“They all know!”
“Did you tell them?”
“No! I said I didn’t.”
“Then they don’t know,” I say. “They have no idea. People are lost in their own miserable lives.” I breathe her in. “Your self-defense classes, though. You don’t try that shit on a person like me. Okay? What you were giving me out there, those weren’t good moves. You can do better.”
“And you know all about me,” she bites out.
“Your best move with a guy like me? Get the fuck away. You had a chance to run back there, and you didn’t take it. That would’ve been your best move.” I press her harder, putting my whole body into it, and whisper into her ear. “All the hitting and kicking, it’s just a lot of nothing to a guy like me. It’s barely even trouble. You get a chance to run, you take it.”
I ease up a few inches and see the alarm in her eyes. It’s good that she’s scared. That’s how it should be. I let off, and she moves away.
“Maybe I’ll run now.”
“Little late for that.”
She pulls her keys from her pocket and backs away from me, back to her car. Her eyes widen as she realizes I’m not planning to move. She waves the little copper key like it’s a knife. “You think I won’t run you over? Ram right into you?”
Part of me wants her to do it. The same part of me that wants to crush any man who hurts her—even me. I like her strong and fighting. Powerful.
The more realistic part of me knows there’s nothing a sixteen-year-old girl can do to a man like me. I’m too hard, too mean. She never stood a chance, not from the very first time I looked at her in that ridiculous party dress. I may never claim her, but she’ll always be mine.
Her hands clench into fists. “What do you want from me?”
“That’s a good question.” A good question without a good answer. I can’t seem to keep myself away from her. She’s too good for me, too pure. You made me lie to everyone. I’m ruining her, and I have no plans to stop.
I take a step forward, and she’s a smart girl. It’s not hard to figure out what I might do to her.
“Wait,” she says.
I don’t wait. I step into her space, close enough to smell the strawberry scent of her shampoo, to feel her breath warm against my neck, to back her up to the cool metal side of the bright red vehicle. “You’re so fucking pretty.”
Her voice trembles. “Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?”
Because I can’t stand her delicate eyelids and her bow-shaped mouth. She’s so fragile, so breakable, and I’m a goddamn sledgehammer. “Don’t move.” I grasp her upper arm and hold her against the SUV, wanting her right there.
Her eyes are impossibly wide, staring up at me with fear. “I didn’t tell,” she whispers. “I wouldn’t.”
I know, and maybe that’s what sealed her fate. Knowing that she lied for me, that she protected me. There aren’t many people in the world who would do that. Only my guys. Nobody else. Even if she only did it to save her family, it’s formed a bond between us.
Her hair shimmers with spun gold. I reach up to touch one of the bright parts. It runs through my hand like silk—no, something softer. Like liquid, a whisper of a touch against calloused fingertips.
She’s shivering. Terrified. That should be enough reason for me to let her go. Only a monster would keep her pinned like this, captive so that he could feel her hair. This isn’t right, but all I can think is that she’s listening to me. Don’t move, I told her, and she’s barely even blinking. It’s like catching fucking sunlight in a jar. I don’t want to let her go.
And you know all about me.
I know hardly anything about her—what does she taste like? What sounds can she make?
My pulse rages in my ears like a goddamn ocean. How messed up is that? I can kill a man and go out for a nice dinner right afterward, calm and serene, laughing with my guys over stupid shit. But pinning this fragile girl to the smooth side of her vehicle gets me churned up inside.
“Have you ever been kissed?” I whisper.
It feels like the time to whisper, everything intimate even when it smells like damp dirt. Or maybe because of it. We’re getting primal here. This isn’t a fancy party like she’s used to. I’ll never be that kind of man. This is who I am. Hard. Ruthless.
“I—I—” She stammers like she’s trying to figure out the right thing to tell me.
“The truth,” I say, laying steel under my voice. When I leave her again, all I’ll have of her is knowledge. When I’m lying in my empty fucking bedroom at the Bradford, jacking off, all I’ll have is this.
“Yes,” she whispers. “At a party. He—”
I make a growling sound, and she stops.
I didn’t mean to do that. It sprang from deep inside me, a raw part of me best left alone.
She digs into things I don’t want dug into just by being who she is, just by looking at me with those big brown eyes.
Fuck.
My pulse rages.
“What did he do?” I make myself ask, voice mocking like I don’t give a shit. “Did he touch your pretty tits? Did he come in your mouth?”
“What?” Her eyes widen, and that mouth—God, that mouth. Her lips part in shock. “No.”
Isn’t that what kids do these days? You read those articles about middle school kids getting pregnant. But what the fuck do I know about being a kid? Not a damn thing. I knew about touching and about cum. It’s a kiss that would have shocked me.
A kiss. Lips on lips. Tongue against tongue. The mechanics sound simple, but the reality confounds me. I stare at the pink of her lips, the shape of them, wondering how they would feel against mine. Telling myself I have no right.
My hand slides through her hair and locks behind her neck, holding her in place. My other hand keeps her pinned against that vehicle.
Leave her the fuck alone.
I might have been able to walk away. That’s what I tell myself. Then her head tilts back, just the smallest degree, and her lips part.
And I’m lost. Everything inside me goes upside down. I bend my face to hers, a breath away.
And freeze.
Her breath heats my lips. The moment stretches out in rapid heartbeats. I stalked her, but she set the fucking trap.
And then I can’t stop myself—I press my lips to hers. Lights explode behind my eyes.
God, she feels so soft—so soft, so good. I sink into the pleasure of her. She’s warm, luxurious. She’s all-consuming quicksand I never want to escape. Sweet and soft, like everything good.
I’m sinking into oblivion, and it’s all I want.
I adjust my grip on the back of her neck, fisting her hair, my other hand gripping her shoulder. I love holding her like this.
Fuck, it’s too much.
I pull back, blood racing. It’s too much. It’s not enough.
She stares at me with this stunned light in her eyes, arms dropping to her sides. Was she trying to push me away? If she was, I couldn’t tell. What does she see on my face? Hunger? Surprise? Danger?
I fit our lips back together, higher and harder this time. Even better. No matter how our lips connect, it feels like magic.
I want a better taste, but using my tongue will change this. It will make it less pure, and her lips are fucking heaven.