Torque by Gillian Archer (10 ebook reader txt) 📕

the intensity, had me gasping. I knew what it meant, knew what he wanted, but in that moment I wasn’t ready. Faced with everything I thought I’d wanted—I froze. I couldn’t just brazenly wrap my arms him and kiss him like I’d always fantasized.

I couldn’t measure up to his experience. I’d only ever been with three guys, and they weren’t anywhere near as magnetic as Nathan. Suddenly, I felt very much like the little kid he’d long thought me to be.

I couldn’t do this.

All this zipped through my mind as he stared down at me with that hunger in his eyes.

I broke our little staring contest and examined the casserole in my hands. Aching to fill the charged silence with something, I spewed my verbal diarrhea all over him.

“I made some baked ziti. We just have to, you know, bake it.” I laughed unevenly. “I was hoping you’d have stuff to make a side salad. But if you don’t that’s fine. There’s plenty of veggies in the ziti—tomatoes, onions, and I hid some zucchini in it too because my mom always—”

“Maddie,” Nathan cut in softly as he took the dish out of my hands. “Look at me.”

I really didn’t want to. I mean I wanted to—I wanted him!—but suddenly it was all so freaking intimidating. I could literally reach out and grab him, but I couldn’t, all at the same time.

I don’t know if any of that made sense. It was all a crazy fustercluck in my head. And I should probably just go home.

Oh wait, I didn’t have one of those.

“Maddie.” He sounded so gentle and patient and so un-Nathan-like that I had to look up. His eyes were just as gentle as his voice as he stared down at me. “I thought I told you that we’d take this at your pace? No pressure. No expectations. We just see how this goes. Remember?”

I nodded slowly, mesmerized by that tone and look in his eyes.

“Okay then.” He held up the casserole and raised his eyebrows. “You said something about a salad and baking this?”

I nodded again, still mute.

He sighed and wrapped his free arm around me. “Come on. I think I have an oven. I’ve never used it, but I’m pretty sure this place came with one.”

My sigh echoed his as I let my head fall on his shoulder. I loved how he tried to calm me down and just…everything about him. I’d loved him as a kid with that hero worship kind of mentality, and I was quickly falling for him now as an adult, given the man he’d turned out to be.

I let him guide me into the kitchen, relishing the feel of his arm around me and his body so close to mine that his hard chest bumped into me with every step he took.

That feeling of anxiety crept away and my earlier excitement over tonight was rapidly replacing it.

“See? Yup, I do have an oven after all.” Nathan set the casserole down on the counter and bent over to peer at the control display. “I have no fucking idea how to turn it on though. Do I just…?” The oven beeped as he tapped a few buttons. “But how does it turn on? Son of a bitch.”

I bit my lip to hide my smile as he increasingly got frustrated with every button he pressed.

“Why is there a clean button and not a fucking start button? This is the stupidest machine.”

Finally, I couldn’t hide my laughter. “I’m amazed you can get to be thirty-one and not know how to turn an oven on.”

“Now she speaks!” Nathan turned and gave me a mock glare. “And only to laugh at me? Seriously?”

I smiled up at him, not intimidated in the least anymore. “How about you look and see if you have any salad fixings, and I’ll handle the big, mean oven?”

Nathan shook his head but obeyed me, turning to open the fridge.

I tapped the correct buttons to preheat the oven and turned back to find Nathan bent over the crisper drawer of his French door style fridge.

His ass was round and taut and just so freaking perfect.

“…know I bought some a few days ago. I don’t think I used it yet.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. All I could do was stare at his perfect ass.

And then I blinked and suddenly I was standing behind him, reaching out toward his butt.

“Aha! I knew I had a bag of…” He trailed off then cleared his throat, his head still buried in the fridge. “Maddie?”

“Yeah?”

“Is that your hand on my ass?”

I looked down. It was. When did that happen? “Apparently.”

“I take it you’re over your sudden case of shyness?”

Laughter bubbled out of me. “Apparently.”

It wasn’t the jeans. His butt was just as round and firm as it looked.

Nathan’s shoulders hitched with his breath. He spun around so I wasn’t touching his butt any more. Wrapping his arms around me, he dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose. “Thank god.”

And then his lips were on mine. Kissing me. Nipping at my lips. And I was kissing him back. His kisses were just as yummy as I remembered. I don’t know why I’d been so freaked out. Everything about this just felt right. The fridge door crashed shut as I buried my hands in his luscious hair and kissed him back.

Minutes or hours later—who knows—I was dimly aware of a beeping coming from somewhere in the background, but I was too busy kissing Nathan to think about it.

Nathan tore his lips from mine. “Can you turn that off?”

I blinked dimly up at him. Turn what off?

Me? Not hardly.

I opened my mouth to tell him as much when I realized what he’d meant. The oven. Turning, I tried to take a step toward the oven, but Nathan wouldn’t let me. His arms wrapped tighter around me. Laughing lightly at his cute gesture, I half-dragged him the few steps to the oven and tapped the off button.

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” Nathan muttered