I put in my headphones and fell into a solid cadence next to her. We ran a mile in complete silence. It took most of my energy to keep my eyes on the road ahead so I didn’t stare at her legs. Each time her foot came into contact with the pavement, I was distracted.

It was going to be a problem.

Suddenly, she stopped and pulled out her earphones. “What?”

“Uh…” Shit, she knew I’d been staring at her. “I’m just surprised that’s all.” Wow, Alec way ta pull that out of your ass.

“Do I even want to know?” She sighed and held her hands behind her back stretching.

I moved behind her and tugged them down a bit to give her shoulders a better stretch. My eyes fell to her neck, her pulse was racing, I leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “You tripped over your own two feet, twice yesterday, until now I wasn’t even sure you knew how to walk in a straight line.”

Her arms tensed beneath my hands. “I’m in track.”

I chuckled at her bristled state, she was so damn cute and had no idea, “That explains the body.”

“What?” She jerked away from me.

Yeah, I hadn’t meant to actually say that out loud.

“Your body.” I took in her long legs. “You have really long legs.” Wow, good job Alec almost choked on that compliment. You have long legs? That’s like telling a girl she has a wide smile! They don’t know how to take it! I may as well let her slap me.

Nat’s eyes glazed over a bit.

“What?” I smiled, trying hard to look friendly instead of predatory.

“You can’t just walk around saying things like that to girls.”

“Just did, but I guess your right, I shouldn’t say things like that, especially to my brother’s girl.”

“I’m not his girl,” she snapped.

I had a hard time hiding my surprise so I looked away and whistled. “Don’t’ tell him that, plus I saw you two last night.”

“Studying?” she asked in a hopeful voice.

I wish. “At the beach.”

Nat swallowed and put her hands on her hips as an uncomfortable silence fell over the conversation.

“But it’s cool.” I fought to keep my voice light when all I wanted to do was yell a bit. “Demetri likes you.” I went and sat on the concrete fence lining the prom. “Look, I want to be your friend. I’m not going to lie and say I’m not angry that my brother got to you first. But I’ll overlook your obvious lack of good judgment if you promise you’ll come to me if you need anything, okay?”

Yeah. I’d said too much. It wasn’t fair to ask her to babysit my brother. Hell, that was my job. I was more parent then brother. I just, I didn’t want to freak her out and say ‘by the way if he does lines of coke in the bathroom don’t call the media just send me a text. Or if he gets too happy with his hands, I’ll deal with it.’ Shit. I hated feeling out of control.

Nat nodded.

Needing to change the subject I swiped her phone and looked at the first song on her run mix. “Justin Bieber, Nat? Really?”

She turned bright red. “It’s good running music!”

“I’m a little hurt!” I said mockingly, “Are we even on here?”

Nat’s flush went deeper as I stopped on a playlist that screamed AD2. Aw, how cute she likes us.

“Give me that!” She lunged for the phone.

“No way! You love me!” I jumped up and down and waved my hands into the air in triumph.

“Give that back!”

“Are you blushing?” Agh, I loved that girl’s blush, it was so pure, so innocent.

“No” — she waved me off — “I’m just… winded.”

I winked. “I like this playlist better too.”

Nat looked like she wanted to disappear on the spot. It probably had more to do with the title of the playlist then the actual songs. It was marked ‘Crush.’ If only.

Funny, had it been any other girl’s phone, I would have expected it and felt nothing.

With Nat? My heart did a little flop.

Damn it.

To make her more comfortable, I steered the conversation back to my playlist. She didn’t believe that I actually listened to myself singing — I did it to practice not because I was vain.

At any rate. She lost the bet and I was one happy camper. Because I got to pick her up and take her to Evan’s party.

Just me.

It was something small… like getting a crumb from Demetri’s dinner plate. But I didn’t care. I just liked the fact that I’d get to pretend.

I’d pick her up in my car and pretend she was mine.

I’d open her door and pretend that she was my girlfriend.

And I’d imagine that it would be my lips she’d be kissing at the end of the night. Instead of Demetri’s.

By the time Friday night rolled around, I was a nervous wreck. I was almost late to pick up Nat and felt like a complete ass for making her wait.

I rang the doorbell and waited.

What greeted me on the other side of that door — almost gave me a freaking heart attack at nineteen.

No chance in hell was I letting her leave the house like that.

Words. I needed words. But I honestly couldn’t find anything to say. Pretty sure if I opened my mouth the only thing that would come out would be a pitiful moan or maybe a grunt of appreciation.

I shrugged out of my leather jacket and placed it on her shoulders. “Wow.”