Chapter 26 #2
“Since when were you so good at this?” I called over my shoulder, trying to ignore how the setting sun caught his eyes when I glanced back. Eyes that were now focused solely on me, as if I was the beginning and end of his perception. He watched me as if…as if looking at me just wasn't enough .
My pulse kicked and I whirled around at once. Oh no. No, no, no. Was he fucking with me on purpose? At this point, that was a very blatant possibility.
“Maybe I'm just good at following your lead,” he replied, and there was something in his voice I couldn't quite place. Something that wasn't teasing or mocking or any of the things I'd come to expect from him.
From somewhere to our left, Zoe's voice carried across the gap. “Wow, our captains are out here flirting 30 feet in the air!”
Her partner, Matt, chimed in with a, “Hey, let them! We'll finish the course faster if they're distracted!”
I scoffed. So, they could only get along when it came time to say something bullshit about their Captains, huh?
“Like hell we’re—” I started to protest, but the words died in my throat as my foot slipped on the next cable.
The rope jerked under my weight, throwing me off balance.
For one crystallized moment, time seemed to stop, reality narrowing to the sickening lurch in my stomach and the empty air beneath my feet.
The world tilted sideways. My hands scrambled for purchase on the guide rope, but it slipped through my fingers, rough hemp burning against my palms. Thirty feet suddenly felt like three hundred, the ground below spinning in a nauseating kaleidoscope of green and brown.
Someone screamed—maybe Zoe or Gina, or maybe even me.
I couldn't tell over the roar of blood in my ears.
Then strong hands seized my waist, yanking me backward.
The sudden movement sent us both swaying precariously on the rope bridge, but Lively's grip never wavered.
One arm locked around my midsection while the other steadied us against the guide rope, his body curving around mine like a shield against the empty air.
The solid wall of his chest against my back sent a jolt through my entire body, and I had to bite my lip to keep from making a sound that would have been totally mortifying.
“I've got you,” he murmured, the words vibrating against my back. “I've got you, Hailstorm. Just breathe.”
But breathing seemed impossible with his chest pressed against my spine, his heartbeat thundering against my shoulder blade—or maybe that was my own heart, trying to break free of my ribcage.
His fingers splayed across my stomach, steady and sure, and I became achingly aware of every point where our bodies connected.
The heat of his palm through my shirt. The solid pressure of his thighs behind mine.
The way his breath stirred the hair at my temple.
I gritted my teeth against the sprouting of goosebumps on my skin wherever our bodies touched.
Because that was a reaction I didn't want to acknowledge.
I didn't want to understand. Because understanding meant accepting that Lively Summers–cocky, insufferable Lively Summers–could make me feel…
butterflies . And that terrified me more than any thirty-foot fall ever could.
“That's it,” he continued, voice low and careful, like he was talking to a spooked animal.
I should have been pissed at that but, for some reason I couldn't pinpoint, I wasn't. His voice had dropped to a deep, rough timbre that made my skin prickle with awareness.
Each word seemed to vibrate through my entire body, settling low in my belly where a treacherous heat was starting to build.
What the hell is happening right now? I didn't know, but my body seemed to. As if it was telling me that everything, I’d felt last night hadn’t been a fluke, after all, because this was everything I’d felt last night turned up to a thousand .
In fact, having his mouth so close to my ear, his cheeks pressed against my head, his voice vibrating against my skin.
..felt like too much all at once, and I didn't know what to do.
Every breath he took pressed his chest more firmly against my back, and I could feel the hard planes of his body with devastating clarity.
His thumb moved slightly against my stomach—probably unconsciously—but the small motion sent sparks of electricity racing along my nerves.
Heat pooled low in my belly, an unwelcome warmth that spread like wildfire beneath my skin. I hated it; this involuntary response to his proximity, to his goddamn voice vibrating through me like bass notes in my bones.
Oh God .
Flinging myself out of his arms wasn't a good plan, even though that was exactly what my brain was screaming at me to do right now. Because falling thirty feet definitely seemed preferable to dealing with how my traitorous body was reacting to his touch right now—
“Just find your balance again. I won't let go until you're ready.”
—the gentleness in his tone quieted the panic-stricken thing inside my head, and I found myself calming down, against my own will, even.
But a different kind of panic was taking its place—because this wasn't the Lively I knew how to handle—the one who turned every interaction into a game I didn't want to play.
This Lively, with his steady hands and careful words, was dangerous in an entirely different way.
“I'm fine,” I managed, but the words came out breathless, betraying me. “You can let go now.” Please let go . I couldn't think with him this close.
I didn't give myself the time or chance to even consider what that even meant, and just tugged at his forearm. The faster I got away from him, the quicker these thoughts and these weird… reactions would go away.
But he didn't move immediately. Instead, his grip shifted, becoming less desperate and more... deliberate. Like he was memorizing the feel of me against him …or something.
“I'd never let you fall, Hailstorm. I hope you know that.” He said.
The words were like bricks slamming against my ribcage. It wasn't just what he said – it was how he said it, with none of his usual teasing or smugness. Just quiet certainty. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And I honestly had no idea how to respond to that.
I didn't have to, though, because Gina's voice quickly shattered the moment.
“Yo, lovebirds!” Gina's voice broke through my reverie. “Get a room that isn't thirty feet in the air!”
Reality crashed back in. This was Lively . The same guy who'd seemed to take personal pleasure in watching me get flustered and angry. So much so that he’d made sure no guy would look at me twice in Sophomore year. What the hell was I doing ?
Whatever this moment was—whatever was happening right now—it wasn't real . Couldn't be real.
Heat rushed to my face as his hands finally fell away.
“Shut up, Gina!” I shouted back, grateful for the distraction. “How about you focus on not dropping Dylan?”
“Hey!” Dylan protested from somewhere behind us. “What did I do?”
“Nothing! That's the problem!” This time, it was Gina who was berating her partner. “You’re slowing us down!”
When I looked ahead, however, my eyes flew wide.
“Keep up the pace!” Coach Hawkins called from below. “Randy and Dani are almost at the final platform!”
Talk about moving in silence.
I forced myself to focus on the course, on the burn in my muscles as we navigated the suspended logs. But even that couldn't drown out my awareness of Lively behind me, how he seemed to anticipate my movements before I made them. How in sync we were, despite everything.
“Zoe and Matt are gaining on us,” Lively said, his voice closer than I expected. I suppressed a shiver. Not on my watch.
“Then let's move faster,” I shot back, pushing forward with renewed determination. Anything to distract from... whatever this was.
But we were too late. By the time we reached the final zip line, Randy and Dani were already on the ground, accepting high-fives from the rest of the team. Zoe and Matt whooped as they touched down just ahead of us, Zoe's loud grumbling “Second place, ugh!” echoing through the clearing.
My feet hit the ground, and I immediately stepped away from the landing zone, trying to put some distance between myself and Lively. My heart was still racing, and I couldn't blame it on the course anymore.
“Third place isn't bad,” Lively said, landing beside me with that easy grace that made me want to throttle him. Why was he good at this? Why?
He unclipped his harness, grinning down at me. “Especially considering how distracted you seemed up there, Hailstorm.”
There it was—that familiar teasing tone, the one I knew how to deal with. But now it felt different, layered with something else. Something that made my skin prickle with awareness.
It only reminded me of the way my heart had literally gone haywire back there, and my embarrassment birthed anger. That was exactly what fueled me to push back.
“What's that supposed to mean?” I narrowed my eyes at him and his easy smile and stupid twinkling blue eyes. “Who was distracted, you jerk?”
“No?” His voice dropped lower, that infuriating grin still playing at his lips. “I could've sworn you leaned into me a little too much back there. Not that I'm complaining or anything.”
A wave of irritation flushed right through me but somehow, my expression just blanked out. And the words that'd been circling in my head for a while now just tumbled out before I could stop them:
“Are you... are you flirting with me right now?”