“He was strangling you,” he said, turning to face me. His mouth was pinched, and from the way he was glancing over his shoulder at Josh, he was pissed off. “You asked him to get off and he didn’t.”
After checking the coast was clear, I looped my fingers through his belt loops and tugged him closer. “Aw, are you feeling all protective?”
“Fuck off.”
“Nah.” I grinned. “It’s cute. Never had anyone go all caveman over me before you. Kinda like it.”
Dominic’s ire dissolved as heat swept it away. “Yeah? How much?”
“Enough to repay you in bed tonight.” I smirked. I shouldn’t be talking about this here. Other students were weaving around us, but I couldn’t help myself. I was feeling reckless. Exams were done, and summer beckoned.
A summer with Dominic at my side.
Dom groaned, his eyes fluttering shut as his head fell backwards. “Shadow, you’re fucking killing me here.”
“Well don’t die just yet, you’ve got one more exam to get through.”
His hands brushed against my hips. Not a hold, just a promise of what would come later. “How about I skive and we go visit the storage cupboard again?”
“But then you’d fail, and that would be stupid.”
“Only if I cared about my grades.”
I cocked my head as my smile fell. “Wait, are you being serious?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Like I said, I don’t need the grades. Seems a bit pointless even sitting the exam.”
I sighed. I really didn’t understand this mentality. Dominic claimed he didn’t need good grades, but he didn’t seem to grasp that they’d follow him everywhere. “What was the point of coming to sixth form just to throw it all away at the last minute? What happened to not being a quitter?”
“That only applies to things I actually care about. My philosophy A level isn’t one of them.”
“Can’t believe you took philosophy in the first place. You’re not one to really debate multiple points of view.” I started to laugh just picturing it.
“True.” He chuckled. “Didn’t really think about it at the time. Just picked what Max did.”
My laughter caught in my throat. Of course he had.
Max chose that moment to appear alongside us. I took my hands off Dominic hurriedly, praying Max hadn’t noticed.
“Ready?” he said to Dom, ignoring me completely. On the bright side, I guessed he hadn’t seen me touching his best friend in a very unplatonic way. “Last one, bro.”
“I suppose.” Dom sighed dramatically before looking back at me. “You’re going tonight, right? To the bonfire?”
My heart warmed. He knew I would be, but I fucking loved that he checked. That he wanted reassurance of my company. “Yeah, I’m going.”
I carried the grin he gave me in response for the rest of the day, letting it warm me from the inside out. And, in doing so, I managed to completely ignore the glare Max had given me when I’d told Dom I was going.
Almost completely.
Dom fellinto step beside me as I reached the end of our street. “Fancy seeing you here.”
He smirked. “What kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you walk into the dark, scary woods alone?”
“You do know I’m almost the same height as you, right?”
“True, but I’m much scarier.”
With no one around, I reached up to card my fingers through his hair. “You don’t scare me, Dom. Question is, do I scare you?”
