Bad Boy Blues(59)

Frowning, he looks down. “What happened?”

“I fell. Because I was dizzy. When I got out of the… c-car.”

The scrapes on my knees pulse as well. It’s like the mention of the car is making all my injuries flare up.

Still holding onto my hand, he looks up. There are a few seconds of confusion on his face but then it clears off.

“You followed me in your car.”

“Y-yes.”

He shakes his head once. “I’m giving you a ride home.”

He goes to move away from me but I tighten my legs around him. “No.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to go. Not yet. I want…”

“You want what?”

His eyes are intense. They glow in the dark. Like beacons. Except, a beacon is supposed to be safe, but his eyes come with a danger of drowning.

“I-I want you to kiss me.”

Gosh, did I really say that?

The sharp inhale of his breath says yes. I did say that and he’s surprised.

Well, why wouldn’t he be? I ran away from him last time when he made me feel something.

But I guess I was lying then. To myself and to him.

I think I’ve wanted him to kiss me for years. Even when he was just my bully.

Maybe it’s pathetic and I’m the girl in horror movies who dies right in the beginning because she just can’t stop herself from checking out the basement.

So be it.

I’m that girl.

I’ll go down in history as the girl who courts heartbreak and hence, deserves tragedy.

“I make you bleed,” Zach murmurs in a low tone, rubbing his thumb over the seam of my lips. A tone laced with regret.

“Yeah.”

His thumb traces the torn skin of my lip in the middle. “I make you cry too.”

I blink and a tear slips out; I didn’t even know it was hovering at the edge. “Yes.”

Wiping off my tear, he whispers, “I won’t stop. I don’t know how.”

He will stop. I’ll make him stop.

This cycle of bullying that started with his dad. It ends with us.

I’ll change our story.

If he’s a false prince, then I’m his street Cinderella. I don’t need glass slippers or a pretty gown to change our stars. I can do it in my quiet leather boots and my gray uniform.

“It’s okay,” I whisper.

His nostrils flare at my answer, as he watches me with a strange possession. It’s dark and scary and thrilling. It makes me hold onto him even tighter.

But he easily shakes off my limbs and steps back.

Suddenly I’m adrift and my legs come down on the ground, my spine sliding along the metal door of the truck. They are shaky and numb, and my feet are bare. My Mary Janes fell from them a long time ago and I’ve completely forgotten how to stand on my own.

“Zach?”

And to my shock, he comes down on his knees – falls, almost – and grabs my hips to keep me steady. His face reaches up to the bottom of my breasts and he buries his nose in the valley. It doesn’t matter if they are covered with clothes, Zach has a habit of destroying all the barriers between us.

Wrapping my hands around him, I whisper, “What are you doing?”

He lifts his head and stares into my eyes. I notice all the dirt smudges on my white shirt, how twisted up and stretched out my buttons are, straining against my heaving breasts.

Zach doesn’t answer me. Not until he sits back on his haunches and lifts my right leg, draping it over his shoulder.

“Kissing you,” he says simply.

“What?”

“You heard me,” he says, dragging the hem of my skirt up.

I stop him and try to push it down. “Zach.”

“What?” he bites out.

“Aren’t you supposed to be closer to my lips, if you want to kiss me?”

It’s a wonder I can balance myself on one leg because he’s not letting go of the one he holds captive, and he isn’t letting go of my skirt either so it’s banded mid-thigh.

Slowly, Zach smirks. “I’m trying to be.”

“You’re what?”

“Trying to get close to your lips.”

I fist his hair. “What… I… Whose truck is this?”

That’s the only question I can come up with right now.

He shrugs, like he doesn’t care. “The fuck I know.”

I look around; it’s all deserted even though there’s a large crowd behind us. “What if someone comes?”

Zach chuckles.

His hands are much larger than mine and he uses that to his advantage and pushes the skirt up and up, exposing my panties.

“That’s always your first concern, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah. I don’t want anyone to see us, see me half naked.”

He glances at my simple cotton boy shorts and fingers the seam of them, making me shudder. “You know, I thought I was dreaming the other night. When you were sprawled all over me. You wanted me to kiss you that night too, didn’t you?”

“I was sprawled because you pulled me down, and yes. But.” I exhale out a shaky breath. “I don’t know how this is kissing.”

He smiles, and then his thumb gets inside my panties and makes contact with the outer edge of my core, making me jerk.