes to eight that night, I gnaw the edge of my thumb until it’s raw as I pace a hard line in my room. I peer out the window several times, trying to detect if he’s already down by the dock.
    I told myself I wouldn’t meet him. All through dinner I held fast to the decision, confident it was the right thing. Especially after that crazy kiss.
    Only now, so close to the hour, I can’t hold myself still. Suddenly, I’m not too concerned with what’s right and logical. I only care about how I feel. How he makes me feel when I’m around him.
    If I don’t show up at eight o’clock, I will never see him again. A panicky feeling swells inside me, making me pace faster. Why would he keep coming around? Not showing up would be my answer. The final rejection. He wouldn’t return and that would be that.
    A desperate kind of anxiety wells up inside me. If I float through the remainder of the summer here with Mom and Dad and then return home to the pride, I will always wonder. I will always regret.
    I know this. Feel it like a deep, unremitting ache in my bones. And I want the ache to stop. To go away. I want all those exciting sensations when I’m around Tate. Even if they’re dangerous, I want them. Him . I want to feel awake and alive. When I’m home with my kind, I can go back to feeling safe and asleep inside. Dead.
    My clock reads seven fifty-eight. With two minutes to go, I race lightly down the stairs on the balls of my feet. A quick peek inside the living room reveals Dad asleep in his chair. Mom’s nowhere around—probably already in her room for the night.
    I slide into my flip-flops and then slip outside, running across the grass toward the dock, a giddy little giggle building up inside me. I’ve only ever felt like this when I’m flying. Descending in a tailspin toward the floor of treetops, my stomach bottoming out the second before I lift up.
    Tate stands there, his outline tall and strong against the night, and my heart clenches inside my chest just like it does when I pull up at that last second, a beat away from crashing into a nest of limbs and leaves.
    He moves toward me as I halt breathlessly in front of him. “I didn’t think you were coming.”
    “Sorry. I lost track of time.” I lift my chin somewhat defiantly, unwilling to admit that he was right earlier today when he said he knew I wanted to come. I especially didn’t want him to think I was here because I wanted a repeat of that kiss. I didn’t. I couldn’t …
    “C’mon. I parked over here.” He motions toward the woods.
    We walk side by side, taking a different path than the one I used to get to the pond.
    It occurs to me that I’m going off alone with a veritable stranger. I should probably care. But I don’t. I can’t imagine this happening any other time … me getting into a car with a human I’ve known less than forty-eight hours. Everything about it shouts crazy . If Jacinda pulled a stunt like this she’d never hear the end of it from me.
    And yet here I am.
    Foolish as it may seem, I feel safe with him. Well, aside from the dangerous sensations he rouses in me. He seems so … solid, reliable, and strong. There’s a goodness to him. I see it in his eyes. In the way he carries himself. Even the way he moves through water. Centuries ago he probably would have worn armor and ridden a white stallion. He’s the kind of guy who could probably be trusted with a secret....
    I drag a deep breath into my lungs, commanding myself not to go there. I dare not even think it.
    We step onto a dirt road. His Jeep is parked off to the side and he walks me to the passenger door, pulling it open for me.
    “Thanks.”
    For the five seconds I’m alone in his vehicle, the silence and swirling press of my doubts choke me. I’m relieved when he