Pull (Seaside #2)(15)

“I followed you.”

“Seriously?”

His laugh made me want to strangle him. “I’m kidding. It’s my day off, so I went down to the store to grab my three pieces of taffy and…”

I rolled my eyes.

“Hey, can I finish telling you why I’m here to your face? It’s weird talking to a door, even weirder when the door has a Justin Bieber poster staring at me.”

Crap. I forgot about that stupid poster. Brady had put it there as a joke when I confided in him that I loved Justin Bieber.

After everything happened, I hadn’t the heart to take it down.

Slowly, I pulled open the door. Should have known Demetri would push past me and make himself right at home. “No really, come on in. I wasn’t sleeping or anything on my day off.”

“Good.” He took off his leather jacket, revealing a tight tank top that showed off tattoos down his right arm and across his collarbone. I tried to pry my eyes away, but I was tired and clearly needing more oxygen or something in my room.

“They’re just tattoos, Lyssa.”

“Wow.” I chuckled pulling my hands through my tangled hair. “Already got a nickname, huh?”

“I like it.” He crossed his arms, making his muscles bulge.

I bit my lip and looked away. “So, the reason for my wake-up call.”

“Oh, babe.” He chuckled. “You haven’t even seen the beginning of my wake-up calls.”

“I’m not going to even ask.” I threw on a sweatshirt and sat on the bed cross-legged. “So, the reason for you being here?”

“You’re a cheerleader?” Demetri pointed at the school sweatshirt. The same one that had Brady’s old football number splashed across the front. Just another piece of him I couldn’t give away. Like everything else in my room that had his scent or touch on it.

“Um, I was a cheerleader. Yup.” Talking to Demetri was like herding cats. One minute he was on-topic, and within seconds he was changing subjects as if it was completely normal to talk about taffy and tattoos in the same sentence.

His eyes scanned the sweatshirt. I could tell he was trying to put pieces of a puzzle together. But I wasn’t up for fixing. I liked the puzzle pieces scattered, so I tried my best to give him a flirty smile and touched his arm.

“You were saying?” I urged.

His eyes darted immediately to where my hand touched him and then back up to me. “Taffy. I had three pieces.”

“What flavors?”

He grinned and pulled out the three wrappers for me to sniff. With a laugh I took them into my hands and smelled each one. If I didn’t know he was in rehab, I would think he was either drunk or high the majority of the time.

“Kahlua, Pineapple, and Rum Punch?”

Demetri howled with laughter and began clapping.

“Seriously. Best party trick ever.”

“Clearly you’ve been to all the wrong parties if you think sniffing candy wrappers is the way to go.” I rolled my eyes.

“Or just the wrong parties in general.” He shrugged, his smile gone. I wanted it back and I hated that he was making me care for him.

“So…” I leaned back against the pillows. “You came all the way to my house to tell me about your three taffy flavors?”

“Sort of.” He lay down next to me — it was almost too intimate. The last time I lay down with a guy on the bed… I jolted up and began pacing in front of him.

He lifted his eyebrows in confusion but kept talking anyway. “I saw your parents and asked where you were. Weird, but your mom knew exactly who I was.”

I nodded. “Figures. She has a slight obsession with Entertainment Tonight. ”

He cringed. “You’d think that would make her want to shoot me.”

“She likes the bad boy.” I smiled. “So? You asked her where our house was so you could torture me?”

“Torture?” His dimples killed me. “Is that what’s happening between us?”

Panic swept through me as I felt my face heat under his seductive smile. He was the devil. Why couldn’t he bother someone else? Was he truly that desperate? Couldn’t rock stars pay people to hang out with them? At least he had the luxury of money and the choice to do whatever he wanted with it.

“Sure feels close.” I huffed, blowing my shorter layers of hair away from my face. “Anyway, thanks for stopping by, now if you’ll just…” I pointed to the door.

Demetri didn’t move.

Of course not.

“Nope, I came to find you for a reason, and it wasn’t torture.

Though I’d love nothing more than to bring you so much pleasure that you scream my name.”

I felt myself blush as I looked away.

“I want us to be friends.”

“Excuse me?” I was in the process of taking off my sweatshirt, so I could jump in the shower, only it got caught on my head, making me run into the dresser.

“Friends.” I could feel his warm body inches from mine, his hands reached up and tugged the sweatshirt off me, leaving me feeling naked as his eyes boldly scanned my body. “I want to be your friend.”

The way he said friend reminded me of the way the shark in Finding Nemo chased Marlin in hopes to be friends not food.