Page 28 of Unmask (Crew of Elmwood Public #2)

I pulled Kaylor into the stream of kids, moving fast, keeping her tucked to my side, but not before one of the Vipers started to look our way.

Think fast.

Without hesitation, I grabbed Kaylor’s face and kissed her. Hard.

She stiffened for a fraction before melting against me.

I cupped the back of her head, angling her so her face was shielded from view.

I didn’t care who was watching. I didn’t care if it was the whole damn world.

All I cared about was keeping her safe, and maybe I let myself enjoy it for a beat longer than I should have.

Her hands fisted in the front of my hoodie, clinging to me like she didn’t know where I ended and she began.

God help me, I don’t want to stop.

But I forced myself to pull away, keeping my body angled between her and the Vipers as I slid my hand down her arm, lacing my fingers through hers. “Walk,” I murmured against her temple. “Now.”

She nodded, her face flushed, but she stayed glued to my side as we merged deeper into the crowd of students. I kept my senses honed, tracking the Vipers out of the corner of my eye. They lingered by the edge of the field.

Too late.

We slipped into the building, the door swinging shut behind us. I didn’t stop until we rounded a corner and ducked into an empty stairwell, finally out of sight. Only then did I let myself breathe.

Kaylor shoved at my chest lightly, her brows furrowed. “What the hell was that?” she whispered harshly.

I dropped my forehead to hers, needing the contact, needing her to understand. “Until we find who the traitor is, I don’t trust anyone. Whether you want to believe me or not, I’m trying to protect you,” I said roughly. “They were looking for you .”

Recognition sparkled in her eyes. Fear. Anger.

The edges of both. “Vipers,” she said quietly.

“Why would Rusty…” Her voice trailed off.

“I’m sure they were here to persuade me to come back to the shop.

Rusty did say he wanted to send a couple of guys to watch the house.

That protection probably extends to school. ”

“To keep you away from us.” I tightened my grip on her hand.

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard.

For a second, I just stood there, forehead to hers, listening to the thunder of my heart trying to crack through my ribs. “Is that what you really want, little raven? To never see me again? To never have me touch you?” I swept the pad of my thumb along the inside of her wrist.

“You don’t play fair, Kreed .”

The use of my name was deliberate, knowing how it churned me up inside.

I still couldn’t figure out what it was about my name on her lips that made me so damn hard.

Even now, under a stairwell probably covered in cobwebs, hiding, I wanted her.

“It’s the only way I know,” I murmured, dragging my eyes from her lips.

“I’m not saying being cautious isn’t wise, but I’ve known Rusty my whole life. He was my dad’s best friend. He wouldn’t hurt me. It’s you who hurt me… Who I can’t trust.” Her voice was a soft tremor.

It wrecked me.

I moved fast, backing her into the wall, my hands slamming down on either side of her head, boxing her in.

“You can trust me because of this,” I growled, right before I covered her lips with mine.

The kiss in the parking lot had been nothing compared to this.

That had been a taste. A tease. This was a goddamn claim.

Her lips parted under mine, soft and eager, and the second her fingers curled into the front of my hoodie, yanking me forward like she needed me just as badly, I surrendered.

My hands found her waist as I pressed into her, chest to chest, thigh between hers, every inch of my body demanding contact. One hand slid down her side, fingers fisting at the hem of her shirt, and I was on the verge of losing myself entirely.

She gasped into my mouth, and I took it, swallowing it.

The kiss turned messier, hungrier. Desperate.

Our teeth clashed. Tongues tangled. Breath shattered between us like glass underfoot.

She clawed her hands up into my hair and yanked, just hard enough to punch a groan from my throat.

I pushed harder, needing her to feel everything I couldn’t say.

That I hadn’t stopped wanting her. That the emptiness inside me had only gotten worse without her.

I was starved for her.

Every press of her mouth against mine burned into me, branded itself into memory. Her fingers trembled against my skin, clutching at me as if she was afraid I’d vanish the second she let go. I wouldn’t. Not now. Not ever.

She tasted like guilt and want. Like salt and sweetness. Like a secret whispered in the dark.

I kissed her harder, deeper, tasting the sadness she tried to hide and wanting to consume every broken piece of it. Every broken piece of her. I wanted to rip it all from her and take it as mine. Break it apart. Shatter it into nothing.

She changed me. She wrecked me, and I’d let her do it again, a thousand times over, just to feel this. To feel her.

Her fingers dragged down my back, knuckles catching against the fabric, and her body tremored as I slid my hand up to cup her face, thumb brushing her cheek like I could erase the grief still hiding in her eyes.

Did I completely forget where we were when I shoved up her sweater and unclasped her bra?

Yes. Did I care? Not in the moment, but these cursed straps needed to go, along with everything she was wearing.

My lips craved to take the rosebud of her nipple.

I settled for a quick brush of my thumb, reveling in the gasp that escaped her.

The problem was, it only spawned a stronger desire within me, and just sneaking a feel or two wasn’t going to cut it for either of us. I had to feel her. I needed to hear her soft, breathy gasps.

I fumbled with the button on her jeans, moving my hand inside and under her panties.

She gave me no resistance when I slipped two fingers inside her.

She bit her lower lip, her head falling back.

My fingers began to move as I pressed my lips to the sensitive spot below her ear. “Let go for me, little raven.”

She shook her head, teeth still sinking into her lip even as her hips lifted to take my fingers deeper. My thumb flicked over her, drawing out a moan as she arched, moving with me as I stroked in and out of her.

“That’s it, little raven,” I coaxed, nipping at the column of her neck, my dick hardening as I watched her skin flush. I didn’t think it could get harder. Boy, was I fucking wrong.

I was intoxicated by her.

My rhythm increased with the change in her breathing. Her nails dug into my back, her eyes squeezing shut. She was so wet, already on the brink of release. “Oh, God,” she whimpered seconds before her muscles tightened around my fingers, pulsing as she climaxed.

The sight of pleasure on her face was so fucking beautiful, and knowing that I was the one who brought her such elation felt fucking good. I drew out her orgasm for as long as I could before slipping my fingers out, her body going limp.

“That’s how school should end every day,” I whispered along her jaw before leaning back.

“Shit” breezed through her lips, a hand forking through her messy hair. “Why did you?—”

“Because I’m not always a selfish asshole.” I made sure to flash her a dazzling smile, but it didn’t have the desired effect. She still had this haunted glint in her light-blue eyes, the look that made me feel things I never let myself feel.

“Until you get tired of me,” she whispered, sadness threading through her words like a needle through cloth, stitching wounds I wanted to tear open so I could heal them myself.

Those words nearly dropped me to my knees.

I gripped her chin gently, forcing her to look at me, making sure she saw the truth bleeding out of me.

“I’ve tried to get you out of my head, little raven.

I can’t. I’m not built that way. You’re not just a complication.

And you’re most definitely not just some girl.

You’re the only thing that makes this fucked-up life make sense.

” I cupped her face, my thumb dragging across her bottom lip with a reverence I didn’t know I was capable of.

“I never wanted a commitment. Never wanted the complication. But you—” I dragged my thumb slowly down the side of her throat, feeling the frantic beat of her pulse.

“You’re the only risk I’m willing to take. ”

She swallowed hard, her hands sliding from my neck to my chest, playing with the frayed strings of my hoodie like she didn’t know what else to do with them…

or herself. “I can’t think when you’re this close,” she said breathily, her eyes glazed and dazed in a way that made my chest feel too tight, so goddamn sweet it nearly undid me.

“Good,” I murmured against her mouth, stealing another kiss, slower this time, a deep pull that made her body melt against mine. “I don’t want you thinking. I want you feeling everything.”

“Kreed.” She sighed my name, her fingers curling deeper into my hoodie, her body arching into me instinctively.

The press of her against every hard line of my body was pure torture, but it was a torture I craved. Would burn in hell to keep.

She was mine.

She just didn’t know it yet.

But she would.

By the time I was done, there wouldn’t be a single part of her that didn’t know who she belonged to, and for once, I was ready to believe in something bigger than myself. Something that felt a hell of a lot like her.

I dragged my mouth from hers, only far enough to find the sensitive shell of her ear. “You’re mine,” I rasped, my voice a raw, guttural scrape against her skin. “You understand me, little raven? Every breath you take belongs to me now. Every shiver…every sound you make.”

Her breath hitched, body trembling under my hands. God, she was so fucking responsive. So perfect.

She shook her head, her fingers flattening on my chest as she pushed me back. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s not that simple. This shouldn’t have happened. You can’t keep kissing me.”

“So, you’re saying you want me to kiss other girls? That I should touch them like I touch you? Let them put their hands on me?”

A flare of anger and jealousy streaked over her face. “Do whatever you want. We were never together, and we’re not now.”

“You’re not running again,” I whispered darkly, letting my teeth scrape gently down the line of her jaw. “You’re staying. You’re staying right here—with me.” I kissed her again, stealing the tiny gasp that slipped from her lips, swallowing it like a drug I couldn’t get enough of.

Nothing else existed. Not the cold bricks biting into her back. Not the thin dusting of snow falling outside. Not the gnawing feeling that danger was still nearby.

Just her.

Just us.

The heavy thud of boots overhead jerked me out of the spell I seemed to fall under in her presence. Voices followed, a group laughing and talking as they came down the stairs above our heads.

Kaylor stiffened against me, quickly buttoning her jeans and adjusting her sweater, the dazed look in her eyes clearing.

Fuck.

My first instinct was to threaten whoever interrupted us, but I took her hand and led her out of the stairwell, knowing Evan waited for me in the parking lot. It was time we got the hell out of here.