Free The Last Thing You See by Emma South

was sure my heart was doing a thousand beats per minute.
    Nick bent down and wrapped both arms around my back, one just below my butt and the other at chest-level, before lifting me clear off the ground in a tight embrace.  I returned it eagerly, having his arms around me felt just as good, hell, just as perfect as I thought it would.
    His face was buried against my neck and I leaned my head on his as I wrapped my legs around him.  We held each other so closely that, for a moment, it was hard to feel like we were two different people, but finally he pulled back.
    “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing, Harper, but I want you.  I want you more than anything.”
    He leaned in and kissed me, hard, like the brakes had just been taken off, turning around and pushing me against the wall.  By the time we broke our kiss, I was breathless from more than just the latest workout.  I bit my bottom lip.
    “I want you too… so much.  But I’ve got to go.  Appointments,” I said, bordering on blowing off my schedule for the foreseeable future.
    Nick nodded, slowly releasing his grip until I slid down the wall to my feet, his muscular weight still pressed against me.  I pulled him down for another kiss, touching my tongue to his and then nuzzling against him.
    “This Friday is the Fans Choice Awards.  You wanna be my date?”
    “I thought you were already going with that Lucas guy.”
    I did my best to show my mild disgust with a single facial expression.  “He can take a balloon with his picture on it, he’d prefer it that way.  I said I want you .”
    “I don’t have anything to wear.  Unless this is suitable?”  Nick pointed at his gi.
    “Let me take care of that.  I really gotta go, though.”
    I squeezed out from between Nick and the wall and made it a few steps across the mat before bouncing back to him, giving him another kiss before pulling away again.  I wanted to do cartwheels and backflips all the way to the changing room.  This was happiness.

Chapter 13: Nick
    The first time I was ever in a limo was on prom night. A bunch of us hired it and split the cost.  I thought that was pretty classy at the time, but it was an absolute piece of crap compared to this one.
    It smelled new, as if the company unwrapped a fresh one every time they received a booking.  Secret compartments were everywhere, in some cases blended into the upholstery so cleverly that I felt like a super-spy when I pulled a panel off and discovered some champagne flutes.
    First it picked me up from my apartment, where a woman had arrived with a make-up bag to help me get ready for the award show.  If word ever got back to the guys in the corps about that, well, it just didn’t bear thinking about.
    She wouldn’t take no for an answer or see my reasoning that I was just going to be sitting in the audience.  She had a job to do.  So be it.
    I stepped out of the limo when it came to a stop in front of Harper’s door and walked towards it, seeing it open before I closed the distance.  Harper appeared there and drove all other thoughts out of my mind.  Obviously she’d spent a fair bit of time with somebody fussing over her appearance too.
    Harper rocked the natural look, and I’d seen her in a gi more often than anything else.  It was easy to forget that she was a movie star sometimes, but this was not one of those times.
    She wore a plain, not that anything could truthfully be called plain on her, red dress that hugged her feminine shape closely and dipped not-quite-scandalously-low at the front, revealing the enticing swells of her breasts.  Her make-up was more pronounced than usual, but still subtle.  Her lips were pink and glossy, a little fuller than usual, and so very kissable. Her eyes were accentuated with some eyeliner, and she had just a touch of extra color to her cheeks.
    It looked like the most time had been spent on her hair, which spilled over her shoulders in waves and a few ringlets.  She was