Poppy’s eyes darted over my head, distracted by something, and as I whirled to see who or what it was, I noticed Maddox and Nash had gone silent, their murmurings no longer traveling through the stairs. My pulse faltered, then kicked into a jagged sprint. My chest squeezed tight, breath shallow.
Someone was standing behind me.
Every nerve lit up, screaming Rusty’s name. The world tunneled…sound, color, everything narrowing to that one awful truth: he found me.
Wind whipped a strand of hair into my eyes, the cold sting snapping my focus. I shoved it back with trembling fingers, heartbeat crashing like a war drum.
Fingers grazed my hip, and my breath caught. I spun.
Before my brain fully caught up, my body reacted, knees bending, fists curling, ready to fight for my life, for Poppy’s, because I’d be damned if another person in my life got hurt.
21
KAYLOR
“Kreed! What the actual fuck!” I yelped, swallowing the scream. My fingers unfurled quickly and attached to his forearm to steady myself. I’d spun around so fast I nearly lost my balance. My heart launched itself against my rib cage, the adrenaline spike making my hands shake.
His brows were together as his hands on my waist stayed firm. “That immediate panic response should tell you something important, little raven. Namely that you’re somewhere you absolutely shouldn’t be.”
No wonder neither Nash nor Maddox had moved from their spot. I rolled my eyes, still trying to force my racing pulse back down to normal. “Jesus Christ, you can’t just materialize out of nowhere like some shadow demon. Normal people make noise when they walk.”
Poppy snorted with undisguised amusement and took one final, long drag from her cigarette, holding the smoke in her lungs for a beat before exhaling it. The smoke hung in the air, illuminated by the weak light filtering through the stairwell. “Looks like that’s my cue to make a graceful exit,” she announced, grinding the cigarette outagainst the bottom of her boot before flicking the crushed filter into the nearby coffee can someone had left. “Two’s a party. Three’s a crowd.” Her lips curved as she stepped past Kreed until she saw Maddox and Nash rise from their positions on the steps. “Great, now I’ve got two boneheads following me around,” she mumbled, shuffling toward school.
The duo disappeared with Poppy sandwiched safely between them, their footsteps gradually fading, leaving Kreed and me alone beneath the stairwell.
“How did you find me?”
“Maddox.” Kreed’s storm-gray gaze searched my face; the usual brim of broodiness that lived in his expression was replaced by genuine concern. “You’ve been acting weird all day. Are you sure you’re okay? We can ditch if?—”
My finger pressed firmly against his lips before he could finish his sentence, cutting off the words. His mouth was warm beneath my touch. “Don’t you dare suggest we skip class, Kreed Corvo. It’s only been two days since we came back.Two days. I need to graduate because there’s no way I’m repeating this school year.”
That crooked, devastating grin of his glinted across his features, there and gone as fast as summer lightning. Before I could draw another breath or formulate my next argument, his fingers pressed into the curve of my waist, and he spun me with easy strength until my spine hit the brick building.
He cradled the back of my head, protecting me from getting hurt, not that the impact was hard, just firm enough to make my pulse stutter. His body aligned perfectly with mine, eliminating any space between us, chest to chest, hip to hip, the heat of him seeping through our clothes. Then his mouth descended on mine, hot and consuming and absolutely unrelenting, stealing my breath and any coherent thought I might have been trying to hold on to.
At the touch of his lips, I instantly liquefied, melting into him. My fingers ran up his shoulder, and the slant of his mouth made me wish we were in his bed. I missed waking up beside him, and Isuddenly couldn’t remember why I wasn’t sleeping in his bed. It was plenty big and comfy as fuck.
Did I care if Donovan found me in his son’s room?
Heck no.
I’d had enough of sleepless nights.
“I’ve been wanting to do exactly that since first period,” he murmured roughly against my lips, not quite pulling away. His breath mixed with mine in the small space between our mouths.
“Leave your door open tonight,” I replied huskily. We weren’t technically alone; the stairwell wasn’t completely private, and anyone could potentially walk by and see us pressed together like this.
“Don’t tease me, little raven.”
“Trust me. I’m not. I don’t want to spend another night alone.”
“I can’t sit through a period of European history thinking about this.” His breath ghosted over my flushed cheek, lips brushing with maddening softness against the sensitive shell of my ear. “Thinking about you. The way you feel. The sounds you make. I can’t get you out of my head, little raven. You’re everywhere.”
A smile tugged at my lips. “I fail to see how that’s a problem.”
“Hmm.” He kissed me again. “The problem is I can’t concentrate on anything but kissing you.”
Tiny hairs prickled on the back of my neck, and my gaze flicked over Kreed’s shoulder, tension flooding my body for reasons that had nothing to do with our proximity. Someone was watching us. I was sure of it.
