The Destiny of Violet & Luke (The Coincidence, #3)(68)

He abruptly moves his mouth away from mine and starts trailing kisses down my jawline, my throat, while pressing his body up against me. I moan at the feel of him and at the adrenaline pulsating through me. Oh God, I can’t believe I’m groaning. I never groan.

“I’ve wanted to do this since we first met,” he breathes against the bottom of my neck and my eyelids flutter shut as I float from reality. I wish I could drift farther. Forget everything. I’m getting close.

“Luke, we gotta go!” a male voice shouts and just like that the moment shatters.

I slam back to the real world, the safe feeling evaporating from my body. But Luke seems to sink farther into our little fantasy, his grip on my neck constricting as his mouth travels toward my breasts.

“Luke,” I pant, glancing around. “I think someone just yelled for you.”

“Just a second.” He breathes heavily against the top of my chest, his head tipped down, his fingertips delving into my waist, his hands trembling. I’m not sure what’s going on but I sense something’s off, like he’s struggling to let me go.

Seth appears across the lawn, heading around the trees toward us, smoking a cigarette. His honey-brown eyes are full of irritation and his highlighted blond hair is sticking up. “Luke,” he calls out. “We gotta go if we’re going to get all your shit out of the dorm today.”

Luke is still breathing against my neck, his fingers pressing deeper into my skin. I begin to wonder if I’m going to have to pry him off—and if I can—but then he releases me and pushes away. There’s a glazed look in his eyes and the cut on his lip looks like it’s about to split open again.

“What?” He blinks and then skims the trees, grass, and dorm building like he’s forgotten where we are.

“What are you doing?” Seth asks as he arrives in front of the tree we’re standing under. “We got to go. Greyson told Douglas we’d be down there in an hour to sign the lease.”

Luke rubs his hand down his face, staring at me for a moment, and then composes himself enough to turn around. “I’m coming, so freaking relax,” he says, sounding annoyed.

Seth rolls his eyes at him and then slants them to the side to look at me. “Are you coming, too?”

I open my mouth to say that I’m not, because it’s obvious he doesn’t want me to come along, but Luke turns and laces our fingers together and the rush of safeness causes my knees to buckle.

I grip his shoulders, hoping he can’t notice how bad I’m trembling.

“Yeah, she’s coming,” he speaks for me, tracing his finger along the inside of my wrist.

Before I can react or protest, he hauls me across the yard with him. Side by side. Together. And it leaves me feeling lost because I don’t feel so alone. For the first time in forever, I’m content right where I am.





Chapter 11



Luke



We spend the entire Sunday moving everyone’s stuff into the apartment and then unpacking the boxes. It’s a decent place, with tan carpet and walls, a small kitchen attached to an even smaller dining room and living room. There’s two small bedrooms, one very small bath, but it’s affordable. No one has any plates or anything and even though the place is furnished, we still need a lot of stuff. I’m getting a little nervous about the fact that I only have a little less than two hundred bucks in my wallet and make a vow to get out and start trying to win some money.

Violet and I barely speak the entire time we unpack boxes, rearrange the furniture, and hook up the television. Not just because we’re too busy to talk, but because I can’t think of anything to say and she seems to be drifting down that path, too. The room fills with awkward silence and it makes me question if this living together thing is going to work.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but things just got extremely complicated with that kiss and I don’t handle complicated well. It makes life hard to live and I’ve always tries to avoid making things complicated. But now I want to let a very complex and complicated girl into my life, a girl who has a hold over me. I mean, I actually kissed her. And not because I needed to gain control for a moment, but because she looked upset and I wanted to comfort her and that was the first way I could think of. I kissed her in a way I’ve never kissed anyone. I kissed her with desire. It’s scaring the shit out of me, especially because she seems to need me as much as I want her. All I want to do right now is go looking for a fight or find a girl to f*ck and bail out on, since Violet obviously can’t be that girl for me. I want to drown in alcohol. Run away. But somehow I end up hanging around the apartment all day. I fell asleep on the couch, even though I said we could share a room, telling Violet I just wanted to chill and watch television for the night. She didn’t seem that unhappy about it. In fact, she seemed a little relieved.

I toss and turn all night on the leather couch, eventually falling off into a nice peaceful dream about Violet. She lies wide-eyed beneath me, her arms pinned down as I slip inside her over and over again. There’s no nightmares of sticking needles in my mother’s arm or seeing her come home with blood all over her hands and clothes, knowing she probably did something terrible. There’s no being forced to listen to her maddening songs or her telling me how much she needs me. No cops banging on the door. No listening to her cry out in the night. There’s just me… and Violet… her big green eyes filled with excitement as I kiss her, touch her, pull at her hair…