Brutally Beautiful(68)

“Okay, then. I’ll just grab my phone here…” he whispered, and there was a loud thud as, what I believed was his elbow, whacked against the wall. A string of murmured curses hissed under his breath. Then, suddenly a bright light illuminated the small dark closet, reflecting the planes and angles of his face. “And I’ll just call Dylan and tell him to tell Fran where you are.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Fuck yeah, I would. Or you could tell me how you really felt about the stripper and me.” A smirk lit up his face. “You never know, Fran could go all caveman on you. Get all possessive, seeing you talk to me this close in a closet. Grab you right out of my arms.”

I leaned my back against the wall and shrugged my hands in my front pockets. “He could be a bad ass tree hugger. Very dangerous. What if he grabs you instead of me? You might want to rethink this plan of yours.”

Kade leaned in, smiling. “Yep. I bet he could be very scary to a few dust bunnies under a chair somewhere.” Taking in a long breath, he sighed, “Tell me how you felt.”

I laughed, and looked down shaking my head. We were getting too close to each other in here. “I’ve been to his place; he lives in harmony with his dust bunnies.” I looked up as a dangerous flash of something flickered in his eyes.

“You’ve been to his place.” He leaned away. He looked down at his phone, closed it, and then leaned quickly back into me, his lips whispering against my ear, hot breath tingling down my neck. “I hate thinking that he’s been inside you. It makes me want to hurt him. And I’m sorry for being such a mean dick the other night.”

My breath caught from his closeness, “He was never inside me.”

A small movement and the phone illuminated the closet once again.

“Okay. So you didn’t f*ck him, and now you know I hate thinking you were. What did you think about me and Natalie?” He flicked the phone off again and total darkness engulfed us.

“I didn’t like it.”

Light flooded my eyes again. His eyes looked menacing, intense. “Why?” He raised the phone.

“What, are you twelve? You shut that phone off one more time; I’m going to kick you, Kade.”

“How about you kiss me instead?” The tension thickened, the small space turned humid, hotter…slicker. Scents of cinnamon apples against worn leather saturated my senses.

“I don’t think that would make me smile half as much as kicking you right now!”

“Seriously?” He flicked the phone off again. Darkness.

“Kade,” I hissed smacking my hand against his chest. The light on the phone flickered on again and we both watched the phone tumble out of his hands and land amongst the clumps of boas and costumes at our feet.

“Tell me how you really felt,” he said, eyes softening, face moving closer to mine. “I need to know,” his warm breath fanned across my lips. Eyes so painfully, savagely grey that they looked lost and colorless, starving.

Fuck, his words made sweat break out on my skin. Primal. Heated. “Yeah, why is that?” The phone’s light blinked out.

“I want you to hate the thought of it.”

“Kade, I hated the thought of it. I hated it so much I didn’t even want to know. I want to get out of this closet and away from you. Your mood swings are giving me whiplash.”

“I didn’t,” he whispered, pulling me closer. “I didn’t touch her. I ran out of there and looked for you. All I wanted was you.”

For a few slow heartbeats, the only sound was our breathing, soft hot breaths against each other’s skin.