“Uh-huh.” He stepped forward, closing the distance between us as he grabbed my arm from behind. The farther he leaned in, the closer his chest came to me. His scent of mint and honey slammed into me hard enough to sober my mind. He lifted my hand up, running his fingers down my arm.
I swallowed.
He blinked and soured his lips. “Reece, what’s wrong? You haven’t lost control in years. Have you?”
The sincere worry in his voice did something to me. Opening my mouth to reply, I came up empty-handed. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t function. His fingers curled around mine while he saw right through me.
“Reece?”
The door opened from inside, drawing my attention off his ocean eyes. I pulled my shit together and took my hand back. He didn’t actually care, not for the reasons he claimed. “Nothing’s wrong, Laken. Go back inside. Eliza’s probably waiting for you.”
He squinted. “Why are you lying to me? I know—”
“Just go back inside,” I interrupted. “Go back to Eliza.”
Laken stepped back and placed his hands on his hips, glaring at me as though I were some sort of puzzle. “Eliza? Why do you keep bringing up Eliza? She’s…” First, his jaw dropped. Then, it shifted into a mischievous grin, and he glanced down at the ground in disbelief. Lastly, he flicked his eyes back to me. He knew. “Are you jealous?”
The audacity he had to be absolutely correct.“No.” I staggered back. Laken came closer. “Of course I’m not jealous. What do I have to be jealous of?” My spine hit the wall of Rabbit’s Foot.
Laken leaned over me with a hand next to my head, pinning me in place under his body. “I’m not really sure.” He smirked, eyes glinting in the dark as they lowered to my lips. “But I’d love to hear you explain.”
“This isn’t jealousy… this is, this is… bullshit,” I spat out and Laken turned his head. “This is bullshit. Why are you here with Eliza Hamilton?” I needed to know, or else I’d die and rot and wither away. Or at least I felt that way in the moment.
“Why do you care?” He nodded his head up a bit.
“Because you pretend you want to help and that you care for me, yet you’re out on the town with Eliza! Are you withwithher?”
“Is that really what you think?”
“I don’t know what to think!” I pushed myself off the wall and slithered out from under him, keeping a safe distance. But when I spun around to him, I erupted. “I don’t get you, Laken.” My body, blood, and soul fumed. I no longer felt the ground under my feet. I couldn’t see anything but him. The very heart in my chest burned and raged and set my skin ablaze. My fingers strained, feeling every spark, ember, and flame even through my bones. Water lined my eyes. “I don’t get what’s between us or what you want. It drives me mad.”
“Yeah? And you don’t think I hate it, too?” Laken stumbled back, shaking his head before aiming his glare back at me. Golden locks hung over his face, slightly damp from the rain. His eyes were as stormy as the sky above us and twice as fierce.
“It kills me,” he confessed; the muscles in his throat pulsed. Somehow, he’d dwindled the space between us. Icould smell the honey and mint. The scent that once lingered on my bedsheets. “It kills me to see you and not touch you. It kills me to hear your voice knowing it won’t say my name like it once did.” Laken looked at me as if I was something more, something to be hurt for. “Being around you kills me.”
Each word, a wound.
Laken and I both panted, both toeing a dangerous line. Traitorous. Treacherous, even. But still, I pushed further.
Straightening my spine, I lifted my chin and scoffed. “Good,” I said, deep and slow. Daring to step closer, only inches remained. “I hope it hurts. I hope you pray for mercy. And I hope it leaves you aching when you go to bed. I will make it my life’s mission to ensure that you are in pain every day for the rest of your life, thinking about me.”
Laken devoured the distance parting us, leaving nothing but him and me. My eyes flicked to his lips, as his did to mine. Heart to heart, heat from his chest pummeled into me. I felt him so close, yet not close enough. Never close enough. Never far enough.
Our lips were separated by a thin line of love and hate.
And that line was beginning to blur.
Slowly, torturing ourselves, taunting ourselves, he whispered, “Do your worst.”
The door to Rabbit’s Foot busted open, and Maggie came flying out. Along with Eliza Hamilton. Laken and I remained in a deadlock stare, neither willing to break. To yield. To lose.
“Is everything alright here?” Eliza asked, and Laken glanced to the ground.
Letting out a breath, I finally stumbled back, immediately feeling the cold air rush over me in his absence. “Everything’s fine.” My jaw hurt from clenching so much. “We were just leaving.”
“We were?” Maggie repeated. “We were,” she realized. My friend wiggled herself around Eliza, joining me at my side as we shuffled into the rain.
Laken, frozen in time and space, watched us leave right where I left him.
