Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(32)

She looked at my outstretched hand and then back at me before finally slipping her hand into mine.

I helped her up and tugged her close to my side. “Wasn’t so hard, was it?” I said with a smirk, then led us out of the room.

I nodded at Preston, who called out my name. Dewayne cocked an eyebrow at me and then grinned when he saw my hand grasping Trisha’s. I didn’t take us near him. He would only say something stupid and make Trisha feel uncomfortable.

Stopping at Trisha’s locker, I put the bag inside. Then, instead of taking her hand again, I placed my hand on her lower back and moved her toward the cafeteria.

“You don’t have to carry my tray,” she said.

“But I am.”

“Why? I know you’re tired of this. You don’t have to take care of me.”

I tried not to get frustrated, but damn, was she that clueless?

“Davey and Riley will help me carry my books. You’ve been doing it all week and having me as a burden—”

That was it. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the empty art room we were passing and slammed the door.

“What?” she asked, looking between me and the door.

I had tried words with her. I had tried actions. I had tried everything to get her to realize that I wanted her. That I wanted to be near her. That I wanted her to be mine.

She was making me lose my mind.

I stalked toward her, and she backed up against the wall as she watched me, wide eyed and confused.

Dammit, she was too sexy to be f**king cute, too. That was shit guys couldn’t shake off. Girls like her weren’t supposed to exist. They made men weak. She had me so f**king tangled in knots it was painful.

I placed my palms on the brick wall on either side of her head and stopped only an inch from our bodies touching. “What do I have to do to get you to get this? What, Trisha? Fuck, you’re all I can think about,” I said softly as my gaze dropped from her eyes to those plump lips I played with in my fantasies.

The tip of her pink tongue wet her bottom lip and I was lost.

My mouth covered hers, and the small gasp that broke from her lips was the only chance I needed to slide my tongue onto the sweet heat of hers. I had kissed a lot of girls. But never had I felt like my world was being completely rocked.

Trisha’s hands slipped over my shoulders and she held on to me. And that was f**king perfect. She wasn’t pushing me away. She was holding on to the ride and, damn, it was one hell of a ride.

The softness of her lips moved under mine, and then she began to join in on the kiss. It took all my willpower to keep from pressing her against the wall. I had to be careful with her ribs. But I wanted my hands on her. I wanted to get lost in how wonderful she felt.

When she leaned into me and whimpered, I broke the kiss and moved back instantly. “Are you okay?” I asked, looking down at her ribs.

She didn’t respond, and panic that I’d hurt her started to grip me. I found her eyes and saw the same arousal in them that I had been feeling until that whimper had scared me.

I started to lower my mouth again, needing to taste her more.

“No, wait,” she breathed, pressing both her hands on my chest this time.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No, it’s just . . . I . . . We shouldn’t . . . Why did you do that?”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to be patient with her. Trisha had her issues, and trust was one of them.

“Because I’m crazy about you. Because your lips are the prettiest damn lips I’ve ever seen. Because you think you’re a burden to me when I just want to keep you close to me all the time. Because you are making me lose my mind. Because I don’t want to be your friend, Trisha. I want to be yours.”

Her mouth fell slightly open as her blue eyes stared up at me in surprise. How did she not already know all this? It wasn’t like I have been subtle.

“You’re . . . you’re crazy about me?” she asked.

I held back a laugh. “Yeah, and everyone seems to see it but you.”

She frowned and bit her bottom lip. I wanted to pull it out and suck on it. She looked away from me for a moment and I gave her time.

“What about Ginger’s bikini?” she asked, not looking at me.

This time I did laugh. “I could not give a rat’s ass about Ginger.”

Slowly Trisha looked back at me. “But the others. All of them. You can have a different girl every night. They line up to get your attention. Why me?”

I cupped her face in both my hands and took in the beautiful features she seemed to be blind to. Inside and out she was beautiful. “I can’t see anyone past you. I haven’t been able to for a long time. Hell, Trisha, you’ve been in my head, taunting me, since the first day I laid eyes on you.”

“Oh,” she said in a whisper.

“Yeah, oh,” I repeated.

Trisha

My heart was racing and my lips were still tingling when Rock led me into the cafeteria. He had kissed me. Like, a mind-blowing kind of kiss that made my knees weak. I had even gone light-headed for a moment.

Rock’s hand was holding onto mine as he walked us through the lunch line. When he picked up my tray, he looked at his table with his friends and then looked at my table where my friends sat. “Today I want you to myself. We can figure out where we are going to sit later. Right now I don’t want to share you.”