Summer Heat (Cruel Summer #1)(26)

Why did I have this constant hunger?

This need to rip down her walls and ask her to trust me, to trust her back and believe that maybe humans were inherently good, not evil like I’d always believed.

I saw flickers of it, her goodness, her smile. All of it.

And the more I saw, the greedier I became for more.

Like the day of her birthday.

Four nights ago, when we teased each other and didn’t rip each other’s throats out in the process.

I smiled to myself as campers made their way into the mess hall, yelling about starving to death and the horrible conditions.

I took one look at the coffee bar along with its espresso machine and gave a heavy shake of my head.

Teenagers.

I felt her then.

Maybe I smelled her first.

Like the worst sort of sin I could commit in this lifetime — like both my enemy and my friend.

“Marlo.” Her voice was soft, it floated around me like perfume. And then she was pouring black coffee into her cup.

“RAY!” Jackson’s voice boomed so loud, the coffee jolted out of her hand sending scalding liquid splashing over her thumb.

“Shit,” she hissed, shaking her hand.

Already I could see the angry red skin bubbling up, they made the coffee searing, it’s why most people added a shit ton of creamer to it so you could actually drink it right away.

“Nice one, jackass.” I shook my head at Jackson then gently wrapped an arm around her. “Let’s get that taken care of.”

“It’s fine, I—”

Maybe my look was more pissed off than gentle because Ray just pressed her lips together and let me lead her to the back of the kitchen where we kept a med kit.

“Up you go.” I lifted her effortlessly onto the counter and then set the med kit right next to her.

“Did you really just lift me onto the counter like a toddler?” She huffed.

I didn’t even look at her when I responded. “Did you really just like it?”

And nothing.

I smirked down at the burn cream and then held out my hand. Gingerly, she placed her hand on top of mine, while I slowly rubbed cream across the ugly red mark.

“That hurts,” she said through clenched teeth.

“A bit of pain now.” I kept softly rubbing and locked eyes with her. “Means no searing pain later.”

“I think my hands already been seared,” she joked.

My lips twitched as I grabbed a bandage and wrapped it around her thumb then taped it in place so the burn cream wouldn’t be exposed to the sun.

“Just take it easy.” I had both hands on the counter, one on either side of her body. I moved to grip her hips and pull her down.

Instead, what happened was a freak accident caused by idiots in the kitchen. Someone bumped into me from behind, meaning I bumped into her causing her to wrap her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist to keep from falling on her ass.

Fuck, it would be easy to slam her against the freezer to my right. Or even lay her down on the cutting board to my left — because nothing screamed sexy quite like a cutting board or raw meat.

Her breath hitched as her breathing shallowed. I focused in on those blue eyes, that blonde hair that I’d dreamt about pulling more times than I could count.

And then her bandaged hand touched my face.

I exhaled slowly like I needed time to process.

And then with the self-restraint of a god, I set her on her feet and whispered, “Just be careful today, all right? If you want me to take over your class I can—”

“And yet again life makes sense.” Hurt flashed in her eyes. “Are you seriously taking advantage of the fact that I burned myself?”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you seriously assuming I’m that big of a dick?”

She said nothing.

“Wow.” I threw my hands in the air. “I was just trying to be nice. Then again, you probably don’t know what that means do you? Girls like you—”

“Girls like me?” she repeated. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You tell me, SP.” I smirked. “Girls born in castles with gold shoes and silver spoons, brand new BMWs and enough friends to fill this entire campground.”

She paled. “Funny how you think you know so much about my life now, funny how the only information you have is based on the past. They say it takes a while for guys to grow up, shouldn’t you have been at least halfway by now?”

It hit a hot button. That she was making me feel like the immature one.

“Don’t be a bitch.” That’s what I went with.

“Um, guys?” Brax poked his head in the kitchen.

“What!” we yelled in unison.

“Campers can hear you. I can hear you. God, he hears all, so maybe just… use inside voices and stop cursing?” He smiled. “Thanks!”

“Shit.” I wiped my hands down my face. “Do you have to be so damn provoking?”

“Do you have to be such a giant asshole?” she asked sweetly.

I just clenched my teeth and turned on my heel. “If you need help, don’t ask. And for the record, I was trying to be nice.”

She didn’t say anything.

I didn’t give her a chance to, not really. I was already pushing my way back into the mess hall cursing myself to hell.