Trapped (Here Trilogy) by Ella James Read Free Book Online Page A

understand it, that’s not hang-out time in your culture.”
    “Actually…” I bit my lip, “as the resident expert on American culture, I have to disagree. If I joined you, it would be skinny dipping, and that’s something we do. Some might even call it a rite of passage.”
    I couldn’t breathe as I waited for his answer. It came quietly. “The water is more than two hundred degrees, Milo.”
    “Well, fix me so it doesn’t burn.”
    “What?”
    “You made my foot warm earlier.”
    He shifted and the water made a sound like falling rain. “You think that means I can keep you from being boiled alive?”
    He sounded skeptical. I nodded. “Can you?”
    A pause, and then, “Well yeah, but it’s got nothing to do with how I was helping you warm up.”
    I smiled, even though my heart had started jumping jacks. “Well, um, can you see me?”
    “What? Of course.”
    I waved my hands around myself, like I was a “Price is Right” model modeling me. “Make me impervious to pain.”
    “That’s not…you’re joking.” His voice was lighter. The water swished again as he stepped closer to the dirt shore. “I think it would be easier if I just changed the water temperature around you,” he said, and I felt triumphant. He wanted me to stay! Then terrified. I was about to get naked!
    “Ok, um, that sounds good,” I said. “So, you can see me?”
    “Yes.”
    “How well?”
    He got it. “I’ll turn around again.”
    “Really?”
    “Promise.”
    My fingers trembled as I tied my hair back with the rubber band around my wrist and pulled off my wet socks. I couldn’t bring myself to peel my leggings off yet, so I unbuttoned the jacket and slowly slid my arms out of its sleeves.
    “I’m going to come a little closer to you,” Nick said then. I watched him tread water, moving backward, toward me. “That way, when you step in, I can be sure the water’s right. Be careful, though. It’s only shallow near the ground. It gets deeper a few steps in.”
    I nodded, then, realizing he couldn’t see me, said, “Okay.”
    I wondered, as I tugged the white dress over my head, just what on earth I thought I was doing. I stood with my back to Nick, wearing only my sparkly leggings, and it took effort to get myself to turn around. Despite my bluster, I felt shy now. I stripped the leggings off with one quick motion and turned toward Nick.
    “Okay, I’m coming in!”
    Two steps through the fog, and my feet were in the water.
    “Wow! It’s…perfect.”
    Nick chuckled, and I grinned at his bare shoulders.
    “Stay there now. I’m not all the way in.” I took another tentative step, mud squishing through my toes, and submerged myself to the waist. A third little step and I was sighing. “Oh my God, this is like a bath. It’s amazing!”
    Nick didn’t move. After pointing my toes and realizing I couldn’t touch the bottom anymore, I kicked forward and tapped him on the shoulder.
    He turned slowly, grinning like the Cheshire cat.
    “What? Do I look funny?”
    He shook his head, but there was definitely something on his face: the kind of uniquely male amusement that somehow always seems smug.
    “Not funny,” he said.
    “Then what?” I splashed him a little, glad for the peek at his pecs as my stream of water splashed him. He had a really nice body, even if it was borrowed.
    His grin widened, and my eyes roved over his face. “I don’t know. You look nice. I like having you here.”
    I grinned, too. “Bath time lonely for you?”
    He shrugged. He looked almost silly—lighthearted, flirting—but then his brown eyes grew a little darker, his words softer. “Everything is better with you. I wish I didn’t feel so much that way.”
    Looking at his face, the intensity there—the need for something—likely for the person-to-person, soul-to-soul connection I'd taken for granted my whole life—I realized I was in way over my head. But that was what I wanted. To be in too deep to get back out.
    I leaned over