No Love Allowed(4)

Lost in thoughts of swirls of paint, she was surprised when two strong arms dragged her limp body onto one of the docks nearest the cliff. Then she was dropped like a wet towel. An oof escaped her lungs, then a giggle.

A face with the most startling blue eyes hovered above hers. No longer were the corners crinkled. Flames burned behind those brilliant irises. She reached up and touched his cheek. His gaze softened slightly. Even wet he was the most handsome boy she had ever seen.

“Wow,” she said in an extended exhale, feeling the urge to paint him.

Her handsome boy’s expression hardened. “Wow? Wow?” He closed his hands around the collar of her soaked shirt and lifted her. Then he shook her. “Wow? What the hell were you thinking?” He dropped her again, his gaze searching her face.

“My mom always says I don’t make the best decisions.”

“That part is obvious.” He wiped his hand over his still-dripping face. A deep sadness replaced the anger in his eyes. “Whatever you’ve got going on isn’t worth killing yourself over.”

“Who says I wanted to kill myself?”

“Uh, maybe the fact that you walked to the edge and didn’t stop until you went over? That shows intent.”

“No intent. Just what I needed. It felt damn good.” She whooped, then laughed up at the crystalline sky. Then she paused, remembering. “I still don’t know your name other than ‘Trust-Fund Boy’ or Mr. Parker. I would like a chance to thank my hero properly. Not that I needed saving, mind you.”

His face was so expressive. It was fun watching all the emotions flit across his features. The brow-crinkling doubt. The eye-tightening anger. And most of all, the slack-jawed shock. He closed his mouth and a muscle ticked along his strong jaw. Didi reached up again and traced the line from his ear to his chin with her fingertip, committing the angle to memory. He sucked in a breath. His wet hair dripped on her face like salty summer rain. When a drop landed on her lower lip, she stuck the tip of her tongue out and tasted it. His eyes widened for the briefest second before he closed them and exhaled. All the tension left his shoulders, causing them to slump toward her.

“Jesus,” he said like a prayer. “You’re crazy.”

She laughed again. “Since the age of eight. So? Your name?”

“Caleb.” He flopped onto his back beside her and slung his arm over his eyes, breathing heavily. He shook his head, rubbing the upper half of his face against his arm. “Fuck. I’m too stoned to think. I don’t even know how I managed to rescue you without killing us both.”

The way he said it, all serious yet resigned, flushed out the humor in her. “Gee, thanks,” she said, annoyed. “I will repeat it as many times as you like. I didn’t need saving.”

In her periphery, Caleb returned his arm to his side and turned his head so he faced her. “What’s your deal? Did some rich guy break your heart or something?”

The tsk left her lungs before she could stop it. “Sure, because I seem like the type to jump off a cliff because someone broke my heart.”

A beat of silence, then, “Is that why?”

Disbelief at his assumption forced her to face him. Both their cheeks touched the wood, the grain rough against the softness of hers. Inches separated their faces. She felt his breath against her lips. Could he feel hers too?

“I’m not weak. If I was going to kill myself, it wouldn’t be because someone broke my heart.”

“So you admit to the attempt.” His features turned serious again. “What would have happened if I weren’t here, huh?”

She rolled her eyes. This was even more absurd than her actual decision to jump. And he’d asked her what her deal was? “I’m starting to think you have some sort of unhealthy obsession.”

In a flash, he was on top of her, securing her wrists with his hands above her head and trapping her with his weight. That fire she had seen in his eyes earlier reignited. “Didi, promise me, that for whatever reason, you won’t do that again.”

Her eyebrows met. “You’re not making sense.”

He sighed. “Attempting to take your life.”

“It’s called suicide.”

“Didi,” he said between his teeth. “Fuck.”

“Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

As if she had struck him, Caleb let go of her wrists and returned to his prone position beside her. “My mother’s dead.”

This time it was Didi who shifted her weight so her face hovered above his. She looked into his eyes and found the pain she had been searching for. “Suicide?”

His nod was so curt she barely noticed it.

Ah, that explained it. No wonder he wasn’t willing to let go of the idea that she was trying to off herself. She was about to speak her sympathy for his admission when he reached up and touched her cheek. His hand was so warm against her skin. It took all of her strength not to lean into the touch. Like being in the water, she felt comfort from the contact. He ran his thumb beneath her eye. If she had turned her head slightly her lips would have touched the center of his palm.

“I know we just met,” he said. “I know I’m no one in your life, but as a favor to someone who saved your life, please . . . Diana . . . Didi . . .”

She closed her eyes and told herself the shiver running down her spine came from the chill caused by her soaked clothes. Yet in the back of her mind she knew the shiver was because her body reacted to the sound of her name in that smooth, steady voice of his.