Page 146 of Steeling Her
“I’ve got you! Carter, I’ve got you!” I can hear Nick’s voice and it instantly calms me down. I’m not a strong swimmer. I never have been. That’s why water can make me nervous sometimes, because of this. I feel my body being dragged over to the side where I can grip on to the wall and cough. “I’ve got you,” he whispers, and I can hear feet slapping against the pavement above me.
“Carter! Are you okay?” Haley’s voice is next to my head and I feel her hand grip mine. “Pull her out! Now!” she yells at the guys around her. I feel a few hands pull me up and lift me out of the water. “I need a towel!” she yells again. I’m completely soaked to the bone.
“You’re a fucking idiot, Trumer! A FUCKING IDIOT!” Nick’s voice booms in the open space. I sit on the tiles, gathering my breath back. It’s not that I was lacking oxygen, it was the panic that made me feel like I was. I just felt like I was doomed when I knew I rationally couldn’t have drowned in a pool surrounded by people. I just thought the worst.
“Dude, it was just a joke, man,” the other voice that I don’t recognize speaks back, as if he did nothing wrong. “We just thought it would be funny, that’s all,” he says in defence himself.He thought it would have been funny?
“WE? Who the fuck is ‘we’! She almost drowned because of you, man! Use your fucking brain next time you choose to do that to someone. You completely crushed her, you fucking moron,” Nick shouts back at him.
It’s then I decide to open my eyes to see what’s going on. I can feel my body tremble because I’m still shocked that this happened. I’m shaking by the side of the pool with Cas by my side along with a few of the guys who helped pull me out. She’s rubbing my back to help calm me down. My mom does the exact same thing whenever I panicked. I appreciated her helping me.
“Erin and Maya, they said it would—”
“Get the fuck away from me.” He growls at the mention of the two girls’ names. I should’ve known. Nick swims over to the ladder and tugs himself out of the pool, equally as wet as I am.
You can see his ripped abdomen through his sopping wet shirt, and I know that’s what most of the girls were looking at. Once he’s out, Haley gives him a towel too. He grabs it and makes his way over to the two perpetrators, content with themselves in what they achieved tonight: embarrassing me and pissing Nick off even further.
“You happy? Are you both fucking happy? You’re both desperate enough to get her hurt to make yourselves look good, huh? Well, you look just as fucking stupid as he does”—he points to Trumer—“and pathetic too. Get over yourselves and stay the hell away from me and my girlfriend. I never want to see either of you again. Don’t look at us, don’t talk to us, don’t breathe the same goddamn air as us. I don’t want to see your desperate faces anywhere near her or me. Is that clear?” he rips into them as they cower in the corner, embarrassed that he called them out in front of everyone.
What did they expect? For him to laugh along with them?
He wipes his face, eliminating the water and chlorine. He then walks back over to me and scoops me up into his arms, kissing me delicately as he carries me through the house, the people inside staring at how drenched we are. We’re leaving half of the pool trailing after us.
It’s then I realize how much he actually cares about me. He dove in after me in a heartbeat and rescued me when I was struggling. He stood up for me too, which isn’t anything new, but he’s also carrying me away from everyone because I don’t like them staring at me, which I think it’s weird. This guy carrying me is the first guy outside of my family to actually care about me. That makes me feel euphoric.
As he transports me along the street, he has this determined look in his eyes as he carries me out of the house. The fire in his eyes leaves once our gazes connect. It’s then I release my breath.
I have fallen so deeply in love with this guy. Not the way he looks, or what he buys me. I’ve fallen in love with him, flaws included, and I wouldn’t want him any other way. Time stops, and it feels like the world has stopped spinning around us, time exploding before my eyes at the speed of light.
My heart collapses into the ground so it can grow into an everlasting tree to shelter us from the world. He’s beyond perfect for me, it’s like someone cut our hearts in two at the beginning of life and now we found our way back to one another, beating to the same beat. I feel like I’ve found my other half.
This love—this sensation—is just between me and him. The sound of my heart pounding is for him and nobody else. Thank God, I’m in his arms, because I would have collapsed onto the pavement and couldn’t explain why, other than tell him this; it’s him. He’s the one.
“Thank you.” I lean in to kiss him. I feel an electric shock. The simple kiss has me in a daze with him. I rest my head on his shoulder as we make our way back to his house, towels wrapped around us. There’s only one thought rushing through my mind.
I’m in love with Nick Jackson, and I always will be.
Chapter Thirty-One
A Rare Piece of Art
Nick
The fact that Carter is trembling in my hold makes it known to me that I need to get her to the house quicker than I wanted. I don’t need her catching a cold because of this, and I don’t want another hindrance for her either. One trip to the hospital was more than enough for me and my nerves. So, when I see the house up ahead, I quicken up my pace to get there in a split second.One step closer to warmth,I think to myself.
I have to put her down on her feet in order to open the door. Once I did, I lift her back up with the towel Haley had gotten for her still wrapped around her. Carter chatters out a laugh when I know her jaw was beginning to shake. That, to me, is a sure sign that I might be too late.
I kick the door shut behind us and carry her to my room in silence. I have only one task in my mind and that’s to insert her into the shower. Fully focused on putting her needs before mine, I can heat up the bath, no problem. It’s her I’m more worried about.
Once I get to my room, I order her, “Lose the clothes and I’ll run the shower now.” Carter nods, and I race to the bathroom, feeling a slight shiver myself. I lift my shirt off my back and poke my head out into my room. Seeing that she’s still changing, I decide that as much as I don’t want to, I need to give her some privacy. “Um, the shower is hot if you’re ready,” I call out to her.
When I hear a quiet “Okay” as a response, I know she’s coming in. Her voice is close. I’m so embarassed that I don’t even know where to look with my own girlfriend now. I wanted to ask her properly rather than declare her as my girlfriend, but it came out like word vomit.
I swallow at her completely bare figure, a towel wrapped around her petite body. I send her a tight smile and try to control myself.
What I would give to join her, but I know she probably wants some privacy. After that night I had with her, all I want was to get her alone with me and let my hands feel her skin again. I miss that skin-on-skin contact that I desire. It was more than just fucking that night. It’s like a lightbulb went off in my brain and took my time. The embrace we had, had my nerves on the edge the entire night and it hasn’t changed since then. I have an itch to be with her all of the time now, and I can’t scratch it unless I’m with her.
I remember when I let the tip of my tongue taste her. Her juices tasted so rewarding when she lost control. The way her body reacted under my touch. When Carter reached her peak, I enjoyed watching her back arch allowing the pink peaks of her breasts stand up on their own accord, shuddering in bliss and clamping around me like she didn’t want it to be over.
