Page 46 of Wrecked

“Nah, you’d love it. I’ll take you. I promise, it will be the best weekend of your life.” He gave me a wink. “Hey, is that coconut you’re wearing?”

“It’s my perfume.”

“You smell delicious.”

And there went that erratic-heart thing again. A tingle ran straight down to my toes. A tingle that should not have been there.

I raced over to him and stole the ball from his hands. Instead of shooting it, I ran away, begging for him to chase me.

And he did.

Adam chased me around the driveway, laughing and smiling, hunting me down. I dipped and swayed to get away, but he managed to bear hug me mid run, causing us to walk in tandem—me holding on to the ball, him holding on to me.

We came to a standstill. He was pressed hard into me, the curves of his lean body molding into my soft frame. His grip grew firmer, but he was no longer trying to take the ball.

My chest rose, hard and fast. His head fell to my neck, hot breath on my skin. I closed my eyes, and all I could do was feel. Feel Adam clenching on to me. Feel his heart beating against my back. Feel the odd sense of want I had when I was around him.

I couldn’t move a muscle because I didn’t want him to let go.

“Leah?” His lips brushed my neck.

“Yeah?” My word came out breathy.

“What’s happening between us?”

I swallowed, despite my dry throat. “I don’t know.”

“I want to turn you around, but if I do, I’ll kiss you, and there will be no turning back.”

His arm held me tighter. My body melted further into his.

“Then, don’t turn me around.” I pleaded to God for him not to.

“Because you don’t want me to kiss you?”

“Because I do.”

Adam’s mouth brushed my neck. A tiny kiss on the skin just below my ear. A morsel of a caress that shook my body like an avalanche.

“Why do you let him treat you the way he does? Why do you wait for him when I’m right here?” he breathed.

Why did I wait on Brad? Because I was faithful. Because, even though I was just learning what love was, I knew that when you made a promise to someone, you kept it.

“Hey, babe,” Brad’s voice called out from behind us.

Adam grabbed the ball out of my hands and dribbled it to the hoop for a dunk. He retrieved the ball and then walked over to Brad, pretending the moment we’d shared didn’t happen.

The two spoke for a minute, and when my legs finally decided to move, I walked up to them.

“Hey.” Brad cautiously eyed me.

I would think it was because of the moment he’d witnessed between Adam and me, but most likely, it was because I hadn’t spoken to him all week.

“Hi,” I said, looking at his right eye.

The corner looked like he had a broken blood vessel.

“I was hoping we could catch a movie?” he asked.