As the minutes ticked by, she inched closer to me on the couch. I sure as hell didn’t do the inching, because I didn’t want her. The girl I wanted was the one girl I’d never have again, because of the asshole across from me. No matter what I did, I’d always be the bad guy. Me playing into Dean’s hand right now? That was me being bad.
Some guys liked being bad. Some guys it came to naturally. Me? Most of the time I didn’t care, but here and now…I cared. I cared too much. I cared so much I wanted to be the good guy, which I wasn’t. That had to say something about me, about this fucked-up situation.
Kiera’s blonde hair was tousled over her shoulder, its lengths long and wavy. The perfect hair to run your fingers through, it was true. If I closed my eyes and tried harder, I could imagine that hair was Kelsey’s kinky brown mess.
“Come on, dude,” Dean suddenly spoke over the music, causing both me and Kiera to stare at him. The girl hanging on his side had curled against his chest. “Why don’t you just be a man and kiss her?”
Kiera’s cheeks turned red, and her eyes widened as she glanced to me. Maybe she’d had a bit to drink, or maybe she just found me attractive. Either way, she whispered, “I’d be okay with that. I mean, just a kiss, right?”
I didn’t know whether that was her way of hinting at more or not. I didn’t read people well enough, I guess.
As my hand brushed the side of her cheek, feeling her warm, flushed skin under mine, I couldn’t stop my mind from thinking: this is wrong. I don’t want to kiss her. There’s only one set of lips I want, but I fucked it all up. I’d never get the one I wanted.
Her lips were puckered by the time they met mine, and it just didn’t feel right. Me and Kiera—didn’t even sound right in my head. It felt like all those times I kissed Mel; it felt like a lie. And if it felt like a lie, it probably looked like a lie, too.
No, I needed Dean to believe this, to believe me. I needed him to think that Kelsey meant nothing to me, or else he might still go after her.
So I kissed Kiera harder. Moved a hand to her neck and held her close. Pushed my tongue into her mouth and gave it my all.
It was then I heard Dean start to laugh, and I slowly pulled myself away from Kiera when he said, “What the hell? This is perfect. Too fucking perfect.” To the girl leaning on him, he whispered, “You really just can’t make this shit up.”
An angry girl stood near the couch, her full lips puckered into a familiar frown. Kelsey. I immediately wanted to get up, to take my arm off Kiera’s shoulders, but I stopped myself. If I jumped at her right now, if I tried to tell her this wasn’t what it looked like, it’d only prove Dean right.
“Looking for a new dick to suck?” Dean asked Kelsey, causing the girl beside him to roll her eyes. Still, she didn’t distance herself from him. Dean had her wrapped around his finger.
Kelsey didn’t bat an eyelash at his blunt question. “Actually, I am,” she said, and a knot formed in my stomach. A knot that made me want to get up and pull her from the room. “Know any takers?”
Dean chuckled, but I could tell by the chuckle’s curtness that he hadn’t expected her to say that. I glared at her, trying to tell her to leave, to convince her that this was not a good idea. I didn’t think of myself a jealous guy, but hearing the mere mention of another guy’s dick made my teeth grind.
“Here’s the kicker, though,” Kelsey went on. “I’m going to give it to a guy that has someplace we can go. I’m not getting naked in this house again.” That was leveled at me, and Kiera wasn’t quite like the girl near Dean; she slowly got up, leaving me alone on the couch, not wanting to be a part of this.
The pretty enough girl with the pretty enough name knew when to step aside.
Grady, a freshman who was so not Kelsey’s type—and by that I meant he wasn’t me—had suddenly appeared near her. His blonde hair was cut short, his green eyes wide as he checked her out. “I have a car,” he offered, “if you’re serious.”
Kelsey sized him up, blatant in the way she looked him up and down. She must’ve decided he was up to her standards, for she said, “It totally counts, Blue. Let’s go.” She hooked her arm in his, ignoring his my name is Grady statement.
Blue? She couldn’t call him Blue. She called me Blue. Me. No one else. That nickname was reserved for me. That fucker’s eyes weren’t even blue like mine. The nickname literally made no sense when she called Grady it—but then again, maybe that was the point. Maybe she’d done it simply to rile me up.
If so, she got her wish. I was sufficiently riled up.
I got even more riled up when I watched her and Grady leave the house through the front door, leaning forward on the couch as if I was going to follow them. I couldn’t. I couldn’t follow them…but if I didn’t, if I let them go, would she really hook up with him? Would those lips wrap around Grady’s dick? The mere thought sent me tumbling down the rabbit hole of rage I knew I’d never escape from, not when she so easily flaunted her ability to pounce and bound from guy to guy.
Dean grinned at me. “You want
