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

But he would never know it.
    Because despite being nervous, I knew that Nathan was the one . And when the moment came, I would gladly and willingly take the next step with him. I figured it was only natural to be nervous when considering something so momentous. Being nervous wasn’t going to stop me. Not when I knew that I wanted to be with Nathan.
    Eventually. Because even though I knew what I wanted, I wasn’t so sure that now was the ideal time. It took him saying what he said for me to realize it, but I knew now that he had been right about one thing earlier—I wasn’t ready. Not yet. But close to it.
    Nathan stared at me for a few long, heavy seconds, as if debating his next move. Or considering my ability to handle his next move. Though I felt a small pang of disappointment, a bigger part of me was relieved when he finally looked away. His deep breath signaled that the decision he had made hadn’t been an easy one. As his chest heaved against mine, his grip on me loosened, though only fractionally since he still had to hold me up in the water.
    Though a palpable uncertainty still lingered, one thing was certain. Our swim was over. With the aid of the surf, Nathan moved us closer to the shore. He let me go once I could touch the sandy bottom, but his arms remained around my waist, and he dropped his head to give me an insanely slow, sweet kiss. A kiss that signaled an end to not only the swim, but also to whatever might have happened in the water had we stayed there.
    As we redressed and prepared to return to the dock, and the island, I held on to the sweetness of that last kiss. Because it was the type of kiss that reminded me of how lucky I was to have the love of someone like Nathan, and I knew that when the time was right for us to take the next step in our relationship, I would be the luckiest girl in the world to get to experience it with him.
     
     
     
    We were met by a dark and quiet island, the path from the dock to the dorms empty, aside from us. We were out much later than I had thought we would be, and I worried that Nathan would get in trouble for having me off the island as long as he had. Of course, he reassured me that he would be fine.
    “I hope so,” I sighed as we stopped outside the door to the girls’ dorm.
    He turned to face me. “It doesn’t matter. Tonight was worth anything Jared could throw at me,” he said, and when I started to fuss, he quickly added, “but that’s not going to happen, because Jared won’t care.”
    As Nathan kissed me goodnight, I forgot all about the potential consequences of our late night. And I realized that I didn’t want our evening to come to an end.
    He regarded me warily as my eyes lit with a brilliant idea. “It’s already so late,” I said, “why don’t you just spend the rest of the night with me?”
    His eyebrows hooked with bewilderment in a way that almost made me laugh.
    “Before coming here,” I continued, “we were together all the time. We’ve shared a bed more times than I can count. I miss it, and even if it’s just for one night, I want to do it again.”
    By the time I finished building my case, his grin had morphed into a frown. “I know, Kris. I miss that too.”
    “So . . . what do you say?”
    He eyed the building, then shook his head. “There’s one big problem.” He nodded his head toward the entrance, and I followed his gaze to the glass doors. “Kim.”
    Ah, yes, my formidable body guard, who I could now see sitting on a chair just inside, reading a magazine—obviously waiting for me. She wouldn’t expect Nathan to come along, and I doubted she would let him in my room at this hour.
    I reluctantly accepted that extending our date wasn’t going to happen.
    “Yeah, okay,” I sulked, then cheered when I remembered that morning was only a few hours away. “Breakfast tomorrow?”
    “Absolutely.”
    Nathan kissed me goodnight one more time before he ushered me into the building. Despite the disappointment that I