Chapter 19: Chapter 19

“I can’t believe you learned how to play from just listening to the music. Even your voice sounds as if you’ve had training. Natalia, that’s amazing.” He knew he was gushing, but he couldn’t help it. He was in awe.

She ducked her head and stepped around him. “Whatever,” she said flippantly, brushing off the compliment. She stooped down to grab her book bag. But when she stood back up, all traces of the shy and embarrassed girl were gone and in her place was the sultry vixen he was used to seeing. She stepped closer, her ample breasts brushing against his chest, forcing him to bite back a low groan as he swallowed hard, but he didn’t move.

“You don’t have to lie to me, Brad, to get what you really want,” she

whispered seductively, her lips just inches from his ear, as her warm breath feathered across his sensitive skin. In spite of his best effort not to, he could not stop the tremor of desire that raced through him.

Yet, despite the fog of lust that had suddenly wrapped around him, those simple words were like a bucket of ice being thrown over his head. He grasped her by the shoulders and held her away from him.

“Why do you do that?”

She stared at him in shock. She probably was in shock. Probably the first time a man had ever turned down the invitation she’d so obviously extended to him.

“You’re beautiful and talented. So beautiful that you don’t have to do the things you do to get a man to like you and too talented not to realize that there is more to you than just your beauty.”

She rolled her eyes and turned her head to stare out the window, her jaw set in defiance.

He released one shoulder and cupped her chin in his hand, tilting her head toward him to force her gaze back to his face. The tears that shimmered in her eyes tore at his heart, but he was happy to see them. They proved that Natalia wasn’t as unaffected as she pretended to be. He knew there was more to her than the femme fatale act she liked to put on; but for some reason she hid that person, preferring instead to live in the shadow of the vixen she presented to the world.

He held her gaze, wanting to say more to convince her that he wasn’t just feeding her lines of bullshit, but he made the mistake of letting his gaze drift to her full, pouty lips. He groaned aloud. Many times he’d stared at her lips wondering if they tasted as ripe as they looked. He ached to kiss her as his eyes remained transfixed on her tempting mouth. Her lips were just so lush and succulent as if begging for his kiss, and before he realized what was happening, he found himself lowering his head slowly, to capture her mouth with his.

Her eyes drifted shut and she tilted her head further back to press her lips fully against his. He closed his own eyes and just let himself feel.

Running his tongue back and forth against her lips, he teased her luscious flesh until she opened her mouth and let him in. She moaned into his mouth as he swept inside the moist cavern and tasted her. She reminded him of sweet fruit, sweet honeyed nectar. He snaked his arms around her waist and dragged her flush against his hard body. He didn’t even try to hide the evidence of his arousal as he rocked his hard erection against her belly.

She lifted her arms to twine them behind his neck, and her full breasts flattened against his muscular torso, her large nipples stabbing him through the rough fabric of their clothing.

He held her tightly against him, savoring her sweet warmth as he plundered her lush mouth for several long minutes, drawing throaty moans from her until he could feel her body beginning to quiver. But when she slid a single hand down to cup his hardening length, he instantly froze. This was headed exactly where he didn’t want it to go.

With great reluctance, he pulled away from her, disentangling his body from her arms.

She stared up at him, her face flushed red, and her eyes wide.

“Why did you stop?” The words came out as a husky protest, and he struggled not to let them affect him, even as his cock tightened against the zipper of his jeans, begging him to release it from its confines to settle inside the wet warmth of the woman who was responsible for his current state. But he didn’t take her back into his arms. He refused to finish what he’d started.

“Because I want you to know that there is at least one guy at Bayside who wants more from you than what you offer.” That wasn’t entirely true. He wanted what she offered too, but he also wanted more.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t act like you’re so chivalrous, Brad. In the end men all want the same thing—one thing.”

“I won’t lie to you and say that I don’t want that too. You’re beautiful and you know it, and yes, I want you, but that’s not all I want.”

She cocked her head to the side, her eyes flashing with suspicion. “Then what is it that you do want?”

He bent down to scoop her backpack in his hand, which she’d dropped during their kiss, and slung it over his shoulder. “I want to get to know the real you, the real Natalia.”

“Why?” She said with narrowed eyes.

Why? Because he’d had a crush on her ever since freshman year; but never acted on it because the thought of becoming another notch on her bedpost didn’t sit well with him. That’s what he thought, but of course he didn’t tell her any of that.

Instead, he shrugged and said, “Because I think I would like the real Natalia better than the one I know now.” He turned from her and strolled toward the door, leaving her standing there, as he ignored her still skeptical expression. He couldn’t fault her for being mistrustful of his intentions. There were probably few guys who wanted to take the time to get to know the real Natalia. But he was one of them.

“Come on. I’ll drive you home.”

“I don’t need you to drive me home. Besides, practice just ended and someone may see you with me.”

His hand tightened around the strap of her book bag as he stared down at her, recognizing the insult for what it was, even if she didn’t realize she’d just insulted him.

Because of her reputation, most guys shunned Natalia, that is when they weren’t trying to sleep with her. Cruel as it seemed, she was probably used to it, came to expect it even, but he was insulted that she thought he was that big of an asshole. He’d been raised better than that. It was late and dark and he wasn’t going to allow her to walk home alone.

“I don’t care who sees us. Now come on. I’m taking you home.” He spun away from her and stomped out of the room then, not even bothering to look back to make sure she followed. He was too angry to look back anyway. As his grandmother always said, only fools and cowards succumbed under the weight of gossip and rumors and he would like to think he was neither. He didn’t give a damn who saw them.