That craved them.
Shit, I was so messed up when it came to her.
“Admit it, Sunshine. You’re just like him. You can’t stand the thought of losing to him.” I lowered my face to hers. “I think you like these games. Like all the attention we give you. The attention I give you.”
Her eyes flared with anger as she sucked in a harsh breath. It was only a small action but enough to pull my gaze to her lips. Those soft-pink kissable lips.
Fuck it.
She already hated me, she might as well hate me some more.
I reached out for a strand of her silky hair, the same as I had when I’d paid her a visit in the art studio. “Cameron?” she asked, her voice uncertain and quiet and so unlike her. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what, Hailee?”
She swallowed, her tongue darting out to swipe across her bottom lip.
And I was done.
The thin rope of my control snapped, my mouth crashing down on hers as I threaded my hands into her hair and pressed us against the rack. Hailee’s fingers gripped my jersey, pulling me closer… or was she trying to push me away? I didn’t know, didn’t care, because the taste of her lips on mine, the way my tongue slid against hers, it consumed me until I was drowning in nothing but Hailee fucking Raine.
My hand skated down her waist, sliding around to her ass to pull her closer, fitting our bodies together like two pieces of a puzzle. I was rock hard, my dick pressed up against her stomach, and fuck, if it didn’t feel good. If she didn’t feel good. But I was just getting into the kiss, rolling my hips into hers to get a little more friction, when she slammed her hands into my chest, shoving hard.
I stumbled back as she shrieked, “What the hell, Cameron?” Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen. “What the hell was that?” I don’t know if she realized it, but her fingers ran across her lips, touching, as if she was unsure it had been real. But then her confusion melted away, replaced with anger.
Red hot, fiery anger.
And it was all directed on me.
“That was... you can’t do that.” The words came out harsh, but she was tongue-tied and I couldn’t help but feel smug I’d affected her so much. Because fuck only knew, she affected me.
“I can’t kiss you?” I teased. “I think I just did.”
“Well, don’t do it again.” Her cheeks burned, the rise and fall of her chest quick. Oh, she wanted me to do it again all right, she just didn’t want to admit it.
Stepping into Hailee’s space until her back hit the storage rack, I stared down at her. She was still breathless, confusion clouding her eyes. “You want me,” I said.
“I do not,” she countered. “This... us... I hate you,” she seethed, but I wasn’t done playing with her. Sliding my hand along the curve of her neck, I leaned down, brushing my lips over the shell of her ear. “You can hate me all you want, Sunshine, but it doesn’t change the fact you’re probably wet for me right now.”
Her soft gasp filled the small space and I felt her shiver. “Fuck you,” she spat, trying to move around me, but I pinned her in place, sliding my leg between hers and pressing gently. I wanted to touch her, to test my theory.
But I knew I shouldn’t.
Knew if I did, I might want to do it again, and that would be a dangerous thing indeed.
“Cameron, if you don’t get off me in the next three seconds, I will—” A strangled moan left her lips as if she was fighting her own body when I ground my knee further into her and she practically rode herself against my leg.
“That feel good, Sunshine?” I did it again and her head dropped back, another soft moan slipping from her lips. But when my fingers dropped to the waistband of her jeans, and one of my fingertips stroked the bare skin above, she froze.
I felt the shift in the air, the temperature cooling right along with her icy glare.
“Get. Your. Fucking. Hands. Off. Me.” The venom in her words had me backing away slowly. She looked furious, anger rolling off her in dark waves. But Hailee could deny it all she wanted; I felt the chemistry between us. The push and pull.
And I knew she did too.
Her eyes burned into mine, her body trembling. I’d never seen Hailee so worked up and shit, if I didn’t want to believe it was my touch, my kiss, that did it. A beat passed as we stood there, locked in a battle of wills. Eventually though, her eyes flicked to the door and I stepped away, giving her free passage before I did something really fucking stupid.
Hailee rushed over to it, grabbing the handle, but at the last second she glanced back. “You think you can do whatever you like just because you’re a Raider and it’s fucking pathetic, but you don’t scare me, Cameron. None of you do.”
Defiance burned in her eyes and part of me was impressed. Even now, in a dark closet with me, she still tried to maintain the upper hand.
“Is that why you’re running?”
“I’m not…” Her lips pressed together as she refused to go another round with me, and I smirked.
“I think we both know you’re running,” I said. “But you should be careful, Sunshine.”
“Yeah.” She raised her chin. “And why’s that?”
“Because you can run but we both know you can’t hide.”
Hailee’s brows knitted as if I was a puzzle she wanted to figure out, but then with a little shake of her head she left, my laughter following her all the way.
Chapter Nine
Hailee
Cameron had kissed me.
Four days passed and I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. We’d gone from arguing, slinging insults back and forth, to him pressing me up against the racking in the janitor’s closet and kissing me. Only, kissing didn’t do justice to the way his lips had felt against mine. If kisses had names, Cameron’s would be called dangerous. It was like he’d taken all the hate between us, all the push and pull, and unleashed it on me. It hadn’t been sweet or tender, or a recognition of long-buried feelings. It was a hate-kiss, fueled by the ongoing tension between us. It certainly wasn’t because of emotions neither of us wanted to feel. Emotions I refused to acknowledge.
No. I wasn’t accepting that as a possibility.
He was my step-brother’s best friend.
A Raider.
Not to mention, he was one of my tormentors.
Cameron Chase was everything I hated.
And yet, I hadn’t been able to forget the feel of his lips moving against mine, the way he’d held me, touched me. So I did the only thing I could—I spent the week pretending he didn’t exist.
Of course, I didn’t tell Flick; it would only fuel her theory that Cameron actually felt something for me. Even post-kiss I still wasn’t convinced he did. His loyalty to my brother, the fact he was a Raider, the fact he’d spent just as many years taunting me as Jason, told me everything I needed to know about a guy like Cameron Chase.
But tonight, there was no escaping him.
“Remind me why we’re here again?” I groaned, trailing after Flick as she moved deeper into the sea of blue and white.
“Because,” she called over her shoulder, a cheesy grin plastered on her face. “It’s senior year and we’re embracing it, and you agreed to help your best friend fulfil her silly little list, remember?”