Free B0075M2D1U EBOK by Julie Cassar Page A

his grip on my sweaty hand. He pulled away gently and broke the kiss first. I slowly opened my eyes and smiled at his smoldering face, as he slowly curled his mouth into his trademark smile.
    The others were already at the car, and Anya once again cleared her throat loudly before announcing, “Are we ready to go?” Jeremy was already sitting behind the wheel and Leo started making soft puking sounds as he stood next to Anya. Real mature. Brennan was standing, holding the back door open for us, smirking at me as we walked towards him. Then, in barely a whisper, so that only I could hear him, he smugly said, “Stuck in a tongue tornado, huh, Kansas?”
    “ Guess so,” I snarkily answered as I scooted into the back seat. I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, but thought that would look too immature with Nick so close behind me. Brennan nodded his head to Nick as Nick slid in next to me, then he walked around the other side of the car to sandwich me in again. I don’t know why he didn’t just get in and sit next to Nick, but maybe it’s a guy thing? I suppose he didn’t want to sit all squished up next to him. As Jeremy backed the car out of the lot, Nick casually draped his arm around my shoulders which sent a volt of electricity through my entire body. I sucked in a quick breath as I sat up a little straighter and I saw Nick smile out of the corner of my eye. I smiled and eased into his side, resting my body lightly against him. Brennan ignored us, which was fine by me.
    The drive home was quieter than the ride there, and Anya, Leo and Jeremy did most of the talking. Brennan was unusually quiet, and I was in heaven. Leaning comfortably against Nick, with his arm still draped around my shoulder, I tried to calm the butterflies still fluttering around in my stomach as I thought about his muscular, tanned body which I was now utterly close to. I didn’t feel the need to talk much, as I was too preoccupied thinking about kissing Nick again. We dropped Nick off first, so he simply leaned down gave me quick peck on the lips and then wrapped his arm a little tighter around me for a quick squeeze. He lingered at my ear and whispered, “I had fun, Ruby. I’ll call you.” And with that, he said thanks to Jeremy and climbed out of the car. I slid over to the door and dreamily looked out the window so I could watch him walk inside his house. I let out a big sigh. Could anyone be more perfect?
    Brennan interrupted my daydreaming when he smugly said, “Does his vocabulary include any words other than ‘cool’? I thought huma – ah – American teenagers had stronger linguistic skills than that.” I looked over at Brennan with my best squinty evil-eye look and retorted, “Oh whatever, Brennan. Like you’re so smart. You acted verbally challenged most of the night!” Once again, he had stumbled over his phrasing while speaking. If he wasn’t more careful, Jeremy or Leo were most certainly going to start catching on to his foreign fairy-ness. He always was goofing up like that… saying things a normal human teenager wouldn’t say. Anya quickly interrupted us by saying rather loudly, “So, do you guys think we’re going to get another storm tonight?” Leave it to Anya to try to quiet the squabbling and change the subject.
    “ I don’t know,” Jeremy shook his head as he glanced up towards the skies, “But I hope not. The one the other night caused quite a mess.”
    “ Really?” Anya asked.
    “ Oh yeah!” Leo interjected, you shoulda seen all the messed up boats!” Anya turned quizzically at Leo. I piped in from the back seat, “Oh, that’s right, Nick told me about that yesterday when he stopped in to see me…You had just left Anya.”
    “ What happened?” Brennan demanded as Anya tried to crane her neck around to look at me.
    “ Well, apparently, the storm flipped over almost all of the boats in the marina the other night. Good thing it’s still early in the season and not too many people are docked