All The Wild Ones | Wildfire Series

Stage Fright

NESSA

"His name is Jasper Monroe."

"Jasper." Grayson repeated it, testing it out on his tongue. "Do I need to beat Jasper up?"

He said it teasingly, and I couldn't help but giggle.

It was something in the air.

I wasn't lying when I'd told Grayson I didn't know how to feel about him. Hearing him say so blatantly that he wanted to fuck me had sent me on a full retreat, leaving my body and my mind in a jumble. But everything he had done since then had my heart crawling back. Looking out for me when I was drunk. Leaving me coffee in front of my door. Saving me from being alone tonight. This. All of this.

"No." I shook my head. "But I appreciate that you continue to offer to beat my exes up for me."

Especially now that I knew what he was sacrificing if he were to break a finger. Piano, guitar, football. Who knew what else this guy played.

Grayson shrugged. "I do what I can, Adler."

I caught a smile before it could bloom completely onto my face. And then it died as soon as I thought back to our topic of conversation. "I had a crush on Jasper most of senior year. He was really sweet to me all the time, and he was one of the captains on the football team."

Grayson scoffed mockingly. "One of those guys, huh?"

I nudged him playfully, and he smiled down at me.

"Sorry. Keep going."

"It's really not that dramatic," I said with a twist of my lips. "He didn't put me through some horrible ordeal or anything. I'm not—I'm not like Madie. It isn't a sob story, and I almost feel ridiculous even telling you."

Grayson was quiet. We both looked out at the garden, and I wasn't sure if he was going to say something or if he was waiting for me to continue.

Finally, he blinked down at me. "But he hurt you, didn't he?"

I hesitated before nodding.

"Don't compare pain like that, Nessa." Grayson tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, and I shuddered from the feeling of his fingers brushing my bare skin. "Madie has been through some awful shit, but that doesn't mean that what happened to you doesn't matter."

I swallowed the huge lump that formed in my throat from hearing that. And then I took several deep breaths before continuing.

"Jasper and I started dating toward the end of the year. He was a really...physical guy, but I told him that I wanted my first time to be with someone I'd fallen in love with. I'd always been a bit of a hopeless romantic like that before he squashed it out of me."

I laughed, but it was humorless. "It was almost a running joke. He'd shower me with all these compliments and cute little gifts before flashing that smile at me and asking if I loved him yet."

I didn't realize until that point that I'd been oddly aware of Grayson's breathing. He was so close to me, and I could see the movement of his chest out of the corner of my eye. I heard the intake, the exhale. I felt the heat on my shoulder. Before, his breath was deep. Thoughtful, I supposed. Now it was shallow.

"And did you fall in love with him?" he asked.

"I thought I did. I really thought I did."

Jasper was everything to me. Caring and kind, he helped me with my homework, ate dinner with my family, gave me butterflies with his gorgeous smile. I remembered feeling like he was too good to be true.