Page 19 of Unmask (Crew of Elmwood Public #2)
“What did I tell you about touching her?” The words tore from my throat in a growl, rough and jagged from sleep and the bitter aftertaste of whiskey still clinging to my tongue. My voice cracked, the muscles in my neck straining as I pushed the words through gritted teeth.
Raine’s chuckle rolled through the room. “Just being friendly.”
Fire shot through my veins, hot and immediate.
I jackknifed upright, the couch cushions groaning under the sudden shift of my weight.
My vision swam for a split second, too much movement too fast, but I pushed through it, scowling as I swung my legs over the side and planted my feet on the hardwood floor as I reached for the ceramic mug Kaylor had left on the glass coffee table.
“Go be friendly somewhere else.” The coffee was cold, but I sipped it anyway.
My eyes caught on the grease-stained pizza box sitting next to my mug, cardboard edges soft with moisture, and something twisted in my gut.
I couldn’t decide if I was grateful she’d thought to feed me or pissed that she felt the need to take care of someone who’d destroyed her so completely. Probably both.
Raine draped one arm along the back of the couch, his posture screaming casual indifference even as his light-green eyes tracked my every movement. “If only I could trust you not to do something reckless or say something incredibly stupid.”
I cursed. Having brothers was the damn worst when it was inconvenient and the absolute best when it was convenient. The duality of it all made my head throb as I shot him a dull glare. “Then you clearly don’t know me.”
He snorted, but it held no real surprise, just the weary acceptance of someone who’d watched me self-destruct in spectacular fashion more times than either of us could count.
My gaze drifted to Kaylor like a compass finding true north, and I swallowed hard. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“This is a one-time thing.” Her spine straightened, shoulders squared in a defensive posture that meant business. “And you need to go back to school.”
My entire body went still. “Will you be there?”
She blinked once, lashes casting shadows on her cheekbones. “It doesn’t matter where I’ll be. It’s not your concern.”
I leaned forward until my elbows rested on my knees. “Everything you do is my concern.”
“Kreed.” My name came out threaded with exasperation, and the sound of it on her tongue was both salvation and torture, familiar as breathing and foreign as a dead language all at once.
My fist pressed hard against my sternum, knuckles grinding into the bone as if I could physically hold my heart together through sheer force of will. “You can’t do that to me. Not after everything.”
Her eyes rolled skyward, but I caught the slight tremor in her hands before she crossed her arms, tucking them safely away from view.
Raine raised one hand like he was about to deliver testimony at a congressional hearing, his expression caught somewhere between amusement and genuine discomfort.
“The tension in this room is making me uncomfortable. You two either need to kiss and make up or have really loud, angry sex. Preferably when I’m not in the house. ”
Kaylor shot him a flat look. “I’m not the one who fucked it all up.”
I absorbed the blow, letting it settle into the collection of guilt and regret that had taken up permanent residence in my chest. “How long are you going to punish me?”
She didn’t hesitate. “You want to earn my trust back? Start by not disappearing into the club and actually showing up to class.”
I lifted one eyebrow, the gesture automatic despite the way my pulse hammered against my throat. “For how long?”
Beside me, I caught the subtle twitch of Raine’s lips, the barely suppressed smile of someone who already knew exactly what was coming and found it endlessly entertaining.
“Until we graduate.” The word dropped between us like a gauntlet thrown down
A slow smirk tugged at my mouth. “What do I get?”
“The privilege of still breathing.”
And just like that, the knot of tension that had been strangling me for weeks loosened a fraction. Not gone, not even close, but enough that I could draw a full breath without feeling like my ribs were caving in.
Damn. I’d missed her fire, missed the way she could cut me to ribbons with nothing but words and still somehow make me feel more alive than anyone else ever had. I would do just about anything to keep that flame from burning out even if it meant getting scorched in the process.
Raine’s phone buzzed. He glanced down at the screen, cursed under his breath, and stood. “I’ve got to take this. Don’t set anything on fire while I’m gone.” He strutted out of the room as he answered the call, and it was just me and her again.
Fucking finally.
This was what I wanted, what I’d been waiting for. A chance.
Kaylor sat curled into the corner of the couch, arms around her knees. I crossed the room slowly and dropped onto the cushion beside her, leaving just enough space for her to move away if she wanted to, but she didn’t. That was all the permission I needed.
“You want me to go to school? Fine,” I said quietly. “I’ll go, but you have to agree to let Evan detail you.”
Her light blue eyes narrowed. “For how long?”
Before I could answer, the television behind us flickered with static, the screen’s blue glow washing over the room like cold moonlight.
A polished news anchor materialized through the interference, her red suit crisp against the sterile backdrop of the studio.
The headline crawled across the bottom of the screen in bold white letters: Teen Girl Still Missing—Authorities Search for Leads.
A photo of the girl flashed across the screen, and Kaylor’s entire body went rigid beside me, every muscle locking up.
“You know her?” I asked, my attention shifting from the screen to study the profile of her face.
She shook her head. “No.” But her eyes remained glued to the television screen, pupils dilated with emotion dangerously similar to panic. Not until the segment ended and cut to a commercial for car insurance did she finally blink, finally breathe.
When she turned back toward me, she found me closer than I’d been before, close enough that I could count the flecks of silver in her blue eyes, close enough to catch the faint tremor in her exhale.
Our knees brushed, denim against bare skin, and the contact sent electricity shooting up my spine.
I couldn’t stop staring at her, couldn’t tear my gaze away from the way her pulse fluttered at the base of her throat.
“What are you doing?” Her cheeks flushed, wariness darkening her eyes.
A slow release of air breezed through my nose as my fingers flexed against my thigh, as I fought the overwhelming urge to reach out and touch her.
“I don’t know.” The confession scraped my throat raw, honest in a way that made me feel exposed.
“I can’t stop fucking thinking about you.
You’re in my mind twenty-four-seven, and I never get jealous, but now it feels as if I’m in a constant state of jealousy.
I want to kill everyone who touches you. ”
Her lips parted in shock, a small sound escaping that might have been my name.
I shifted my weight, draping one arm behind her along the back of the couch with deliberate casualness.
The leather was warm under my forearm as I angled my body toward her, creating a cage of muscle and bone that blocked out the rest of the world.
“You might not be ready to accept it, but I’m not relinquishing my claim on you.
You’re mine, little raven. No one else will touch you. ”
“You can’t just claim me.” Fire blazed in her eyes. “I’m not a possession.”
I smirked. “It’s already done. Unless you find someone brave and stupid enough to go against the Crew.”
“Does it matter at all that I don’t want you?” Her mouth said one thing, but her eyes kept darting to my lips.
I leaned in, closing the distance between us until our faces were separated by nothing but heated air and stubborn pride.
Her breath fluttered against my skin, and I caught the faint scent of lavender clinging to her hair.
“Liar,” I whispered, dropping my voice to that low, rough register that I knew got under her skin.
Whether she wanted to acknowledge it or not, I knew exactly how to get to her, knew which buttons to push and which walls to tear down. “Prove that you feel nothing for me.”
The challenge hung in the space between us, loaded with implications that made her pupils dilate. Indecision played out across her features, desire battling with anger, need wrestling with pride.
I hadn’t come here to seduce her, hadn’t planned on using desire as a weapon in whatever twisted game we were playing.
But the way her body responded to my proximity, despite her words, and seeing her resolve crack under the strain of our shared history, I realized that seduction might be the only way to break through the walls she’d built around her heart.
Sex was a great way to stir up all those emotions she was so determined not to feel about me.
Physical desire had a way of overriding rational thought, of making people forget why they were angry in the first place.
I had to keep reminding her that she wanted me, had to chip away at her defenses until there was nothing left but the truth of what existed between us.
I’d take her anger, her pain, her desperate attempts to push me away. I’d take it all and transform it into something else entirely. Something that looked like forgiveness, tasted like redemption, felt like coming home after years of wandering in the dark.
I was coming to realize there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for her and no line I wouldn’t cross to keep her in my life.
Except walk away.
Never again.