Page 134 of Already At Risk
“Oh.” Gemma stared, blue eyes wandering my face and taking in every inch of it. She saw the guilt, I was sure of it, especially when her eyes popped a little wider. “Oh.”
I grimaced and tried to wave away her clear worry. “We’re notdatingor anything.”
What we had been doing might be worse than that, though. At least where his job was concerned.
Gemma gave me a look. “Kind of like how Noah and I weren’tdatingfor months?”
“Yeah, maybe like that.” I huffed a humorless laugh, remembering how obvious it had been to me that my brother was a lost cause for his friend’s sister. How Noah had claimed to be helping with her pregnancy just because he wanted to be a goodroommate. How he’d come to Chloe’s skating practices and pace around the edge of the rink with worry, watching his niece’s pregnant coach. How the two of them would steal glances at each other when they thought no one was looking.
All of that had been happening when they were supposedly justfriends—with benefits, I’d learned—but it had been clear to me from the start that it was so much more than that.
Maybe, just maybe, Cameron and I could be so much more than that, too.
But now, with Korey involved…
Fuck, everything was a mess, wasn’t it?
Gemma laughed, but it was warm and soothing. She squeezed my arm. “Starting things in secret isn’t always a bad thing, you know. It’s a little bubble of time when everything belongs to just the two of you. Everything will work out, even if the bubble pops. And Korey doesn’t know anything for certain, right?Ididn’t even realize. I mean, I suspectedsomethingwhen Cameron started showing up at the rink, and it was hard to miss the way he was looking at you at our engagement party, but…” She trailed off and flashed a gentle, compassionate smile and, with the tiniest whisper, added, “I’m happy for you.”
“Don’t be,” I said, shaking my head. “Not yet. We might not—it’s not totally like that, even.” Gemma flashed me a look of disbelief, but she didn’t get it. “And there’s still so much at risk and?—”
“Everything will work out,” Gemma reinforced.
And God, I’d never wanted to believe someone more.
I didn’t really know what to do with all the information shehad given me or the feelings swirling in my gut, but I knew one thing that would help. That wouldn’t make it worse.
And even though I hated to do it, I knew it had to be done.
six months ago
NATALIE
I was starting to think that this man could read my mind.
He moved to the beat of something inside me, something that I wasn’t used to people seeing, hearing, feeling.
It made my entire body pulsate, like a beacon that he was drawn to. A moth to a flame, yet there wasn’t a bone inside me that wanted to let this die. His hot breath fanned the curve of my neck as he dropped his head. His lips flirted with my pulse point as he muttered, “Just checking that you’re real.”
“You should check again,” I encouraged and then threw an arm up, wrapping it around his neck and holding his head there, letting him press open-mouthed kisses down my throat, leaving me panting.
“Oh, fuck.” His moan was guttural, coming from somewhere deep inside him, and it did things deep inside me, too. “Has anyone ever told you you’re perfect?”
All I did was hum in response, thinking about those words.
They made something twist inside me, a distinct turn from the road I’d been cruising down, thanks to a few drinks and the heat of Cam’s touch.
“Come with me?” he breathed, phrased like a demand I could refuse, if I wanted.
But I didn’t want to.
I wanted to go with him—anywhere.
And as he pulled me into the back hallway of the bar and pressed me up against the wall in a way that was both delicious and heart-stopping, I realized that was the problem, wasn’t it?
There wasn’t a bone in my body that wanted to let this moment die, but there were thoughts swirling in my brain that wondered if I should.
Because it had only been a few hours, a few drinks, a few words exchanged, and I knew.
