Blindsided (LSU, #1)

by Becca Steele

Time passed. I talked. I drank. Liam did the same. I looked at him, and he looked at me. Then looked away. Again. And again.

“Fuck,” he whispered, his breath hitting my lips, and then he planted his hands on the wall on either side of my face. I didn’t even dare to breathe. Then, he kissed me.

If I could think straight, I probably would’ve said something like, What the fuck am I doing? But all I could focus on was the fact that Elliot had his hands all over Noah, and no. Fuck. That. Mine. Mine. Mine. The word resonated through me like a drumbeat, impossible to ignore.

The problem was I didn’t want to do the right thing. I couldn’t admit it out loud, but I wanted Noah for myself.

Liam used the moment to turn his head the tiniest bit. His breath caressed my skin as his soft rasp sounded in my ear, too low for anyone else to hear. “After this, you’re mine.”

There was no turning back this time. I knew I’d confused Noah with the way I’d been acting around him—but I didn’t know if he realised just how confused I’d been myself. But after our conversation in the library earlier, cemented by our mutual decision to be here together, right now, I was all in. All I wanted was to lose myself in him, to make him forget anyone’s name but mine.

The way he was looking at me…it was like he’d looked at me in the club, like no one had ever looked at me before.

The sight of him wearing my hoodie…it made me feel things that I’d never felt before. Things that scared me.

“There are no other girls. I’m not fucking interested, okay? I want you. I want you, and I can’t tell anyone.”

“I’m going to take you home and make you forget everyone else’s name but mine.”

Noah. He had his hood up, but I could see the ends of his damp hair under the hood, and the citrus scent of his shower gel hit me when I took an involuntary step closer. Fuck, I just wanted to bury my face in his neck and breathe him in.

Before Noah, I’d wondered, deep down, if it was my fear of abandonment that had stopped me from wanting anything more with anyone, but the simple truth was, not one single girl had ever held my interest. Yet Noah had captured my interest from the second I’d met him, and held it.

I fucking broke. Right there in my childhood bedroom, with my mum holding me, I cried. Cried like I hadn’t done for years.

“I don’t even know if I can get him to speak to me.” “Of course you can. You just have to show him you’re serious.” Tapping her fingers on her chin, she pursed her lips. “Maybe you could do a grand romantic gesture; that’ll make him listen. Oh! What about skywriting? Or hire a flash mob. Do people still do that?” “Mum. No.”

i love his mom

then I saw him. Our eyes met across the crowded room, and it was like I’d been electrocuted or something. Sparks fizzed through my body, and everything else faded away. All I could see was Liam, his blue eyes fringed by those thick lashes, dark circles underneath indicating that he’d been sleeping just as badly as I had. His mouth opened, and his lips formed my name. Noah. I was helpless to resist. I went to him.

The way he spoke so hoarsely, staring at me like that…it was almost too much. No one had ever looked at me that way before. I’d fallen so fucking hard for him, and maybe, just maybe, he’d fallen just as hard with me.

Noah deserved the world, and I’d give it to him.