Текст книги "Slow Twitch"
Автор книги: Лиз Реинхардт
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Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 22 страниц)
Shit.
Not that what I did was so fucking selfless; I loved a good brawl as much as the next brawler, and it felt great to knock Jeff square in his flat nose. Everyone wound up telling me what they really thought about Jeff and how much they appreciated what I’d done.
Cadence was the only one who’d been silent about the whole thing.
After dinner – and the chili did knock my damn socks off – Aunt Helene pulled me aside. “Saxon, lovey,” she sighed, “that girl don’t want your nonsense.”
“What do you mean?” I had a belly full of delicious beans and spice and my head was barely sitting right on my shoulders from all the pro-Saxon talk at the dinner table.
“She wants someone to see her. The real her. Not her family. Not just that pretty face. If you don’t show her that’s what you see, she’s not going to be interested. Smarten up, boy.” She tapped me on the temple with a pointy fingernail.
I kissed her on the head because she’s so fucking the real deal, it’s disgusting. And I thought about what she had to say. I actually spent a really decent amount of time thinking about what Aunt Helene said.
I did see Cadence.
I saw how she could juggle a dozen cars’ worth of orders at a time. I saw how she was stressed and wanted more and better, like college and fun nights out, but she loved her family and wouldn’t leave them high and dry. I saw that she was careful to let guys see her as pretty and a little funny and basically smart, but deep inside she was way crazier, way sharper, and sillier. She didn’t want to let that all out most of the time, but she’d done it. That infamous Chinese-food-and-nail-polish debacle showed me that she was just waiting to bust out and, hopefully, right into my waiting arms.
But things got better and worse for me way too quickly. Better because the entire Erikson clan fell for me hard and basically initiated me into their club. It was pretty much assumed that Cadence and I would get together.
Which is what made it worse.
Cadence didn’t seem to like the idea at all, pretty much because her family was so hopped up on it. When they teased her about it or mentioned it outright, she rolled her eyes or shook her head. I was getting no points at all with her, and I had no idea what to do about it.
I needed to get her in private, to tell her what I was thinking and what I noticed, but she was sly. She wriggled right out of my damn grasp every time I thought I had her cornered. Finally, I had to take it to another level.
I said goodbye to her adoring family, and felt a little pissed at the relief visible in her eyes when I headed out the door, my hands in my pockets, my head down like I was dejected. It didn’t take long for the house to settle for the night. I sat on an abandoned crate in her alley, watching the windows like a creepy stalker and wishing like crazy that I had a goddamn cigarette.
Brenna always hated my smoking, and she once told me that it was just a prop, just something cool to do. And I guess it mostly had been; but it was also a shitload of nicotine, and that’s not easy to get over. Especially when I was feeling jittery about other things. Like Cadence Erikson blowing me off.
I knew when it was cool to hop up the fire escape. I can’t say how I knew. It was just some kind of innate breaking and entering ability. There was definitely something profoundly fucked up about me and my delinquent sixth senses.
I crept up to her window like a cat burglar. She was sitting on her bed, looking down at her phone, probably texting. I rapped my knuckles on the window and she looked up fast, her eyes big and nervous. She glared, then came over to the window and slid it up.
“What?” she whispered.
“I want to talk to you.” I kept my voice low. “Do you want to get out of here? Go somewhere?”
She pulled her gorgeous lips down in a frown and, for a split second, I was pretty sure the window was going to get smashed down in my face. But then there was a tiny little hesitation. “It’s past my curfew.”
“I didn’t think we’d ask.” I leaned closer to her. “Haven’t you ever broken a rule, Cadence?”
“I’m not on your level yet, but I’m no angel,” she hissed back.
“Come on. It’s a nice night. Let’s go out. We’ll have some fun. I’ll have you home way before anyone knows. Come on.” I could see that she wanted it. “Be bad. Come on.”
She bit her lip, then nodded. She turned around and went to her dresser and put some shiny goop on her lips, ran her hand through her hair a few times, grabbed her purse and shoes and put a finger to her lips. She stepped out on the fire escape and we made our way down, stopping a few times when we were sure we woke the whole damn house. By the time we hit the ground, we were so keyed up she just grabbed my hand and ran. I didn’t even know where we were heading, and I didn’t give a fuck. I was with Cadence, and that was all that really mattered.
We finally stopped running a few blocks away and she slid down next to one of the buildings, laughing so hard she was almost crying.
“Oh shit.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m going to be in such deep trouble if my dad finds out about this.”
I sat next to her, the street pretty deserted, nothing but the distant sounds of traffic, the hot summer air, and me and this perfectly insane girl.
“Let’s make sure he doesn’t find out.” I looked at her for a minute and we inched closer, exactly the way I had every time I’d been about to kiss a girl. She wanted it. I could practically taste it from her. But she pulled away at the last minute, stood up, and yanked at my hand.
“Let’s go do something.” She smiled and her teeth looked bright white in the moonlight. She was wearing a tiny blue tank top and a white skirt and little flip-flop thingies. I couldn’t help thinking of how easy it would be to get her out of all of those tiny pieces of clothing. They were practically made to pull off.
“What do you want to do?” I asked, trying to keep my eyes off of her cleavage. I didn’t have my car there, but there was a lot we could walk to in this city.
“Let’s go to the park,” she suggested, her eyes bright. “C’mon!”
I followed her down the dark street, in between brick buildings, over a chain link fence, and into an old, almost-hidden park that time forgot. The kind with scary metal slides that get too hot in the summer and dangerous uncovered chain swings and heavy see saws that could crack skulls and tailbones. But the piece de resistance was the big, puke-inducing merry-go-round. It would have taken a good six or seven able-bodied elementary school kids to get the thing spinning, and once it started, the momentum would whip your stomach right up through your throat and out your mouth. Cadence jumped on and sat in the middle.
“Spin me,” she demanded.
“Are you sure?” I grabbed the paint-chipped metal bars. I jogged, pulling the heavy metal disc around slowly, just to remind her of how treacherous and awful it felt.
Cadence closed her eyes and dropped her head back, her long black hair picking up and blowing around her face. “Yes.” Her voice swept up into the night sky. “I’m sure. Do it, Saxon.”
She held the bars, her back arched out and her head tipped. I whipped the heavy metal around, and she grabbed on tight and screamed a little. I wouldn’t have been able to stay on it for more than a few seconds, but she was impressively able to handle the crazy spinning. It took a while before her head rolled forward and she groaned a little sickly.
“Done?” I asked, and when she nodded, I stopped the torture and helped her down. She was unsteady enough to have to lean on me. I led her to the swings and we sat.
“I used to love that when I was little,” she said, swinging back and forth gently. Her legs were long and tan, hanging out of her way-too-short white skirt. Her arms, twined around the chains of the swings, held on tight as she kicked out and swayed forwards and backwards.
“I’m not really all about the puking sensation.” My sneakers slid in the gritty sand under the swings. “What’s the appeal?”
She shrugged and swung a little higher. “I think it was just about feeling different. A little out of control.” She went even higher. Her hair swung out behind her, then billowed down and around her face. She looked like a kid, but also very much like a woman.
“Like drugs.” I didn’t mean for my voice to sound so fucking full of longing, like some old rehabbed rockstar. I really needed some nicotine to calm my jitters.
She planted her feet, pebbles and sand flying. “No.” Her voice lost all the dreamy fun and slashed at me like a switchblade.
“Yeah,” I countered, my clean system itchy for a fight. Fuck this. I wasn’t going to not push her a little. She had done her own judging where I was concerned, and if she was going to be my judge, jury, and executioner, I could at least give her something to think about. “It’s a fact. People do drugs to feel different. A little out of control.” I purposefully mimicked her words. “You get fucked up on spinning around.”
“That’s not the same!” Those green eyes flickered with little flames of rage. She hopped off of the swing.
“You do that a lot?”
She stopped and turned to look at me. “Do what?”
“Leave when someone says something you don’t want to hear?”
She marched back over to me, so fast and fucking furious, I got instant wood just watching the fury bounce off of her. “Don’t you daretry to make screwing around at a playground the same as snorting cocaine.”
“What’s so scary about being similar to me?” I asked. She wrapped her arms across her chest like she was trying to protect herself from me and shook her head. “The world won’t end if you admit that you like me, Cadence. What the fuck is worse about me than that shithead Jeff?” I demanded. “I’m no goddamn angel, but I’ve never gotten violent with a girl in my life.”
“So that qualifies you for boyfriend of the year?” Her voice stretched tight and vicious, a rubber band pulled to its limit and about to snap against unsuspecting flesh with a skin-bruising smack.
“I didn’t say that,” I said. “It should give me a shot, though.”
“Well, it doesn’t.” Her words lost their sharp edge and edged around general panicked fury. “Just because I agree to sneak out with you doesn’t mean that I want to date you.”
That might have burned, except I could see that she was completely full of shit. “Come here.” She shook her head, so I came closer to her. I half expected her to run, but, like I said, she was full of shit so she held still until I was right next to her, the two of us breathing hard and fast.
“I’m worth taking a chance on Cadence.” I stared right at her pouty lips, dry and in need of chapstick. Or licking.
“You’re fucked up.” She spoke to the ground, and I knew it was because she thought looking at me might shake her resolve. “I’m done with screwing up.”
“I’m not fucked up,” I said, then thought about that statement. “Alright, I’m a little fucked up. But I care about you.”
She shook her head. She was intoxicatingly good-looking. “Not good enough. It’s just words. And I’ve heard them all before.”
“I’ve done a lot,” I confessed. “I’m not ashamed of it. I did it because I wanted to know what it would feel like. But I’m smart enough to know that it wasn’t all worth it. Drugs weren’t.”
Her eyes flicked up in surprise, but she didn’t say anything, just nodded quickly.
“Sex with so many people wasn’t worth it either,” I added.
She looked at me curiously, and I realized that I was probably giving away more than I needed to. She didn’t know everything I was infamous for. But what I was saying was unlocking something in her, and I was willing to put it all on the line to see her respond to me.
“There’s a lot that I’m aware of when it comes to my own fucked up life. For instance, I’m not content to sit on my ass and spend my massive inheritance,” I started. And then it poured out. I don’t even know where it all came from. If I had given it one damn minute of thought, I would have turned on my heel and walked the fuck away. But it just poured out and I had no control over it at all. “I don’t want to think of Aunt Helene rotting in this piece of shit house she’s in, because I love her. I always liked Brenna, and now that I fucked it all up, I’m afraid I don’t have the right to ask for her friendship. I’m crazy jealous of Jake, always have been. I can’t stand my mother and it breaks my fucking heart a little to admit that she honestly doesn’t give a shit about me. School is only boring for me because I’m so busy keeping up my bored act, and it’s tiring as hell. This summer has been the best time of my life. And I knew I wanted you the minute I set eyes on you the first day I came to your parents’ piece of shit restaurant. You and I are both hiding behind a lot of crap, but all that crap got ripped down for me this summer. And it’s time someone did it for you.” I felt my adrenaline raging hard and fast through my system.
She was looking at me, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. I didn’t even know what I was saying, just that I had to say it and it had to be now or the summer would be gone and so would Cadence. The thought of losing her before I’d had a chance to get to know her choked me.
“So,” she said slowly, her face close to mine, “you’re going to rip down everything I’m hiding behind?” Her voice was husky and sweet, just the combination to make me think about peeling her clothes off and touching and licking her until she couldn’t push me away. But I had done that before, and I knew it never lasted. It was a pussy way out, and Cadence deserved better.
“I am.” I kept my hands fisted at my sides. Jesus Christ she was hot, all sure of herself and pissy in the moonlight. But I had to prove to her that I deserved what she’d never bothered to give anyone else before.
Not that.
I wanted her trust.
“I am the one,” I repeated. “I know about you. I know that you work like a slave, and you don’t bitch about it, even when you pull your skates off and your feet are bloody.” Her head jerked a little. I could read the shock in her eyes. “I know that you read trash and the great stuff and you always have a novel tucked in your apron. Last week it was Foreverby Judy Blume. Right now? East of Edenby Steinbeck. Which I love, by the way. I know that you love to let loose and sing, and I know that you don’t because you don’t want anyone to see you doing something that crazy, because you’re proud of how in-control you always manage to stay. And I don’t know for sure why you date assholes like Jeff, but I’m willing to bet it’s because you know right off the bat it’s not going to work out, so there’s no risk. And if there’s no risk, you can let it end without getting hurt, you can stay in control of the whole thing. But that’s not the way to do it.”
“It’s not?” Cadence pushed her hair behind her ear with shaky fingers. “How would you know?”
“Because the weeks I had with Brenna showed me that caring for someone makes a difference. Even if it falls apart in your hands, even if it rips your fucking heart out, it’s worth it. And I want to take that risk with you.”
I had already said ten times more than I even meant to, and I had a fairly strong feeling all of this was going to blow up in my face. But at least I had the balls to say what I needed to say. For once.
She put her hands out and grabbed my fists, wiggled her fingers into them and pulled me closer to her, so close there was nothing to do but crash into each other. So we did.
I kissed her, her hot mouth open and full of small, eager sex sounds. My hands roamed over the threadbare cotton of her tanktop and felt the warm promise of her skin under the fabric. I roamed lower, grabbing her ass hard in my hands and pulling her to me possessively. She pulled my shirt over my head and it fell on the soft play sand. I glanced around to see if anyone might stumble by and notice two horny teens getting their freak on, but it was like we were in some weirdly private alcove, a million miles away from the living, breathing city. She ran her hands down along my back, and her nails dug light trails from my shoulder blades to my waist.
I pressed her against the scratchy bark of an overgrown tree that offered an extra dose of privacy, dragged her shirt over her head and pushed the cups of her purple bra down. She had gorgeous tits, even more incredible than I’d imagined. I hiked her up higher, and she pressed her back against the bark and her hair was tumbling down all over her shoulders, getting wild and messy as I kissed down her neck and her delicate collar bones and then sucked her nipple in and listened to her moan.
Her legs were wrapped around my hips, and I moved one hand down to the soft line of her leg and followed it up her thigh and felt the warm heat of her through her underwear. I sucked harder and felt her hands dig into my hair. I pushed a finger up into her damp heat and practically got my hair ripped out at the roots. She squirmed against my hand hard, her hips pushing against me.
I could hardly get a rhythm going, she was moving so fast and squirming so much. And it was the most turned-on I had ever been in my life. I had opened the dam with all my semi-lame heartfelt confessions, but she had let loose physically. I had never been with anyone who just threw herself into sex like Cadence did.
I moved my fingers fast against her until her breathing was just a bunch of ragged pants, and she suddenly pulled back and cried out and dug her hands hard into my shoulders. Technically all I had gotten from the whole thing was a soaked hand and a raging boner, but I felt completely satisfied. Making her come made me feel good, and, for once, I wasn’t concerned with my own horndog needs.
Her face dropped to the crook of my shoulder and she breathed hard for a minute. I felt protective of her, nestled there against me. I righted her bra and put her tank top back on over her head. I smoothed my hand over her hair and smiled at her. I felt a genuine sense of happiness for once. Her face was sweet and looked…kind of loving.
She reached a hand up and brushed my hair away from my forehead. “You’re very nice,” she said a little woozily. “That never happened before.” She moved her hand down my jaw and rubbed along it with her thumb. I rubbed my face against her hand, liking the feeling of being rubbed by her.
“You never got fingered?” I asked, surprised. Then again, I didn’t know much about her background, sexually. There was a lot I needed to learn about her.
“No. Not that. I never came. I’ve never come from someone else doing that. I can do it for myself, but not for anyone else. Except you, now,” she said, smiling, then giggling. “Thank you.”
“Glad I could help.” I kissed her again. She kissed back. I thought about how open and sensual she was and it made no sense to me how she hadn’t come before. Even if the guys were tools. But maybe she wasn’t wild with everyone. Maybe she was only that way with me. That would be such a turn on, I didn’t know if I could stand it.
We were about to get worked up again, and much as I liked doing it for her, I was still a living, breathing red-blooded guy, and I needed to give my balls a break. I took her by the hand, and we headed to a warm, soft patch of grass and lay down.
It was the city, so there weren’t many stars visible, but we looked up at them anyway.
“I never see the stars,” Cadence said. We started out lying side by side, but she moved over so that her head was nestled against my shoulder. I loved the weight of her on my body.
“You need to visit the country.” I ran my hand up and down the smooth skin of her arm. “I could show you the stars.”
She laughed. “That’s a smooth line, Saxon. Is that how you lure all the girls to your little pokey town?”
“The stars. My natural charisma. Whatever works.” I kissed the top of her head. Her hair was smooth and sweet-smelling.
She took my hand in hers. “I like the way your hands feel. They’re very rough.”
“They weren’t always.” I looked at my hand with hers wrapped around it. “Once they were the soft, manicured hands of a man of leisure. The roughness is only since I became a respectable working man.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far. I mean, you’re practically on probation.”
“Yeah, you keep reminding me.” I felt the extremely uncool grip of grumpiness take over.
She shrugged. “You want to make me face the truth? Then you have to do it, too. You’re here because you were an idiot. Admit it.” She sat up on one elbow and smiled down at me. The coil of her smile made my heart feel like it was being squeezed by a beautiful anaconda.
“I admit it,” I said, then pulled her down and kissed her. “You were dating the world’s biggest asshole. Admit it.”
“That one’s easy to admit.” She blew on my face and laughed when I blinked hard.
“You had a huge-ass crush on me.” I traced her upper lip with one finger. “Admit it.”
She blushed a little. Very cute.
“I did. But I thought you were different. I thought you were still into drugs and all that. And I thought you were…” She laughed and shook her head.
“What?” I asked. “Tell me.”
“I thought you were cocky. Like you thought that you were all that. But I thought…that you’d be really good, you know, sex-wise.” She put her hands up over her face.
I rolled onto my side and looked down on her. “That was just a tiny sample. If you want, we could try some more.”
“No!” she cried. “You made me feel all that in like ten minutes. And it was just…it wasn’t even sex! You’re going to make me into a freak!”
I kissed her hard. “What would be so wrong about that?”
She kissed me back, her mouth open, her hands all over me. “Maybe nothing?” She sighed.
We kissed for a while, but there was a lot I wanted to know about her, so I broke it off. Yep, hell probably froze over. I chose talking over sex.
“So you had a major crush on me all this time?” I lay back, eyes half shut, while she kissed my forehead.
“Yeah. That night that you rescued me and Sullie, I had been thinking about you. I thought about calling you and asking you to hang out.” She covered her face with her hands again.
“Did you know Jeff was coming over?” I wanted perspective on that night’s insanity.
“No.” She looked down and her lashes made long, spiky shadows on her cheeks. “I mean, I thought he might because he felt guilty, but it was really late. He wound up being pretty drunk. And he wanted to fool around, but I didn’t.”
“You didn’t?” I swallowed back the acid taste in my mouth that appeared when I imagined Jeff’s hands on Cadence. I squinted at her. “I remember you being a wild cat with me.”
She laughed and punched my arm. “You bring out something crazy in me. I’m not usually like that.” she insisted.
So the wild was for me. I loved that. “So you weren’t just playing me that night?”
“No.” She pulled the word out, long, slow, and sweet. “I wanted you so badly. I wanted you to stay. And working with you the next day was hellish. I’d never felt that way about anyone before. Ever. I couldn’t even stand to have Jeff touch me. It just felt gross.” She looked at me from the corner of her eye. “And then he came to confront me about it. He didn’t want to break up, I did. That’s what the fight was about.”
“Why were you so pissed that I punched him? He was being a dick to you.” I let that big-ass bubble of self righteousness float to the surface and pop.
“Punching Jeff in the face? In my parents’ parking lot? While you were clocked in? They’ll be lucky if his family doesn’t sue. You’ll be lucky,” she added sharply.
“I like how you look when you’re pissed off,” I said and kissed her. She held back for a second, then put her arms around my neck and pulled me back onto the soft damp grass.
“You’re an asshole.” She kissed me again.
“You’re the girlfriend of an asshole,” I said, and she smiled at me.
She ran her fingers over my sides, feather-light, until I got ticklish chills. “What makes you think I’m going to agree to be your girlfriend?”
“Because you want my body, and I’m not the kind of guy who screws around with just any girl.” I raised my eyebrows at her and grinned.
She laughed hard at that. Then she stopped and took a long, deep breath. “I wasn’t really pissed at you because of some lawsuit.”
“So what was it?” She looked down, but I ducked my head and met her eyes, determined to not let her look away when she confessed to whatever she was going to confess to.
She gathered up all that long, dark hair at the crown of her head, then let it spill back down her back and looked me in the eye.“I was pissed at you because I didn’t want to be with you, even though I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I have neverfelt so out of control with anyone. Not like I feel with you. And I didn’t think I wanted it.”
“So you were mad at me for being so perfect for you?” I ran my hand from her shoulder, down her arm, over her hand, to her hip and back up.
“I was scared of you.” She swallowed so hard I saw all the little muscles in her throat move. “Jeff was so perfect. He was the most perfect of all of my boyfriends. He met every requirement on my list. And I felt absolutely nothing for him. Not one thing. And you called me on it, so I hated you. Because I managed to trick everyone else. I even tricked myself.” She rolled on top of me, and I put my hands up into her hair and pushed it away from her face so I could kiss her.
“This night feels fucking weird,” I said once she pulled away.
“I know. Like we might wake up, and it won’t be real.” She looked a little panicked at that.
“There’s an easy fix for that.” I kissed all over perfectly warm, sweet-smelling, sexy-as-hell neck, and I went right into superwood when she moaned and writhed around a little.
“Oh yeah?” She ran her fingers along the inside of the waistband of my jeans, and I had to suck air through my teeth to keep from passing out. “How’s that work?”
“I’m not leaving you tonight,” I managed to grind out. I threw in a shrug to try to keep it casual.
“Saxon, you have to leave.” She sat up fast, leaving the air cool and with just a subtle hint of her sexy smell. “My parents will kill me. Kill. Me.”
I took her in my arms and squeezed her body tight against mine. “I’ll be stealth.” I sucked a little trail along her neck and her shoulders, not hard enough to leave any marks, but enough to bring up a moan again. “Plus that, everyone is on opening at the restaurant tomorrow except you and me.”
When she finally smiled, it was the most alluring fucking mix of sweet and sexy I’d ever seen. “Okay. But I’m not having sex with you.”
I held a hand up. “I vow to stay out of your pants unless you ask me to do otherwise.”
“Let’s get home, then, before dawn.” She jumped to her feet and swung her hand down, and I grabbed it and let her pull me up.
We walked back to her house with our hands linked, and she kissed me occasionally because I was pretty damn irresistible. And it felt so goddamn good I stopped halfway home and stood in the street and yelled at the top of my lungs.
“Stop!” she laughed, twining her arms around my neck. “Stop you idiot! You’re going to wake the whole street up!” She kissed me to stop me from yelling any more.
We climbed her fire escape and slipped in her window, her finger pressed to her lips. Luckily, her bed was a mess of blankets and pillows, and was pretty high. I would have no trouble hiding in it or under, whatever would work best, it if it came to that.
I took off my sneakers and socks and she pointed under her bed, so I put them there. She shimmied out of her skirt and unhooked her bra and pulled it through the armhole in her shirt. She stood uncertainly in her bedroom where I was suddenly, strangely, an inhabitant. She crossed her arms over her chest, then changed her mind and let her arms fall down at her sides, and she was totally exposed.
I looked at her body, long and curvy and potentially something I would know very well fairly soon. I felt an instant, painful stiffening in my pants. She pulled me to her by my hands and tugged my t-shirt over my head, then unbuckled my pants and pushed them off of my hips, wadded my clothes up and put them under the bed.
Without a word, she pushed me onto the bed and climbed in next to me. Her eyes were wide open in the dim light of the room. We could see each other because of the streetlight blaring outside Cadence’s window.
She lifted her hand to my face and touched her fingertips to my eyebrows, my cheekbones, my nose, and chin. Her fingers drifted over my lips and brushed my forehead. We were face to face, our knees bent and crooked together, our lips so close they were almost touching.
“I’m happy you’re here.” Her voice was so quiet I almost didn’t hear what she said.
“I’m happy to be here.” I moved my hand up to her face and pulled it down along her cheek, to the side of her neck, down her shoulder, along the dip of her waist, down her hip and held it there. “I feel like I’ve been waiting a long time for you, Cadence.”
“Was it worth the wait?” She licked her top then her bottom lip, and I had to shift my leg to relieve my aching dick. But, for maybe the first time in my life, my dick took a backseat. I pushed past the fuck-crazy discomfort and realized that I didn’t even want to think about it until she was ready. Because she really would be worth the wait.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice tight. “Well fucking worth it.” I pulled her close to me and crushed her a little in my arms.
I felt an addiction to the promise of this new love, way stronger than anything I’d ever snorted or injected.
Way more addictive, way more exhilarating, and way fucking scarier.
Chapter Twelve
Jake
I drove away from Brenna’s house the day she gave me her essay, and I pulled over twice and thought about going back to get her. But something told me that I needed to pay attention to whatever it was she wrote. Brenna was always really good at making me forget everything else, and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to know what she felt.
Even if it kind of killed me.
Because I could see it.
When Brenna looked at Saxon, I saw something. And I saw it when he looked at her. Maybe I was making too big a deal out of it, but it seemed pretty damn unfair that I’d finally found a girl who I loved and who loved me, and I had to share her with Saxon.
