When he wasn’t being a dick.
The sound of his backpack toppling over made me jump forward to grab what looked like a pill bottle, and I stooped to pick it up as it rolled across the floor.
When I looked up, he was standing over me, his face unreadable.
“Here you go.” I went to hand them over to him, but my grip tightened when I saw the name of the medication on the cylinder. “Hydrocodone?” I swallowed hard. “Is this yours?”He took the bottle from me. “Pretty strong pills to be walking around with.”
“Mmhmm.” I watched him slip the pills into his backpack, securing the pocket tightly.
“Are you injured?” I studied his bruises more closely. “Did they hurt you?” I looked at his shoulder, remembering the way he flinched in the library. “Or are they for your shoulder?” I guessed.
“No, they didn’t hurt me.” He didn’t meet my eyes. “The bruises are all superficial, just like me, right?” He gave me the fakest of fake smiles, and it didn’t annoy me — it only made me more concerned for him.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked, toeing my boot against the floor. “Or whatever’s bothering you? Or what the pills are for?”
Dante looked back at me. His gaze lingered on me for a long, impossible second, and something unreadable passed through it. Then he shook his head once. Sharp. “No.” He looked me over slowly. “Ask me what I want.”
He came to stand in front of me, and my mouth was dry. “Wh-what do you want?”
He leaned down, our foreheads almost touching. “I want to fuck you.” He heard my gasp, and a dangerous smile appeared on his mouth. “I want to kiss you.” His fingers intertwined with mine. “I want to spread you wide, right here, and eat your pussy until you’re screaming for me.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I whispered. My voice didn’t sound like my own. Not with him this close.
“You sure?” he asked roughly.
His eyes dipped to my mouth, and I swore the whole shed tilted. The scent of him — soap, sweat, and winter rain — filled my lungs until there was no air left.
My pulse was thundering, my body felt hot. “Dante—”
He kissed me.
He didn’tjustkiss me. Heownedme with one kiss.
It wasn’t careful. It wasn’t sweet. It was a collision, a test, like he wanted to see if I’d shove him back or pull him closer. My brain screamed at me to shove. To prove him wrong, to prove Iwasn’t the girl who got kissed by the golden-boy quarterback in her secret shed.
But my body wasn’t interested in what my brain wanted. Heat lit every nerve ending, the world narrowing to the press of his lips and the taste of something I shouldn’t want. Shouldn’t crave. My fingers curled against the workbench, gripping tightly, because if I touched him, I wasn’t sure I’d ever stop.
His hands skimmed over my arms, one smoothed over my shoulder, down my back, pulling me in closer, while the other rested on my hip, sliding down, cupping my ass, pressing me against him, letting me feel the length of him, causing me to jerk back in surprise, but he anticipated it, and caught me to him, as he pressed me back against the workbench.
His lips trailed over my jaw, dipping into the crook of my neck, tasting me there, pulling my shirt aside as his teeth nipped at my collarbone.
“Dante . . .”
Cool hands inched under my shirt, the contrast to my flushed skin made my back arch and press against him more. The button on my jeans was popped open, and I bit back a gasp as his long fingers slipped under my panties and ran over the curve of my ass.
His mouth was back on mine, his tongue tasting, dueling with mine, and emboldened, I pressed my hand along the front of his jeans, feeling him, all of him, appreciating his reaction when his fingers dug into my flesh as I lightly stroked over the rigid outline of his cock.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, he broke away.
The shed was silent except for the ragged sound of my breathing. His forehead rested against mine for a heartbeat, his breath mixing with mine, and then he stepped back like the kiss and everything else hadn’t nearly unraveled me.
“You wanted rules,” he said, voice low, rough. “Rule one: don’t ever dare me like that again.”
I stared at him, stunned, furious, still trembling. “Y-you kissed me.”
His grin was infuriating, dangerous. “And you kissed me back.”
My lips still tingled, traitorous and hot, like they hadn’t gotten the memo that the kiss was over. I touched them without meaning to, fingertips grazing the place where he’d stolen every ounce of control I thought I had.
