Page 87 of The Risk Taker

He lets out a breathy, humorless laugh. “You make everything sound so simple.”

“It’s a gift,” I say, flashing him a grin. “That and being devastatingly handsome.”

He snorts, closing the sketchbook. “You should really work on your humility.”

“Can’t. It’s part of my charm. It’s also why you’re hopelessly attracted to me.”

Nathan lifts his eyes, and something shifts. He doesn’t roll them. Doesn’t scoff. Just looks at me for a long time before his mouth lifts in a crooked smile.

“I was attracted to you way before you opened your mouth.”

I blink. “Wait. You were?”

My pulse races because this guy, who barely talks about anything that isn’t hockey, is suddenly dropping that on me like it’s nothing.

I’d assumed this whole exploration thing was new. A recent realization. But now…

Nathan nods, flicking his eyes away from mine. “You walked into the rink at tryouts, surrounded by other freshmen, and I couldn’t stop looking at you.”

My pulse skips.Holy shit.

“I didn’t know what it meant,” he says. “I’d never looked at a guy like that before. Never looked at anyone like that.” He rubs the back of his neck. “But then you moved in, and you were always—” He glances at me with a small, reluctant smirk. “—fucking shirtless.”

I laugh, because it’s either that or forget how to breathe.

“And the attraction just kept getting worse,” he continues, holding my gaze. “Until I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t there anymore.”

He flicks his eyes down like he’s said too much. My brain is still trying to catch up as I keep my eyes on him, because Nathan Hayes has apparently been into me since day one.

And he’s sitting here telling me that, like it’s a casual fact instead of something that’s going to ruin my ability to sleep for the rest of my life.

“So you’ve been secretly pining for me this whole time,” I say finally, with a smirk. “And you’re only telling me now?”

He rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t pining.”

“Uh-huh,” I say, grinning as I nudge his knee with mine. “You can’t lie to me now, Hayes. You just admitted you were into me the second you saw me.”

He lets out a soft huff of a laugh, and I lean back against the wall like I’m not reeling.

“Well,” I say, “guess that explains why you kept glaring at me during drills. I thought you were just annoyed I existed.”

His mouth quirks. “It was… a bit of both.”

That grin pulls something in my chest tight, and before I can think better of it, I shift a little closer, until our knees brush again. “You could’ve saved us a lot of time, you know.”

He shrugs. “Didn’t know what it was. I figured it’d go away.”

“Did it?” I ask.

Nathan gives me a look that’s almost shy. “You’re sitting on my bed right now. What do you think?”

That knocks the breath out of me a little. I stare at him, my heart thudding, and let out a shaky laugh. “Fuck, I’m glad it didn’t.”

“Yeah,” he says, his eyes searching mine. He exhales and leans against the headboard again, the soft glow of the desk lamp catching on the curve of his jaw and the hollow of his throat. “Me too.”

His gaze lingers on mine, in a way that makes it hard to breathe. My chest goes tight and I can’t help but shift closer, lean toward him, letting my knee brush against his again.

I lean forward and press a kiss to his shoulder over the fabric of his shirt. He lets out a soft sigh, and it makes my heart flip. I follow the line of his neck, brushing my lips against his jaw. He exhales, his breath catching slightly, and when I pull back just enough to meet his eyes again, his mouth is already tilting up toward mine.