“How about I call your bluff,” he says, loosening his grip as both his hands move to my waist.
I’m holding my breath, and the only thought in my head is a memory of his delicious mouth. Even now, I remember its heat, imagining it moving over my skin.
“I’m an ass,” he admits with an air of honesty I don’t miss. “And I’ve wanted you since day one.” He’s challenging me, throwing my dare right back in my face.
“West, I…”
“Don’t feed me that bull about all the shit I’ve done,” he groans against my ear, “because the things I’ve done would only hurt someone normal. And own it, Southside. We’re both pretty fucking far from normal.”
I have serious concerns that my heart might actually beat out of my chest. The music seems louder, echoing inside my bones as he holds me against him.
“Sticks and stones can’t break us. Because, you and me … we’re already broken.”
My eyes fall shut when he summarizes the entire script of my life with that one statement. It leaves me feeling bare, like he and I are one in the same. Only, we can’t be.
I mean … right?
He’s insane and I’m …
Damn, maybe I’m insane, too. I must be to let him get inside my head like this. To let him touch me like this.
At this very moment, something clicks. I get what it is about him, why I get revved up whenever he steps foot in my direction. He draws out the numbness, the mental Novocain that’s helped me get through all the pain and bullshit. He makes me face it all. Makes me feel it all. He doesn’t let me hide behind the crumbling wall made up of the half-cocked ‘everything will be okay’ and ‘it’ll get better’ rhetoric the rest of the world feeds me. West forces me to see the truth, that life really is a shitshow, and he’s the one person not afraid to admit that. Not afraid to live that.
If he weren’t so sick in the head, I might consider this an honorable trait. But instead, I see him becoming my crutch. The thing I lean on to feel real.
Even if all he makes me feel is his darkness.
His touch has become familiar. My skin knows it well. His palm splays flat across my stomach and I’m melting into him as it rises higher, until his thumb brushes the wire under my bra. I’m certain I’ll disappear if I give in to what I want.
“Come with me, Southside. This is my second and final offer. There won’t be a third,” he warns
I stumble before catching my balance when he backs away, leaving me to stand on my own. My eyes chase after him, following as he disappears in the shadows of a mausoleum that looks to be as old as this cemetery.
I glance at Lexi and consider shooting her a text, but my focus is on the dark space where West just disappeared, and … I can’t fight it.
I follow the devil right into the unknown.
Chapter 31
WEST
Her silhouette darkens the doorway and I’m actually shocked she came. If she were any other girl, I could’ve staked my life on her accepting that invitation, but not Southside.
This girl … I can’t pin her down.
Smiling, I call out to her when she hesitates. “Get your ass over here.”
She doesn’t move, but folds both arms across her chest instead. “Say please,” she teases, but I’ve had about all I can stand and take large strides forward, drawing her right into a kiss.
She leans to the side when I push my hand along the smooth skin of her neck. The throb of her pulse hammering against my fingertips causes mine to race, too.
What is it about her? I’ve never met anyone who makes me break my own rules, makes me forget all the things I should hate about her. Even if only temporarily.
I’m pulled from thought when her soft hands push up my back, then latch onto my shoulder blades. I hate clingy chicks, but for some reason, this isn’t so bad. Not even with her holding me so tight that I can feel she needs someone. I guess, for tonight, I’m that someone.
There’s this frustrating sense of being too close and not being close enough, but I know which of those conflicting sentiments is controlling me, taking over my soul more with every second.
A sharp breath surges into her nostrils when I lift her onto a raised, cement slab. I’ll tell her later it’s some dead bastard’s tomb, but for now, I settle between the softness of her thighs and drag the straps of her dress and bra down her arm. Goosebumps texture her skin where I kiss a trail down her neck to her shoulder. I want her so bad I can fucking taste it. No way she doesn’t feel that.
I draw her to the edge by her waist and she snatches off the headpiece to my costume. Throwing it aside, her fingers push through my hair, gripping it tight.
Tugging the dress a little lower, I kiss the soft flesh of her tits until the material falls away and exposes more. First, my lips softly graze over her nipple, but when I tease it with my tongue, the bud of flesh tightens and I draw it into my mouth.
“Shit, West.”
Her breathy plea makes it even harder not to rush things forward. More so when that tight body of hers arches toward mine. I make myself release her, placing both hands on the edge of the slab
