Page 24 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

Grey

Later that week

It’s awfully quiet in the library, but the silence has been especially deafening after getting rejected by my own girlfriend. My lips are still buzzing from the memory of the mere electricity between us, and then she suddenly … vanished.

As if the thought of kissing me became too much.

Fuck.

I nearly break the coffee cup in my hand, so I set it down on the table before I spill it all over our homework. I don’t know what to say because I don’t want to ruin her already precarious mood after the way Cecelia’s birthday party turned out.

Suddenly, she sighs and puts down her pen.

“Look, I …”

I gaze up into her gorgeous ocean eyes, so lost in thought, while I’m obsessing over every breath she takes.

“I’m sorry about the whole Cups and Cakes thing. I don’t know what came over me.”

Oh. I thought she wanted to talk about the party.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to apologize,” I say swiftly.

“I was just a bit anxious, that’s all.”

“It was just a kiss. It was no big deal.” I laugh it off even though it’s anything but a joke to me.

Our first kiss was supposed to be fantastic, mind-blowing, out of this world. It wasn’t supposed to leave me hanging, desperate to cling to her.

If she only knew how much need has been bursting at the seams for me, threatening to rip me apart, and I almost let it slip through the cracks just now. But when she looks at me, I’ve forgotten all about it.

She is mine, and that’s all that matters. No matter what happens, no matter how anyone looks at us, no matter if anyone tries to intervene.

Because I will end them if they try.

Aspen

“No, it was a big deal,” I say, closing my book. “There was just something that stopped me.”

I don’t want to tell him about my stalker and risk him getting upset or angry. Not to mention the fact that Levi just stormed into my building, accusing Grey of murder and threatening me to stay away or else …

“Something?” Grey repeats, looking confused.

Shit. Maybe I already said too much. I don’t want to involve him in this mess, but two men have now warned me about Grey, and both still linger at the forefront of my mind.

They’re going to kill him.

I shudder. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

He grabs my hand and squeezes. “You could never hurt me.”

God, he’s too sweet. “I don’t mean me.”

“Did someone hurt you?”

I swiftly shake my head. “No. It’s not like th—”

His brows draw together. “Did someone threaten you?”

I rub my lips together and look away. I really don’t want to worry him.

And what if Levi does … kill him?

“It was Levi, wasn’t it?” He scoots his chair back. “That’s it. I’m going to kill him.”

He wants to kill him for me?

I’m momentarily too frazzled to even speak.

But what if Levi hurts Grey?

No, I don’t want to lose him.

I get up at the same time he does. “No, wait, don’t.”

“I’m done with him trying to push you arou—”

Fuck it.

First, it was Ghost, then it was Levi. All of those boys telling me who I can and cannot touch.

Fuck them both.

I grasp Grey’s shirt, pull him toward me, and smash my lips onto his. They’re sweet, like red-wine-poached pears, a delicate taste of what could be if only I let him in. So I kiss him with everything I have to give, hoping it’ll be enough to stave off the worst.

And if this is truly it, if this is going to be the trigger, then at least I’ve gone out with a bang and hurt both of them back by kissing the only boy who’s ever shown me the right kind of love.

When I pull back, he gazes at me with bewilderment, completely overtaken by the sudden outpouring of love, like he didn’t expect it at all.

But then he grabs my face with both hands and slams his lips right back onto mine, and my heart begins to sing.

Grey

Fuck yes.

Finally, her lips are mine.

She tastes so damn good I just want to eat her alive, but I have to stay composed … gentle, just like I’ve made her believe I am. My lips are greedy but respectful as I claim her, but I have been waiting forever for this. For these lips to finally crave mine as much as I have yearned for them.

God, what I haven’t done to make this mouth mine.

If only she knew how madly captivated by the mere idea I’ve been just at the chance to kiss her like this, to touch her body, make her shiver and her eyes roll into the back of her head.

God, I would beg for it if she’d let me.

But how could I ever explain to her this crazed obsession without scaring her away?

I kiss her deeply and look into her eyes, trying to decipher whether she wants me just as much. If she ever could without knowing the real me.

She kissed me first.

And out of nowhere too.

“Why’d you kiss me?” I mutter, fanning a hot breath across her lips.

“Because you’re my boyfriend,” she says, smiling.

I wonder if anything I said triggered her. “I mean, why now?”

She shrugs. “It felt right.”

I grin. That’s right. We don’t need a reason to kiss. I’m her fucking boyfriend. I’m Aspen Caruso’s boyfriend, and no one can ever fucking beat that.

I grab her chin and kiss her deeply, slowly moving us both to the corner behind the bookshelves where no one will see us. This part of her is mine and only mine.

I refuse to stop kissing her. Whatever took over her soul there for a moment, I want to capture it, lock it in a bottle, and take it with me wherever I go.

“God, you taste so goddamn perfect,” I murmur into her mouth as I drag her along.

When I grab her ass, she moans into my mouth, and the sound sets me off. Tightly gripping her, I hoist her onto the table behind us and kiss her harder, faster, everywhere, on her lips, her cheeks, her neck, her ear, her clavicles. God, I want to taste it all.

“What are you doing?” She giggles.

“Taking what I’ve wanted for so damn long,” I whisper.

Levi

Gripping my books, I head into the library and put in my earbuds so I can listen to my current obsession, “Nerves” by DPR IAN.

Nothing quite gets me like listening to his songs on repeat while I continue to do homework, like it still matters.

Even though I know it’s all futile, because eventually the Caruso family and Felix Rivera will punt me off Spine Ridge U, and all that’s left will be hopes and dreams turned to ash.

But I’m still here … for now.

I walk up the staircase toward the study corner in the back, where it’s normally quiet because no one ever comes here. Since only self-help books and old historical nonfiction are up here, it’s the perfect place to be left alone.

However, the second I hear smooching up ahead, I pause and listen.

“No, not here. Someone will see us.”

That voice sounded … familiar.

“I don’t care. Nothing’s stopping me from kissing you.”

What the …?

I sneak toward the bookcase and listen to two people making out on the table right behind the books. I pull away a single book, allowing me a peek at them, and I nearly lose my shit.

Aspen is right there, legs spread, and Grey … is feeling her up. Fingers rolling around inside her panties, her flushed skin leaning into his greedy little lips.

That motherfucker.