For months, we’d been dancing around this inevitable fight. It felt good to be shoved around and to flex my own strength against him. It wasn’t a macho thing; it was, fuck, I didn’t know, it was an us thing.
We shuffled back and forth, shoving each other, neither of us trying to land any hits. It was almost as if we were only trying to top each other, to show dominance.
Jack roared his frustration as he slammed me into a shelf. The metal protested loudly, and dust floated in the air.
“You drive me insane, Cal!”
Cal?Cal. God, I liked my name from his mouth way too much.
I let go of his shirt and spread my arms out to either side. “Then do it, Princess. Hit me. You know it’ll make you feel better, and hell, maybe me too.”
Cal’svoicewastoosoothing on my sizzling nerves. I didn’t want to fight him. I didn’t want to hit him. His tan lips curled into a frown I never wanted to see again.
Fuck this school. Fuck this town. Fuck everything.
Shock blasted me in the face when I slammed my lips into his. The tension around us rose higher until I was suffocating, drowning. Not from the loss of control, the slip of the leash I kept strung so tightly, but because he was kissingme, stealing my air. He clapped a hand to the nape of my neck, sealing me to him, forcing me to stay.
I unlocked my jaw to gasp for breath, but all I caught was his tongue as he plundered my mouth.
Oh, my fucking God, yes.
It wasn’t pretty, or sweet, or anything I’d experienced before. We’d been on this road too long. This hostility had been brewing and had finally ignited. The heat of it stole my breath, and his chest heaved for every rise of my own, brushing our bodies together.
Mouths and tongues and teeth scraped and fought as if wewere eating each other, not kissing. He bit into my lower lip hard enough to make me scream, but I moaned. The pain didn’t matter. Nothing mattered because it was all too much. Too much emotion. Too crazy. Too impossible. When he released me, I fed him the tickle of blood I’d gathered on my tongue, to prove how feral we’d become.
“Fuck, sorry,” he whispered.
“Shut up.”
I thrust my tongue back in his mouth where it belonged, framed his head in my hands, then slid them to his shoulders. His grip on my neck and back kept tensing, shaking, as if he wanted to move but couldn’t. Like he fought it, fought me.
Maybe it had only been a minute, or ten, but I lost myself in that kiss. And Cal kissed like a dream. He met my every lick with his own, tasting me. His lips caressed as often as his teeth nibbled. When my body relaxed against him, his erection brushed mine, eager to burn through my jeans.
But it was probably that one indisputable reaction that ended it all.
Cal tensed all over, as if he’d only then realized he hadmein his arms. His enemy. Aguy. I tried to ignore the change, but when his movements lost the heat, lost the rhythm that matched my own, I couldn’t. I pulled away slightly until we could stare at each other. Cal’s expression screamed fear and confusion without a single sound.
Why had I given in? This wasn’t proof of anything besides both of us being too worked up.
“Jack …” he whispered with eyes wide and uncertain.
Jack, not Princess.
The anger resurged at my lack of control and Cal’s plummeting passion. So I reacted the way I should’ve in the first place.
I struck out and punched him in the stomach, just under his ribs.
Cal doubled over and gasped. Then I pushed him down until he hit the ground on all fours, sputtering and sucking in air as best he could.
“Shit,” he groaned.
“Stay the fuck down!” I barked, then climbed the shelf and pulled off the box of decorations.
Cal had the keys, so I left him to lock up and raced back to the field. I hated myself for running. Hated him even more for making me regret what I’d done. Mostly, I hated it had ended the way it had, that it had endedat all, and I was still alive to feel this churning doubt in my gut.
Trent leaned around me when I dropped the box at his feet. “Where’s Cal?”
“He stayed to lock up. Said he had to shit.”
