Secrets and Lies 6 (The Ferro Family) by H.M. Ward

CHAPTER 1
    I stand there flabbergasted , my jaw flapping in the wind. That can’t be true. Josh raped someone? A heavy daze settles on my shoulders making the world around me morph into a fishbowl. Everything sounds far away and warped. My head is too heavy and I find myself reaching for a kitchen chair. I barely graze it with my fingertips and lower myself, not blinking, still shocked.
    “Kerry, whoa, what are you—” Nate steps toward me, but it’s too late.
    It turns out said chair wasn’t lined up with said ass. I pass the cute seat where my posterior should have landed on my way down to the linoleum floor. Ooof . I let out a hard rush of air on impact.
    Nate rushes, offering a hand. “Are you okay?”
    When I don’t slip my palm into his, his crouch changes to a kneel. He places his hand on my shoulder. I want to cry or scream that Josh couldn’t do something so heinous. There’s no way. But he told me he did something horrible. I didn’t believe him.
    I glance over at the sexy professor’s face. Nate is beautiful as always, but there are little worry lines around those cool blue eyes. The way he lingers close, waiting for me to respond—waiting to hear I’m all right—coupled with the confession of concern that lingers on his lips is way too intense. I didn’t want a relationship. I can’t handle another failure right now.
    “Kerry?” Nate slides his knees around and sits on his back pockets, stretching those long legs out in front of him.
    “Mmmm?”
    “I know you care about this guy. I can tell from the way you’re talking about him and the sucker-punched expression on your face.”
    I glance at him out of the corner of my eyes. “You’re not jealous?” I’m a little shocked that the question fell out of my mouth, but yeah, it’s weird. He’s not pissing all over his territory like a horn-dog.
    “It’s not like that with us. You said so yourself. There’s nothing lasting about this.” He gestures between us. “As it is, it’s insanely dicey for you to be here. Some things are worth the risk.” Leaning in, he sweeps his lips against my cheek.
    I stare straight forward and feel a rush of warmth flood through me. I’m in emotional overload. Fragments of my mind are cracking under duress and I no longer want to think about anything. That’s what this guy is for—that’s why I came here.
    Nate’s lips linger next to my cheek, a breath away. I turn slowly and lower my lashes, to watch his mouth. I stay there, not moving for a long time, lost in silence. When I finally lean forward to close the distance, my heart is pounding at a deafening volume and every inch of my skin tingles, anticipating Nate’s touch.
    Eyes fixated on his beautiful pink lips, I breathe, “Can you make me forget everything for a little while? I don’t want to think anymore.”
    Nate answers by pressing his mouth to mine. At the same time, his hand laces around the back of my neck so he can pull me close. His other hand finds my cheek, and cups it as he kisses me harder. Thoughts scatter across my mind like a deck of cards in the wind. They’re no longer in a neat stack, easily read and pondered. Instead, they’re floating fragments that will soon be banished from my mind.
    I concentrate on the way his mouth feels, on the touch of his tongue and the way he takes control of the kiss. I relax into him, letting him move me as he likes. A moment later, I feel my arm trembling and realize that I’ve leaned back and placed my hands behind me to prop my body up. I’m no longer able to support our weight, and before I can break the kiss to say so, Nate lowers me to the floor while keeping the kiss intact. His firm body comes down on top of mine, then shifts to the side while leaving one leg over my hips, knee bent, and pressing me to the floor. The coldness of the plastic tile against my back is jarring. I arch my back and gasp into his mouth as I tangle my hands in his hair.
    Nate’s lips soon drift from my mouth