“Oh. You want to keep it as friends.”
She looked down, and Wes tightened his grip on her hand. “It’s the friends part I’m failing at.”
“What?” Nadine raised her face.
“I like you, and more than friends. Much more.”
“How much more?” Her voice trembled slightly.
“I don’t know. I don’t have a scale. Is the exact percentage necessary?”
Her eyes glittered in the night. “Yes, because I think I’m feeling about seventy percent more than friends with you.”
His breath caught. “In the spirit of keeping this noncompetitive, I’ll also be at seventy percent.”
“Finally, we agree on something.”
When he wrapped his arms around her, she laughed. He couldn’thelp but stare. Nadine was lovely all the time, but with her face lit up with joy? She was breathtaking.
He didn’t kiss her at first, simply enjoying the moment. She felt right in his arms. Perfect.
“Do you think all those years of hating each other were due to repressed feelings?” he asked to the top of her hair. Her arms were around his waist.
“No, younger you was a dick,” she said thoughtfully.
“Hey!”
“Younger me was too,” she said.
“Glad older us are so much more mellow.” Wes was about to continue his thoughts on the wisdom that comes with age, but she shorted out his entire executive function by snuggling closer.
This time when he kissed Nadine, it was slow and simply for the pleasure of knowing he could. Every sensation of touching her stood out and melted together at the same time. His hand came up to stroke the soft skin behind her ear because he’d never touched her there and he wanted to. He wanted to know every part of her. She gasped, a tight sound that made his heart jump, and pressed her arms tighter around his chest, surprising him with her strength. That was new and intriguing. Another thing to explore.
There would be more talks, he was sure. Like, capital-Rrelationship, what-are-we talks, but that was all for the future, and he was going to stay in the now.
She smiled at him again, and this time, the kiss was lingering and gentle, with a whisper of things to come and a sense of promise, and all the world melted away.
Thirty-four
Nadine slapped her arm over her eyes to block the light. Why did her back hurt? Why was she damp? There were birds chirping. They seemed too close.
“Did we fall asleep out here?” Wes’s rough voice came from nearby, and she sat up to see him looking around through puffy eyes. “Stop the sun. It hurts.”
Nadine assumed she wasn’t looking her best after sleeping out in the pagoda, but the way Wes smiled at her made her feel like she was dressed like a million bucks. She stood up, holding her lower back in both hands as she tried to stretch.
Wes unraveled himself with an unsettling grace her creaky joints resented and reached out to massage her shoulders. “I have a suggestion.”
“What?” She leaned back into his hands, happy for his touch that melted the knots out. She knew his hands were magic, but this was next level.
“How about a quick dip in the grotto to wake up?” he asked, digging his thumbs in and making her knees buckle.
“What time is it?” She checked her phone. It was dead, which had to be the number one cause of anxiety for people in the modern age, but here with Wes, it didn’t seem to matter as much.
Wes’s phone was dead as well, so they had a pleasant debate about the time based on the location of the sun as they went to the grotto.
“Holy shit.” Wes shivered, having gone for the all-at-once method of water immersion while Nadine tested a single foot. “This water is colder than I thought.”
The surprisingly frigid pool turned what was planned as a refreshing and potentially naughty dip into something that felt disturbingly chaste and healthy. They were back out in minutes to separate for more comfortable showers.
