Salvaged Soul (The Ignited Series Book 3) (3 page)

His behavior annoyed me, and frequently pissed me off to the point that I was grateful for the charm around my neck. But never had I been more grateful for that charm than now, and for once, it had nothing to do with Micah.

Stepping through the front door of the gym, my eyes immediately found Nathan amongst all the sweaty, hard-bodied Kala. In my opinion, his was by far the finest. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

In the weeks that I had been on the island so far, I had tried to not let the constant attention Nathan received bother me. Some of the guys regarded him as an idol, since he had helped train many of them in their younger years. That was okay, but the girls with their doe-eyes that followed him everywhere he went and their unsubtle attempts at flirting got on my nerves.

Then there were girls like the one I saw now. The type who thought the way to get a guy to notice her was to expose as much skin as possible and to practically throw herself at him.

Either Nathan had grown accustomed to thwarting off girls like her over the years, or he was clueless. The only thing that kept me from going Skotadi-crazy on the girl was his blatant disinterest in her as she pretended to spot him at the bench press. The charm around my neck probably helped, too. That was until he finished his set, sat up, and his eyes shifted to the door. The resulting smile on his face when he saw me could quiet even the feistiest of demons.

He said something to the girl before making his way over to where Micah, Richie, and I stood by the door. Once he was within earshot, I let a brief pang of jealousy take control of my mouth.

“Kira?” I asked him.

“What?”

I thrust my chin forward, eyeing the girl where she still stood by the bench press, watching.

Nathan followed my gaze, then glanced back at me peculiarly. “Veronica, one of the other instructors.”

“Of course there’s more than one of them,” I muttered under my breath. From the look on Nathan’s face as he glanced at Micah and Richie in confusion, I realized that I had said it loud enough for him to hear.

Micah threw his hands up defensively. “Not my problem you have your girlfriend on your old playground,” he said to Nathan. Turning to me, he said, “I guess you’re with him now, so I suppose I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said with a wave of my hand. When and where I saw Micah again was the least of my concerns.

Nathan watched as the door closed behind Richie, then he turned to me. “Do I even want to know what that was all about?”

“Probably not,” I said quickly. “Are you still working out, or . . .”

“I’m done. Let me grab my stuff.”

He trotted back to the bench, said something to Vivian, or Venice, or whatever her name was, and slung his bag over his shoulder. I kept my mouth shut because, surrounded by Kala who didn’t exactly trust me, I had to, but my eyes, when they briefly met hers, clearly portrayed the
‘mine’
I desperately wanted to scream to the entire island.

Chapter 3

{Nathan}

As the door shut behind us, my thoughts were on what Micah had been talking about.
Girlfriend . . . playground.
I didn’t get it. I was curious about this Kira, and even more curious as to why Kris looked like she had bit into a lemon when she said her name.

Before I could ask, Kris grabbed my hand and steered me around the side of the building, where we were hidden amongst a cluster of palm trees and white sand dunes. She stepped close to me, and I held my hands up as if to ward her off.

“I’m sweaty and gross,” I warned.

“I happen to like you like that.”

She gripped the front of my shirt and pulled me in, raising up onto her tiptoes to meet me. Though something felt off, two seconds into the kiss I remembered that I was a guy . . . and I didn’t really care. And I concluded that I would make every attempt to be sweaty and gross in her presence from this moment on.

Not even the voices from a group of Kala walking out of the gym behind me could halt the rapidly growing heat brewing between us. I only vaguely registered that they were too close for comfort. Without breaking contact, I pulled Kris behind a high sand dune. There, I turned to put my back against a broad palm tree, and in one swift motion, pulled Kris into my lap as I slid to the ground.

Perfect. We were more hidden, and my hands were free to slip under the hem of her shirt without worry. My fingers skimmed her smooth skin, eliciting a trail of goosebumps in their wake. Feeling her body come to life beneath my hands ignited something inside of me, something I had grown accustomed to holding back with her in the past. But not right now.

I was so absorbed in her, in her mouth, in her body against mine, that I didn’t hear the approaching voices until they were practically on top of us. I recovered my hands and smoothed her shirt back into place, but it was too late. Whoever it was had busted us.

“Oh, yeah,” a young Kala boy called, “way to go man.”

Kris immediately pressed her face into my neck to hide.

“Hey, that’s our combat instructor,” the boy whispered loudly to another boy trailing behind him.

Kris groaned and buried her face deeper. She realized that there was a fifty-fifty chance that the boys were in the same class as she was. I wasn’t about to tell her that I recognized them, and that they were in her class.

“Stay hidden,” I whispered to her. “They don’t know it’s you.”

I watched them closely as they walked away, high-fiving each other for some weird reason. They weren’t the ones making out with a girl.

Once they were out of sight, I said, “They’re gone.”

Kris tilted her head to look up at me, though she still remained partially hidden in my neck. “That was embarrassing.”

“They didn’t see you.”

“Yeah, but now the whole island is going to hear about you making out with girls behind the gym, and other girls are going to think they have a shot—”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” I interrupted her before she took a hard turn into Crazyville. “Where is this coming from?”

Even as I asked, I feared I already knew the answer. And if so, her comments from earlier suddenly made sense. I still wanted to hear it from her though. I pushed a curtain of hair out of the way, revealing her face and rosy cheeks. “Kris? What’s going on?”

She shrugged. “I’ve overheard girls talking about you, about how hot you are, what they would like to do to you . . .” She made a gagging motion, then continued quickly, “I’m just sick of hearing it every day.”

I grimaced. “And one of these girls was named Kira, I assume?”

“No, I overheard her sister talking. I don’t know who Kira is.”

“That makes two of us,” I said, making a poor attempt at a joke.

Kris didn’t laugh. “She knows who you are. You must have left quite an impression on her.”

I noted the sarcasm and chose to ignore it, because she had a point. There were lots of girls I didn’t remember.
What does that say about me?
Nothing good, I knew, but I was different now. I had changed.

“I’m sorry you have to hear that stuff.”

“It’s not your fault,” she muttered as she got to her feet.

I didn’t have the nerve to tell her that it might actually be my fault, not yet, and took her extended hand as I rose to a stand beside her.

“Sometimes . . .” she continued softly, “I wish I could tell them the truth, even if just to make them shut up. It’s hard to pretend we’re something that we’re not.”

I nodded but said nothing.
What could I say?

I knew it sucked for me—to not hold her hand in public, to not steal kisses whenever the mood struck, to not be seen together often enough to cause suspicion—and I knew it was worse for her, considering she was ostracized by the majority of the island. I was one of the few she had in her corner, and for her safety, I had to maintain an appropriate distance.

In public anyway.

I shot her a grin. “Come on. Let’s head back to the dorms. I need to shower, and we could
not pretend
for a while, and grab a late lunch.”

It sounded like an amazing idea to me, and from the shy grin that emerged on Kris’s face when she realized what I was suggesting, I knew that she agreed.

Ten minutes later, back in my room, I turned to her with a teasing smile. “Do you mind if I take a shower now, or would you rather I stay all gross and sweaty?”

She shoved me in the general direction of the bathroom with a smile. “Go.”

I waved a hand around the room. “Make yourself comfortable.”

The fact that I was able to leave the room, with Kris sitting on the edge of my bed, was a miracle. The fact that I managed to get through a shower amazed me. But nothing was more impressive than the idea that came to me in the middle of that shower. I was so impressed with myself that I sped through the rest of it in record time.

After my inadvertent screw ups earlier, this would definitely get me back in her good graces, and I was going to win brownie points as world’s best boyfriend. For one with limitations anyway.

She was sitting cross-legged on the bed, my trainer’s manual on her lap, when I emerged from the bathroom. She lifted her head and that stubborn strand of hair fell forward, partially covering her right eye. Usually, I would have been struck by the urge to put it in its rightful place, but this time my footsteps faltered at the sight of her.

She has no idea how beautiful she is.

“Checking your manual to see what torture you have planned for us next,” she said as she tossed the book on the nightstand, completely unaware of what she had done to me.

I turned and pretended to examine the scruff on my chin in the mirror while I regained my composure. “You already know most of it,” I tossed over my shoulder. “You’re the best one in the class.”

“That’s not saying much,” she snorted.

I turned around, but decided it was best, for now, to prop myself up against the dresser, on the other side of the room from her. At least until I told her about my brilliant idea.

“Hey, um . . .” I started, suddenly unsure. Suddenly nervous.
Why do I have to turn into a bumbling idiot around her all the time?
“I thought of something while I was in the shower.”

Her eyebrows raised. “That sounds interesting.”

She made it really hard to keep my distance. I looked at the floor to keep from looking at her, because looking at her made it too difficult to maintain the five feet between us. And being too close to her meant I wouldn’t be able to explain my idea.

Two minutes. I could wait two minutes . . .

“I was thinking about earlier,” I finally managed, “about what you said about us not getting to be ourselves, and thought maybe it would be a good idea for us to get off the island for a little bit.”

“You think they’ll let me off the island?” She sounded skeptical.

Honestly, so was I, but I had friends in high places. Friends who could get things done. Well, one friend really.

“I think I can make it happen,” I said.

“And do what?”

I lifted a shoulder. “Anything. I don’t know . . .” Only now did I realize that I probably should have planned this out a little better. Precious brownie points would be lost for poor presentation. “We can go somewhere, do something stupid . . .”

“Stupid? Oh, well, that sounds tempting.”

“I don’t mean stupid. I mean . . . simple. We’ve never done simple.”

“I think we’re way beyond simple.”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be nice to not have to pretend? Just for a few hours? It would be nice to get a chance to be us, without having to worry about someone seeing us.”

Kris’s face scrunched up, and eventually broke into a smile. “Are you asking me out on a date right now? Because if you are, you’re seriously bad at it.”

“Give me a break. I haven’t done this in a long time.”

I finally pushed away from the dresser. As I angled closer to Kris, her teeth caught her bottom lip. It was a nervous habit, but
oh, my God
. Something in me came unhinged at the sight, and I had to remind myself to behave. But then her tongue flicked across her lips—a move so quick I wouldn’t have noticed if I weren’t staring at them—and I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell I would be able to keep my hands off of her now.

“I may be bad at the asking part,” I said, lifting my gaze from her mouth to her eyes. “But what I’m good at more than makes up for it.”

I reveled in the fact that sometimes I managed to make
her
nervous. Her eyes were everywhere but on my face by the time I reached her. Bending down until my nose nearly touched hers, I placed my hands on either side of her legs, essentially trapping her. Her eyes widened when she finally met my gaze, then just as quickly as the nervousness appeared, it was replaced by the bravado she always managed to muster up.

That was one of the many things I loved about her.

“Oh? And what exactly are you good at?” she breathed.

“This.” I yanked her legs out from under her, forcing her to fall back on the bed with a squeal. I followed and hovered over her long enough to register the gleam of excitement in her eyes before taking her mouth with mine.

I kissed her deep and slow and controlled. My plan had been for hot but brief, for the simple reason that I couldn’t handle kisses this incredible for too long before I started wanting more. The moment her fingers dug into my shoulders, pulling me in, I knew my plan was shot to hell and I was in trouble.

My hands were still on her hips, where I had grabbed her earlier. Now, my grip tightened to pull her against me as I shimmied farther up the mattress until no part of either of us touched the floor. My mouth slid from hers, only for an instant, but long enough for a tiny whimper to pass her lips. That sound shattered what little self-control I had left. I reclaimed her mouth with a wild and desperate need. In that moment, I knew I had never wanted anything more than I wanted her.

And that was exactly why I had to do what I had to do. Cringing against the physical pain it caused, I pulled away. Not far. Just far enough to not kiss her again.

Her eyes, when they flew open, were full of questions. And then understanding, because this wasn’t the first time I’d had to pull the brakes. She didn’t say anything, but that might have been because she was struggling to catch her breath.

It even took me a moment to catch mine. And then she bit that damn lip of hers again, and I had to close my eyes to keep myself from losing it.

Breathe in . . . breathe out.

“Nathan?”

I grinned and opened one eye, thinking that was safer than two. It wasn’t. “Just give me a minute?”

I felt her shift beneath me as she settled into the pillow and made herself comfortable. Risking a peek, I observed the cutest expression of patient boredom on her face as she stared at the ceiling. When her eyes shifted and she saw me watching her, she smiled.

That was bad because it made me look at her lips again. But I had regained my composure enough to control myself. Instead of kissing her again, as that smile demanded, I asked, “Will you go out with me?”

Her smile widened. “That was much better.”

“Is that a yes?”

She nodded. “Definitely a yes.”

Having friends in high places had its perks. That didn’t mean Jared would necessarily agree to my idea. It just meant that he might actually hear me out before shutting me down. And so far, from the skeptical curve of his eyebrows, I saw this whole conversation ending with a big fat N-O.

Time to pull out the big guns.

“We’ve known each other a long time, man,” I said. “You know I can handle this.”

He leaned forward to place his elbows on the desk, and cupped his chin in his hands. The sharply curved eyebrows softened . . . just a little.

Knowing he was close to caving, I added, “I need this.
Kris
needs this.”