In cells, which of the following can catalyze reactions involving hydrogen peroxide, provide cellular energy, and make proteins, in that order?
“I know what you’re going to say,” he rushed to say as I handed him back the test. “We went over it. It was a stupid mistake. I was in a hurry to finish.”
“It was your first test. You did great.”
Nate licked his lips and smiled at me. It was such a simple thing, but the way his tongue ran across his smooth skin made my heart rate accelerate.
I clapped my hands and inhaled. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”
My neck ached from the position it rested on the pillow I shared with Julian. The soft chimes from the alarm I had programmed on my phone indicated it was time to get up. From the window in his dorm room, I knew it was too early to be awake on a Saturday morning but I had to get to the library.
Julian shifted on the bed, his back toward mine. “It's too early,” he complained.
We had ordered Chinese takeout the night before and then watched Remember the Titans until we passed out. This was the second time I slept at his place, but we were only friends and he never crossed the line with me. He even slept on top of the covers in the opposite direction. These were the moments I tried to fall for him, when it was only the two of us, but it never happened, not when the memory of Nate still haunted me from time to time.
“I have to get to the library.” My voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.
“Anything that wakes you this early on a Saturday should be a crime.”
Stretching my arms over my head, I moaned with exhaustion and pain from sharing a twin sized bed with a grown man. “I'll call you as soon as I finish.” My lips brushed against his cheek and I rolled out of bed. I discarded his T-shirt and slipped on my jeans and sweater before digging into my purse to locate my toothbrush. Luckily enough, Julian's roommate Edwin had spent the night out so I didn't have to feel guilty about waking him, as well. Within fifteen minutes I was dressed and heading toward my car.
Outside, the morning was gray and blustery as heavy rain clouds gathered in the sky. It was early February and the weather forecast predicted a rainy weekend. Tossing my bag on the passenger seat, I slid my key into the ignition and turned it. The lights on my dashboard flickered but the alternator only clicked. The engine didn’t turn over. My battery was dead.
“Fuck!” I slammed my hands on the steering wheel. Turning the key, I tried one more time. “Come on, baby. Please turn on, please.”
The car wouldn't budge.
Julian didn't have a car I could borrow, and I only had twenty minutes to get across campus. There was no way Delaney was up at this godawful hour, and there was no way in hell I was calling Nate to pick me up. I was left with one option.
I had to run.
Zipping my coat all the way up, I tossed the hood over my head and willed my feet to move as fast as possible before the rain came down. Julian's dorm was about a mile and a half from the library, and between jogging and speed walking, I managed to get nearly across campus before the rain began.
The library was still 500 feet away when the heavy clouds that had been threatening a massive rainstorm began to pour over me. This wasn't a light shower; it was more like a hurricane and I was soaked by the time I reached the entrance. More than ready for shelter from the weather, I tugged on the door handle but it didn't budge.
“Seriously?” I shouted to the universe. I pounded on the door. Terri should have been here by now. I looked inside and noticed the lights were all off. There was no one there.
“Brielle.” I heard my name behind me. I held one hand over my eyes so the rain wouldn't get in my face, and squinted to see. Nate was jogging toward me with an umbrella.
“Terri isn’t here!” I shouted over the hard pebbles of water that splashed against the concrete.
“Come on, you're soaking wet.” He raised the umbrella to cover me. “You’ll get pneumonia.”
Nate led me to his car, our feet splashing in vast puddles forming in the parking lot. He held his Jeep door open for me and I climbed into the warm car. The scent of leather and his cologne was a sweet mixture. Jogging around the car, he pulled back the driver side door and hopped in, turned on the car, and blasted the heat.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?” he demanded. He shifted all the car vents in my direction. “We’re getting a Nor’easter.”
“It wasn't raining when I left Julian’s,” I stuttered, my body trembling as my jaw shook from the cold.
“Take off your jacket. It's drenched.”
I discarded my jacket and tossed it behind me, then took the sweater he found on his back seat.
“Why is it so freaking cold?” I whimpered. Nate’s warm hands rubbed up and down my arms as he attempted to warm my body. “My car wouldn't start.” I held my hand to the vent to catch the heat.
“It's okay. I'll warm you up.” Nate cupped my hand and brought it to his lips. Gently, he blew on them and kissed my fingers. It was a simple touch. One that stoked my heart. I was frozen on the outside, but the second his lips touched my skin, a fire began to burn inside me.
Neither of us spoke as he placed chaste kisses on my hand. The thundering of the torrential downpour hitting his car surrounded us.
Nate’s gaze met mine. I needed to stop. I needed to pull my hand away.
But there was no denying what we both wanted.
Nate effortlessly cupped the side of my face and brought my lips to his. It was soft at first, his warm lips to my cold. He inhaled my scent and my mouth opened for him as a plea. Nate deepened our kiss, his tongue twisting and twirling with mine. My hand ran through his hair as I submitted to his mouth. Moans escaped the back of my throat while Nate grunted and gripped the nape of neck.
Hungry.
Desperate.
Consuming.
Pulling away from me, his eyes scanned mine. “I’m sorry.” He kissed my lips again. “I never want to stop this,” he whispered. His mouth trailed across my cheek and down my neck. My eyes opened and I spotted a security car headed our way.
“Stop,” I moaned. “We need to get out of here before we get caught.” I should have stopped him completely. The smart thing would have been to get in the security car and ask them to drive me home. But in that moment, the only thing I wanted was to feel Nate’s lips on me.
Chapter 14
Nathaniel
My entire life I’ve felt worthless. My father left me, my mother didn’t care, and every foster home I lived in made me feel like an obligation rather than loved. Even when Louisa adopted me, I felt like a responsibility. I had stood up for her kid, so she was returning the favor.
It was hard to grow up feeling like the kid no one wanted, so I acted out in school because of it. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I realized it was my life and I had two choices: be the asshole kid and become the asshole adult, or change my ways. So I changed. Although being worthy of someone’s love was never something I fixated on. It became irrelevant to me.
Until Brielle.
One taste of her and I was willing to move mountains for her. There wasn’t anything I’d let stand in my way. She made me feel worthy. The connection we shared was undeniable. It transformed into something much larger, something I no longer wanted to control. So I tracked her down in the library, held her in my arms, and kissed her furiously. When she turned me down and refused to admit what we had was perfect, I sat on the long wooden table and watched as she packed up her stuff and stormed off to meet my brother.
Since Christmas, I couldn't focus. I couldn't sleep. The only thing on my mind was her. It was wrong in every sense of the word, but I needed to have her. I wasn't lying when I said I didn't want to hurt Julian, but I needed her in my life. She made it clear that even if I wasn't with Delaney, I couldn't be with her. And if I couldn't have her the way I wanted, I needed to have her friendship.
After I peeled back her doubts about tutoring me, I pla
nned to spend a day with her. I unplugged her car battery, made sure Julian's roommate got wasted at a party so he wouldn’t drive home, and then I paid Stu a hundred bucks to take Terri out and make sure she couldn’t get in to work Saturday morning.
The plan was simple. Her car wouldn’t start and she would have to call me, and when we arrived at the library, Terri wouldn’t be there. I pushed the thought of Julian and Brie together out of my head as I waited for my phone to ring. Two things I didn’t expect: for her to run to the library, and the storm.
I could still taste her raspberry Chapstick as I pulled away from campus and toward the interstate. My cock pushed against my jeans and all I wanted was to bury myself between her legs.
She shifted in her seat and lowered the heat.
“Warm enough?” I glanced over at her.
“Yeah.” Her voice was low.
Cupping her hand in mine, I brought it to my lips. “Tell me what's on your mind?”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Do you want the truth?” I looked over at her again and nodded. “I can't stop this.”
“What?”
“This. Us. It's wrong, we both know it, but never has anything felt so right.” She squeezed my hand. “I don't know what to do. She's my best friend.”
“Are you more concerned about her or him?”
“Both. Neither. I don't know. When I'm with you, I don't care about anything or anyone. It’s like we’re in a bubble and all our responsibilities don't exist. Nothing seems to matter.”
Pulling into a Dunkin Donuts drive-thru, I brought the back of her hand to my lips and kissed it once again. “Can we stay in the bubble a little longer? Even if it's just for a day?” My gaze searched deep into her brown eyes. “I really like the bubble,” she whispered and a grin grew on her face. Without any hesitation, I leaned across the center console and gently kissed half of her lips. Brielle closed her eyes and moaned.
Two hot chocolates and six donuts later, we were back on the freeway. I wanted as far from campus as possible. The rain wouldn't let up but the traffic was minimal. Brielle held my hand as we drove. Neither of us wanted to let go. When I entered Lake Norman State Park, it was empty.
I parked my car near the water and left the engine running. We sat there for a few minutes looking out into the gray foggy cold. My thumb gently ran across her soft skin.
“Did you love her?” she asked. Her gaze never pulled away from the fog.
“No.”
“Why did you stay?”
“I told you, to be closer to you,” I confessed. “Once you broke up with Julian, I left her.”
“And Julian? Don't you feel you're betraying your brother?”
“Yes. But like you said, when I'm with you nothing else matters.”
“You're a fire I can't put out. It started as something small, but now it's consuming and uncontainable. It will probably destroy every last bit of me.” She looked over at me, a small smile playing on her lips. “I can't stop playing with fire even though it's going to burn me.”
I kissed her.
In one swift motion, I had her out of her seat and on my lap; my dick throbbed with need as she bucked against me. Her hair was wild; curls draped over my face. Desperate to feel her, I slid my hands under her sweater and ran them up her back. Her soft skin under the palms of my hands drove me mad. I had her once and I needed more. She said I was her fire, but she was my drug.
I deepened our kiss. My mouth claimed her. “Do you want to stop?”
“No.” She leaned her head to the side and exposed her neck.
“Tell me you're mine.” My teeth grazed her jaw.
“I'm yours,” she whimpered. Her gaze met mine. “You're what I want. It's been you since the beginning”
I framed her small face in my hands and brought her lips to mine. “I need to have you, Brie.”
She pulled away from my hold and trailed her fingers down my chest. Gently, she lifted the hem of my sweater and then tossed it over my head. I watched, amazed and rock hard as she did the same with her shirt, exposing her soft pink cotton bra.
Unable to keep my hands to myself, I wrapped them around her torso and brought my mouth to her chest. When we were together that night, we were drunk and sloppy. I didn't have the opportunity to savor her. Though having her in the back of my car wasn't the best scenario, any second with Brielle was worth it.
I kissed her fair skin and slipped my hands inside her bra. Her nipples pebbled at my touch. With as much patience as I could manage, I slid my tongue across her peachy skin. Brielle moaned and dug her nails into the back of my neck.
“Please, Nate,” she muttered. “I need you inside me.”
Biting on the tip of her nipple, I looked up at her. “And I need to taste you.”
“You can have all of me, but please don’t make me wait.”
“Fuck,” I growled. “Get in the back.”
Brielle pushed off my chest and climbed in the back seat. Discarding my shirt, I watched from the rearview mirror as she undid her pants. At that moment, I thanked God I'd bought a jeep and climbed back.
Brielle sat with her back to the door. Towering over her, I kissed her lips, her cheeks, and down her neck. The rain continued to pour as I made my way down her body. Her jeans were still damp when I tugged them off. She had the devil in her eyes. I kissed every inch of her body until I reached the hem of her panties. Her breathing grew labored as I discarded them. She was wet and ready for me.
I desperately needed to taste her. I didn't know when or if I’d ever have her again, and I wanted to make every second count. My gaze locked on hers, I slid my tongue over her clit and watched as her eyes rolled back in pleasure as I devoured her. Her moans guided me to exactly what she wanted.
“Oh, God,” she whimpered. “Please . . . don't . . . stop.” Her body quivered and I let my tongue ride the wave of her orgasm.
When she finally caught her breath, I pulled away and reached inside the glove compartment for a condom. Patiently, she waited as I slid it on and positioned myself at her entrance. Running my tongue across my lips, I tasted her on them.
A grin took over her face. She clasped her hands around my neck and brought my lips to hers. “I want to taste me on you,” she muttered against my lips.
I sank into her.
She cried out in ecstasy.
We fucked.
It was hard.
Deep.
And mindfuckingly good.
We were both panting for air when I finally came. My back stung from the marks of her fingernails, and she wore a content, sated expression on her beautiful features. We stayed in the back seat holding each other.
“I’m sorry,” I confessed.
“For?” She stopped tracing small circles over my chest and lifted her eyes to me.
“I didn't know you’d get soaked by the rain.”
“I'm not following.”
“I unplugged the battery of your car.”
“Nathaniel!” She smacked my chest.
I chuckled and grasped her hand. Kissing her palm, I explained everything. “I didn't know how to get you alone. You ignored me after Christmas, and when I found you in the library, you ran off. Then I noticed your name on the learning center sheet and I lied about biology so you would tutor me.”
“You son of a bitch.” She shook her head. Her lips puckered with amusement. “What else?”
“I made sure Julian's roommate didn't go home so you couldn't get a ride. Then I made sure Terry was late so I could convince you to get breakfast. I didn't know the rain would be this heavy. Plus, I thought you'd call me when you didn't have a ride.”
“So you weren’t worried about me spending the night at Julian's?”
I shifted my arm so I could run it up her back. “It crossed my mind. But if you didn't sleep with him while you two were dating, I figured you weren't doing it now.”
Brielle scoffed. “You have it all figured out, don’t you?”
I brushed her c
urls away from her face and lifted her chin. “To get a few hours alone with you where you're not pushing me away, I’d do anything.” I didn't wait for her to respond. Instead, I kissed her again until she begged for more
Chapter 15
Brielle
Lie.
Lie.
Lie again.
I lied to everyone and it gave me anxiety. But being with Nate wasn't something I was willing to give up. There was no escaping what I felt for him. The adrenaline that coursed through me when we were together was better than anything I had ever experienced. But like most thrill rides, it scared me to death.
The fear of being discovered by Delaney or Julian had me panicking, and I began to overcompensate my friendship with them both. Not to mention the fear that Nate could easily change his mind and move on to another girl. I could simply have been a chase, and now that he had me I constantly worried it was only a matter of time before he got bored.
Every Saturday morning, we snuck off to be together. Now that I knew his biology excuse was bullshit, we spent those days together. Along with sneaking off, Nate and I had rules on how we communicated. No emails, phone calls or drop-bys. We texted in code. I changed his name on my phone to Nicole, and I kept my phone glued to me since I didn't want Julian or Delaney to see any of our messages.
I lied to Julian about working more so I spent less time with him. Our Friday night tradition of Chinese takeout was replaced with Nate taking me to dinner far from campus so no one would spot us together.
It wasn't just sex between us. We spent countless hours talking about life and what we both wanted in the future. He knew my passion for art and let me go on and on about it before he shared his dreams. Without realizing it, I fell deeply in love with him.
The first week of March, Delaney and I were in our dorm room and I was getting ready to head off to work at the dentist’s office. My hands were massaging the leave-in conditioner through my hair when Delaney closed her laptop and looked over at me.
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