Page 17 of The Good Girl Next Door

“No,” I say. “I’m feeling warmer already.”

“Good to hear it, Pru.”

He’s barely touching me, but he’s setting off fireworks all over my body. In my head. In my chest and belly. Between my legs. Everything is on edge as I balance on the ledge of the pool, unsure about what the hell I’m doing.

I’ve never flirted before. I’ve never kissed a boy before. Everything I know about this kind of stuff I’ve learned from second-hand experience.

And speaking of second hands—Silas’s second hand finds my second leg as he repositions himself in front of me.

“You know it’s better to dive right in. The anticipation is the worst part of it. All you have to do is let go.”

From the way his hands are circling my legs, I’m not sure if he’s talking about diving into the water.

“What if I’m not ready?”

He slides his hands behind my calves, inching up higher as he presses himself in between my legs.

“Is anyone ever one hundred percent ready for anything?”

I swallow as the throb between my legs feels like it’s spreading throughout my entire body. I’ve never been this close to a shirtless man before, let alone someone like Silas. With his hand firmly around my legs and his shoulders pressing against my shins—I’m riveted in place. And his face isright there.

“You might be right,” I say. “We’re talking about jumping into cold water, right?”

His smile deepens. “Of course. What else would we be talking about, Pru?”

He takes out his second AirPod, places it next to the other, and then kicks off the wall and blasts across the pool, resurfacing on the other side as he whips his hair back.

Phew.

I can breathe again, but I’m missing those hands. I glance at Sila’s earbuds as he glides back toward me.

“What are you listening to?” I ask when he resumes his position, this time next to me. “Take a listen,” he says. “I can’t get it out of my head.”

When I place them into my ears, tingles radiate throughout my body as my core clenches. The titles of his books were whispers of how he felt compared to this song. I stare at Silas, water dripping down his cheeks in rivulets as Death Cab’sI Will Possess Your Heartechoes in my ears.

“The tension is off the charts,” Silas says, gripping the edge of the pool. “The bassline build-up, Pru. It just keeps going and going…” That smile deepens. “And the lyrics. It’s like they were pulled from my soul.”

“Subtle.” My voice is hardly above a whisper as every strum of the bassline reverberates inside my chest and cascades down my body.

“As subtle as a brick in the small of my back.”

I exhale softly, grabbing the pool’s edge as he fires off a lyric from another one of my favorite bands. “Brand New, too? You’re pushing all of my buttons.”

“Not all of them, Pru,” he says, sliding back in front of me. His hands brush against my fingers as he holds onto the ledge, caging me in all over again. “There’s still more I’d love to push. Just say the word. Dive. In.”

“So you weren’t talking about water.”

It’s not a question, but Silas’s eyes are screaming the answer. They’re charred under the flames surfacing in his irises, searing my skin all over again. He could glance at the pool and it would evaporate. A few more minutes and I’d be nothing but ash.

His chest heaves as his hands white-knuckle next to mine. His smile is gone. Dimple too. I’d be scared if I wasn’t such a tight coil of nerves and need—if I didn’t know that this tatted athlete isn’t losing his temper. He’s losing something else—self-restraint. It’s the battle I’ve already surrendered.

“Fuck water, Pru. All I want isyou.” Silas blankets my hands with his and my body becomes electric, removing any chance of filling my lungs with enough air.

Stroking… Stroking… His hands feel so good on mine and it’s becoming difficult to look at Silas. My eyes refuse to open more than halfway as I attempt to stave off the chemical reactions he’s set off all over my body. Everything burns. Everything throbs. And everything is overwhelming as he keepsstroking.

“If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ll stop being sosubtle. I’m obsessed with you. I have been from the moment I saw you in your dad’s office.”

His hands find my legs again and everything becomes electric.

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