Brutally Beautiful(67)

“Dylan said she was just here,” Fran pushed.

“Does it look like she’s in here? Go check the bathroom,” Kade rumbled. Fran’s fast footfalls stomped down the hallway, the closet door swung open, and a blast of bright light hit my eyes. Kade’s face came towards me like a ton of bricks.

“No-no-no don’t…don’t close the door…” I whispered loud as he stumbled in with a rush of air, slamming into me, causing my head to knock against more empty hangers that jangled amongst each other and clanged to the floor. “The door locks…”

“Now, that’s a piece of information I wasn’t aware of.”

Awkward silence. From somewhere just above my head the tiniest puff of warm breath came.

“This…is…interesting,” he chuckled.

“Why are you in here?” I hissed, realizing that because of the way Kade landed in the closet, he was now pressed up against me. Leaning back as far as I could, I pressed the palms of my hands against his chest to push him away. Except that I couldn’t, because as soon as my fingertips touched the tightness of his chest, the gasp that came out of his mouth made my heart race and I had to resist the urge to pull him close and bury my face in his scent. Godf*ckingdamnit! I was not going to turn into one of those women who threw themselves at a man who didn’t want her.

“I wanted to see why you jumped in here,” he whispered back. Strong thick fingers gripped my arms. “You smell good.”

“That’s cleaning supplies, jackass.” It wasn’t. I lied. I actually did smell good.

He gripped me tighter, and I wanted to run, run before I did something stupid, like kiss someone who didn’t want to have anything to do with me. A warm hand slid slowly up my arm… He had to stop playing with me. I was not a toy. As I started to speak, I felt the tip of his nose softly trace the edge of my jaw. The smooth, moist heat of his lips moved down to my neck then back up trailing a path of fire to my ear. I needed to stop him. I needed to push him away, but I couldn’t, because I was frozen.

And, of course, there was the little fact that I liked it. I sighed into the silent darkness.

“You left me with that creeper last night. I couldn’t find you. I knocked on your trailer door almost all night and I just came back here to sleep,” he whispered hotly in my ear.

“Creeper?” My stomach flipped. He had looked for me?

“Yeah, what’s her name, Natalie, I think,” he replied, pulling the warmth of his face away from mine. I could still feel his breath on my skin, but I couldn’t make out any of his features. “She was one of those touchy feely, be my baby daddy, gold digging, online * showing creepers.”

“I figured you’d enjoy her company,” I laughed darkly.

“Seriously? Did you get dropped on your head as an infant?” he asked dryly.

“Yep, into a large puddle of glitter, glorious intelligence, and flawless awesomeness. What happened with you, did you get left in the mud?” I heard him chuckle. “Oh, God. Look, I didn’t quite think it fully through. I just wanted to get away from Fran, so I went back home and went to sleep, had my earbuds in listening to music and I might have taken two sleeping pills.”

Against my ear, I felt him take a deep breath and exhale slowly with the smallest tremor. “Didn’t affect you one bit that I might have f*cked Natalie, huh?” he asked.

“I didn’t think about it. Why would I care? You threw me out of your car last week and I haven’t seen you since,” I said in a low voice.