Salvaged Soul (The Ignited Series Book 3) by Desni Dantone Read Free Book Online Page A

redness I felt deepening on my cheeks. Then I pulled together the necessary bravado to get through this conversation, and maintain my cool. Well, as cool as I could manage under the circumstances. “Oh? What question was that?”
    “If you’ve been thinking about taking the next step in our relationship.”
    “Hmmm.” I surveyed him like a lawyer cross-examining a witness. “So, because I’m jumpy right now, you believe that I have not been thinking about it? Correct?”
    He narrowed his eyes, seemingly unsure how to take the sudden shift in my confidence level. His shoulders shrugged with uncertainty.
    Finally! Finally Nathan was wrong about something!
    I smiled knowingly. “Well, actually . . .” My smile grew as his face fell and his eyes widened slightly. He was five seconds from reaching his ‘deer in headlights’ face, and I reveled in knowing that about him . “Just because I’m nervous doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it.”
    “Oh.” And there it was—the boyish, jittery side of Nathan I enjoyed seeing every now and again. I especially liked that I seemed to be the only one capable of bringing out that side of him.
    “In fact . . .” With a sudden burst of confidence, I nuzzled closer, wrapping my arms tighter around his neck so that not even the water could slip between us. “I had hoped for at least a heavy make out session tonight, which is why you were right earlier. I’m not wearing granny panties.”
    His breath caught, and he muttered something under his breath that I didn’t quite catch. I wasn’t sure which one of us moved first, or maybe we both moved at the same time, but, in the next instant, our mouths crashed together like it was our last minute together on earth. Hands gripped and pulled, and held everywhere and everything at once. Breathing dropped far down on my list of priorities, as everything about Nathan consumed me.
    Nothing mattered more than the feel of him beneath my exploring hands, his hands tightening around my waist, and his lips moving fiercely over mine. Even when a swell of water washed over us, causing our lips to part momentarily, we didn’t stop. If anything, that brief separation made us both more desperate, more frantic, in our need for each other.
    The fact that we were entangled as we were with very little clothing between us no longer filled me with anxiety, but with a yearning for more. I didn’t know what came next, but the way he brought my body to life with his mouth and his hands made me want to find out.
    Suddenly, Nathan pulled away, though from the sound of the noise coming from the back of his throat, it wasn’t something he wanted to do. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” he grunted. His eyes squeezed shut and his forehead rested against mine, like breaking that kiss had taken everything out of him.
    I knew he had stopped for my benefit, because he didn’t want to push me too far too fast. He had been doing that for weeks, every time things started to get a little . . . too hot between us. And though this was definitely the hottest it had ever gotten, I wasn’t scared. Not at all.
    “I told you I wanted to make out tonight,” I said lightly, hoping to persuade him to continue.
    He groaned. “I’m thinking about a hell of a lot more than that right now.” With his eyes closed, he missed the look on my face, but my silence must have clued him in to my shock. His eyes squeezed tighter, and he shook his head like he couldn’t believe what he had admitted to. “What am I saying?” He finally looked at me, his eyes wide. “That’s not me. That’s my twenty-two-year-old body talking.”
    “I happen to like your twenty-two-year-old body,” I returned with a playful smile. I had to smile to cover the renewed anxiety his admission induced.
    Granted, I had been thinking about more than just making out too, but hearing him admit that his thoughts were going there kind of brought back the uncertainty I had felt before.