I didn’t blame her in the least. If our roles were reversed, I would’ve felt the same way. I wouldn’t want to ever see her again, but that didn’t make it any easier on me. Losing her had only made it all the more evident that I loved her. And all the more evident that I was an idiot too. The two kind of went hand in hand, didn’t they?
Love didn’t come without a little bit of stupidity. Okay. A hell of a lot of it.
The door opened, and Cory came out, his arm thrown around Carrie’s shoulders. I tensed. She didn’t shrug free like she normally did. If anything, she snuggled in closer. I clamped my jaw tight and proceeded to try and come up with at least twenty different ways I could shove Cory’s arm up his own ass. I’d only reached option three when Cory kissed Carrie’s cheek, then went back inside.
Cheek? Fucking pansy…
I’d never like that guy as much as I did right now.
Carrie hugged her books tight to her chest and searched the empty courtyard. I should slink back into the shadows. Hide. But I didn’t want to. Maybe I was in the mood for a fight. Maybe I just wanted to hear her voice as she told me to go away. Either way, I was completely pathetic.
I straightened, waiting to see if she would see me. Equally worried she might not. Her gaze skimmed over me, then slammed back. I stood my ground, waiting to see what she did. How she would react to my blatant disobedience to her request.
Mumbling to herself, she crossed the yard. “Hey. Thank you for taking care of me the other day.”
She said it so fast that I had a hard time keeping up with the torrent of words coming out of her mouth. I cocked a brow. “You’re welcome. Sorry I’m still here. I wasn’t expecting you to come out of his room so soon.” I shrugged and focused on the door behind her. “I figured you might be…ah, busy for a little while. Ya know.”
Her cheeks turned pink. “We weren’t…I didn’t…” She pressed her lips together. “We were studying, not doing that.”
Relief rushed through me, heady and unstoppable. Relief I didn’t have a right to feel. “I figured as much when he kissed you on the cheek. Anyone who has earned the right to kiss you wouldn’t go for your cheek.”
She opened her mouth, then slammed it shut. “Good night, Finn. You can go now.”
I cocked my head. “I’ll leave once you’re inside.”
“I’m not going inside.” She fluttered her hand. “Well, I am, but I’m coming back out. I’m going to a party.”
I stood up straight at that. “What kind of party? And do you really think that’s best after the way you felt a couple nights ago?”
“A frat party, and I’m fine.”
She moved past me, going inside. I should go back into the shadows, but I didn’t like the idea of her going to a party tonight. After the type of night she had the other day, she needed rest and tea. Not dancing and beer.
I paced for what had to have been twenty minutes, my impatience growing with each step I took. She had no place partying tonight. None at all. The door opened behind me and I spun. “You’re not going to that party. If you think I’ll sit there watching—”
I stopped talking, and my jaw dropped. Holy. Fucking. Shit.
I’d seen her in a bikini. I’d seen her surfing. I’d even seen her naked, but I had never seen her like this. She wore a tiny, poor excuse for a dress, a pair of fuck me heels that were meant to be over my shoulders, not on the ground—and wore more makeup than I’d ever seen on her before. Her red lips begged to be kissed, and the rest of her…well, it matched the shoes.
“No.” My jaw ticked. “Go upstairs and put on some real clothes.”
She laughed. “Yeah, not happening.”
“You’re right. It’s not.” When she tried to pass me, I stepped in her way. “I said get dressed.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Do it.”
“Or what?” She put her hands on her hips. Actually put her hands on her hips and stared me down. “What can someone like you do to hurt me?”
I’d said almost those same exact words to her not long ago. Turns out, someone like her could hurt me too easily by refusing to be with me. By not loving me back. “I’ll kiss you, like you did to teach me a lesson, if you don’t change right now.”
“Please.” She huffed. “I’m not the one who can’t handle a simple kiss.”
Challenge. Accepted.
I hauled her close, making sure to press my body fully against hers. Closing my hands around her ass, I rubbed against her as I fused my mouth to hers, not wasting even a second in ravishing her. Her hands pushed at my shoulders, but then she stopped pushing and started pulling me closer. When her tongue dueled with mine, I barely managed to hold back my shout of satisfaction.
She might keep saying she didn’t want to be around me, but her body obviously did. Thank fucking God. She whimpered into my mouth and lifted her leg, wrapping her calf around mine. I would like nothing more than to keep this going. To take her home with me and show her exactly how much she hated me while I made love to her repeatedly. But I knew as soon as the kiss ended, so would we.
Again.
I pulled back and rested my forehead on hers, wishing that things could be different. “I miss you,” I whispered. “So damn much. Please give me another chance.”
Her fingers tightened on me, and for a second I thought she might pull me closer. For a second, my heart leapt. She pushed me away. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
My heart leapt right into a gnarled mess at her words, but I forced myself to let her go. “Fine, but either you change out of that poor excuse for a dress, or I stay by your side all night instead of letting you do your thing undisturbed. Your choice.”
“Why do you give a damn what I do? Just tell Dad I’m in bed. He won’t know.”
I shook my head. “I care because I care about you, Captain Obvious.”
“Stop saying that.”
“No.” I advanced on her. “I care about you, and you telling me to stop isn’t going to work. Get changed, or hang out with me.”
“I’m this close,” she held her fingers close together and shoved them in my face, “to calling my Dad and telling him I know exactly who you are.”
I cocked a brow. “Go ahead.”
Bluff. Called.
She stomped her foot. “What would your dad do without his pension?”
“If he was here, he’d be stopping you from leaving in that too.” I dragged a hand through my hair. “This isn’t you, Carrie. If you have to dress like this to get a guy’s attention, he’s not the right guy for you.”
She held her hands out to her sides. “What would you know about what kind of guy I need?”
My jaw ticked. “I know it’s not whoever you’re wearing this outfit for.”
“Oh?” She paced in front of me. “Let me guess. You’re the type of guy I need?”
“No,” I said honestly. “You deserve much better than me.”
That made her stop pacing, and she looked at me in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” I caught her jaw and tilted her face up to mine. “I’d like to say I deserve you, but the truth is I don’t and never will. You deserve a prince, and you’re not going to catch him wearing that.”
“Finn…” She swayed toward me, her eyes soft. “I wish—”
“Is there a problem here?” Cory asked, his voice tight. He glared at my hand, which was still on Carrie’s jaw. The little fucker was probably mad I dared to touch her. “Carrie? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Carrie quickly replied. “We were just finishing up here.”
I dropped my hold on Carrie. “There’s not a problem, Cody. Carrie was about to go change.”
“Change?” Cory looked her up and down, and I swore the idiot’s tongue hit the dirt. “She looks great to me.”
“Of course she does,” I muttered.
Carrie shot me an angry look. “Thank you, Cory.”