Page 100 of Wicked Little Darling

I was smiling like an asshole as he approached, but the closer he got, my smile started to wane until it fell completely. Panic scraped under my skin, constricting my lungs until I felt like my chest would burst.

I shot to my feet and framed his face in my hands, tilting it so I could see the bruising near his left eye.

“Whoa, Dako?—”

“What the fuck happened? Did somebody do this to you? Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere else?”

Images flashed through my head, of Reese’s body covered in ugly bruises, and anger exploded through me.

Reese grabbed my wrists to stop me from going any lower—I wanted to check his entire body—and squeezed while staring upat me. I couldn’t stop looking at the bruise, and a hard knot was forming in my stomach.

“Dakota,” Reese said softly.

Fuck, my name on his lips—said with such soft affection—was the most perfect thing I’d ever heard.

I brushed his hair back, taking in the whole size of the bruise. Purple and gray were at the center, right by the corner of his eye, fading into green and then red. It wasn’t very big at all, maybe the size of a dime, but it must’ve hurt.

Had he iced it? Had he done anything to take care of it? He needed something, he needed?—

“Dakota!” Reese said, louder. He gripped my jaw in one hand and held me still so he could catch my gaze. His eyes were dark green and brown, the freckles in his left one barely visible. They were so fucking pretty. Where was the gold?

Who the fuck had hurt him?

“Who did that to you?” I rasped, holding his hair away from the bruise. “Reese, what the fuck happened?”

He was looking at me with a strange expression, brows drawn together as he chewed on his bottom lip. I slid my fingers down his cheek—so damn soft—and tugged his lip free from those vicious little teeth. “Don’t do that, you’re gonna make yourself bleed,” I said, slowly trailing my thumb along the plump flesh. He grabbed my hand and pulled it away from his face but didn’t let go.

“Nobody did this to me, I bumped into a door frame,” he said, lowering his gaze to my chest. “Just leave it alone, Dakota, I’m fine.”

Frustration burst through me. “You’re notfine! You look like you got punched in the face!” Just saying the words brought more anger to the surface, and my chest started heaving as I stared at the ugly evidence of him getting hurt.

And where was I? Fucking around, texting him nonsensical shit and waiting at the dorm like a damn puppy for him. Was this why he hadn’t come back? Was he hurt somewhere else and just didn’t want to tell me?

“Are you hurt anywhere else? I swear to god, if you lie to me I’ll just strip you down right here, right fucking now, and check every inch of you myself, so tell me the truth,” I said, setting my hand under his jaw and leaning down until we were eye to eye.

Reese’s lips parted in surprise as he stared into my eyes. Red bloomed across his cheeks, and his pupils dilated as he breathed raggedly.

I was being utterly batshit, out of my mind with worry, and I didn’t fucking care.

I needed to know he was okay.

“You’d strip me down in public?” he finally said. His voice sounded lower. Huskier. “If you thought I was lying, you’d take all my clothes off right here, right fucking now?”

“I…” Had I really just said that? What was wrong with me? “Um, I wouldn’t…”

Reese stepped closer, his tongue darting out to moisten his lips as he stared avidly into my eyes. There was gold in all that green and brown now, like he was suddenly sparking to life right in front of me.

“No, don’t do that. You said it. In fact, youthreatenedme with it. And you sounded pretty committed. So? You’d rip all my clothes off right here if I lied to you?” His voice was a purr now, a melodic, throaty thing that wound its way deep into my mind. It hummed beneath my skin and burned across every nerve ending until I couldn’t even think properly.

“Yeah,” I said, swallowing against the sudden dryness in my throat. I wasn’t entirely sure what we were talking about anymore. “I’d rip all your clothes off.”

Reese tilted his head a fraction until the tips of our noses brushed together. His eyes were all I could see, all that existed right now.

“How will you know I’m lying?” he whispered, his warm breath fanning across my lips.

“Because,” I whispered back. “You always lie. You have a mean little lying mouth.”

I saw his face change infinitesimally as he started to smile, and oh, fuck?—