Page 12 of Your Fault

“You used to have no problem with getting into trouble. What the fuck’s happened to you, Nicholas?”

I stared at him without blinking. “Someone kidnapped my girlfriend, that’s what happened.”

Seeming to regret his remark, Lion looked past me and took a cigarette from the back pocket of his jeans.

“Speak of the devil…here she comes now,” he said. I turned around to see Noah approaching with a huge smile on her lips and her hair blowing in the breeze.

I forced a smile and opened my arms to hug her as she reached me. She kissed me on the chest and then turned to Lion.

“Jenna’s looking for you,” she informed him.

“Great,” he replied curtly. Noah’s expression changed, and I suddenly wanted to beat that shitty mood out of him.

Noah glanced over at me as he walked off toward the mass of people. “Is something up with him?”

I shook my head. “He’s having a bad day. Ignore him,” I told her, kissing her cheek, which was warm from the fire, and then her neck. For days now, my lips had been longing for her flesh, and the last thing I wanted now was to see something as stupid as Lion’s mood sour her evening. “I love you,” I said, moving down to her throat, tasting her skin, enjoying the effect my caresses had on her.

“Nick,” she said a minute later, when I’d reached the curve between her breasts.

I separated from her for a second, bewitched but also aware that more than a few people were looking at us, anticipating a show. I cursed, grabbing her hand and leading her away.

“Let’s take a walk,” I said, steering her away from the bonfires and toward the dark night and the harmonious breaking of the waves. There was no better place in the world, and I liked experiencing it calmly, without all the racket from that stupid party.

Noah was strangely quiet, lost in thought, and I didn’t want to bother her. Eventually, she turned toward me.

“Can I ask you a question?” she said, with a trace of anxiousness in her voice.

“Sure, Freckles,” I responded, stopping by a tree that had sunk its roots in the sand and spread out powerfully above us. I sat down and pulled Noah between my legs so I could look her more easily in the eyes. “What’s up?”

She shook her head. “Nothing, it was a stupid question,” shereplied evasively. She was blushing, and that piqued my curiosity in ways I hadn’t thought possible.

“There’s no such thing. What is it?” I pressed her.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. It’s dumb.”

“You’re red as a tomato, and that’s just making me that much more interested. Spit it out.”

I hated her doing this to me. I wanted to know everything she was thinking or feeling, I didn’t want her ever to feel ashamed of anything. Plus, I was so intrigued that I couldn’t let her off the hook without telling me what was going on in her mind.

Her eyes met mine briefly, and she started playing with a lock of her own hair.

“I was just thinking…you know, about what happened the other night, when you…” By now she was red as a beet.

I tried not to smile. We’d never done anything like that. I’d wanted to take it slow with Noah, introduce her to sex a little at a time, always being sure she was ready.

“When I went down on you for the first time and it blew your mind?” I asked, looking forward to her reaction.

“Nicholas!” she exclaimed, looking around, as if it were possible for anyone to hear us. “Jesus, forget about it. I can’t even imagine why I thought it was a good idea to talk about this.”

I pulled her in close and forced her to look at me.

“You’re my girlfriend. You can talk to me about anything you want…so the other day, what about it?” I tried to calm her down. These subjects always made her shrink with embarrassment; I knew that from the many times I’d made crude comments in her presence. “Didn’t you like it?”

Hell yes, she had liked it. I’d had to put my hand over her mouth so no one would hear her shouting with pleasure. But did we have to talk about this right now? The memory of it was getting me hot, and this was neither the time nor the place.

“Of course I liked it. That’s not what I wanted to talk about.” She looked away. “I was just wondering if…like…if you wanted me to do the same thing to you.”

I almost choked on my own saliva. There was timidity in her eyes but also desire—yes, desire in those honey-colored irises. Dammit! I would have to make a new rule: no more conversations with Noah about sex in public places. I already felt myself getting impatient…

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