She pushes her fingers into my neck harder. “Look at me,” she whispers, and when I swallow, when I find the strength to bring my eyes to hers, she tells me, “No, I shouldn’t have…because, Chase, I wanted you to take me the waywe bothneeded you to take me.”
My hand cups her jaw, my thumb pressing to her lips, I flick my eyes to hers, dragging my bottom lip behind my top teeth. “You’re fucked up, Laiken Campbell.”
“Yeah…that makes two of us,” she breathes her words over the top of my mouth.
I’m aching all over.
They say you get what you ask for, and there was no denying that I’d asked for this.
Hot water rushes around me, I recline my head, push my hair from my face, taking a deep breath.
Chase and I had always been at each other's throats. If I had told him I was a virgin, he would have seen me as fragile, something tenuous,breakable,he would have forced himself to be gentle with me.
I had a problem with that, because you see, three years ago, Chase hadn’t been kind or gentle or caring when he shoved the knife in. And yesterday, I needed him to twist it; to carve the agony he pierced inside of me out. I needed Chase Keller to leave me in pieces, the way only he knew how.
My muscles are on fire, and I’m bruised down there, tender and swollen, and something deep inside of me relished that the pain was inflicted by the only boy I’ve ever felt equal parts love and hatred for.
And I wonder for a moment what Jade would think if she saw us now.
It had been no secret between me and my best friend how I felt about her brother. There were times I thought perhaps shehad hoped that one day he would feel the same way, too. Only back then, Chase had kept his distance.
I reach for the lavender body wash, foam it in the palm of my hands, and take the suds to my trembling limbs when teeth nip my shoulder, followed by the soft press of his tantalizing lips.
Chase’s hands slide from my hips, and across my obliques. Goosebumps shiver over my skin, pebbling beneath his mouth. He spins me around, pins me against the wall, his large, veiny and strong hand on my jaw.
I reach for my next breath; let it fall heavy from my chest.
His deep eyes lift to mine beneath wet lashes, water dripping from the bridge of his nose and on to my mouth. A flicker of emotion darts through his eyes. It strikes me like a blow.
There’s an unarticulated disquiet lying in a whisper between us, and I needed to know what it was.
I press my fingers against the water-slickened tiles, tilt my chin upward, unblinking. “Say it.” I tremble, breathless.
A small vein swells at Chase’s temple. His jaw is stiff. “You’re going to regret loving me.”
I bite into my bottom lip and when a tendril of hair slips into my mouth, Chase reaches for it, smooths it away. Something cold and something so overtly warm leaches through my chest. I lean into him, press my lips against the sharp bone of his jaw when I speak, “I already do.” My voice croaks and it has him placing his forehead against mine, sucking back a shuddering breath.
If I didn’t know Chase the way I did, I would have missed it, but I catch the way something similar to fear flicks in the golden flecks of his eyes, a current of truth.
He squeezes his eyes shut, opens them again, diverts them away. His stubbled cheeks flush a very subtle shade of pink, and I reach for them, bringing his gaze back on me.
“Talk to me.”
Chase’s hands are so cold when he wraps them around my wrists, pressing his forehead into mine harder.
He moistens his lips, his tongue unintentionally catching my mouth. He isn’t looking at me when he says, “When I told you that I wasn’t a good person, that I would kill…” He swallows his words. “I meant it. I’m gonna lose you.”
My heart slams in my chest, and he feels it, because his does too.
I tilt my chin, press my lips to his jaw softly. “What’s your name?” I ask, dragging my teeth across the chiseled bone.
Chase furrows his brow, confusion evident in the warped line.
My mouth rests on his. “Just humor me, okay?”
He tugs at my bottom lip with his teeth, his hands sliding to my hips. “You know my name; you were screaming it yesterday when?—”
I smack his chest, and he bites a grin from his lips.
