I know it’s silly to even say that—the guy was a stranger when I met him—but we connected that day and I hate to admit it, but the truth is, I fell in love with him that day.
Pain flitters through me, making my muscles and my bones ache. And now, all I want to do is get away from him. I won’t subject myself to another night of being terrorized by him when even in my dreams he’s there, tormenting me.
“For Pete’s sake, I didn’t do anything to your brother!” I almost yell, trying to push him away from me. “Let me go, damn you.”
“You want me to let you go?” he spits out.
“Yes!”
“Because you did nothing wrong, huh?” he growls. “You’re an innocent little bitch.”
“I didn’t hurt him intentionally. It was an accident!” I counter but I’m not talking about Liam right now. I’m talking about Aiden. “Julian, I didn’t know—”
“Don’t fucking say my name,” he grits out, almost making me jump. I fist my hands at his sides, clutching his jacket like my life depends on it. We stare at each other as a familiar hum of electricity charges between us.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” I repeat, my voice now low and soft. I need him to understand this. For my sake.
“But you did, damn you,” he groans, and my belly flutters with that tersely worded groan of pain. “You fucking hurt him!”
I don’t know what to say to that.
I know Aiden’s death is still so damn fresh and I have this sinking suspicion that Julian, or Liam for that matter, hasn’t grieved for him yet and I know a lot of his anger is still buried deep within.
I’ve seen him play football from afar, thrilling an entire crowd of supporters with the way his athletic body moves on the field. I’ve witnessed the way he puts his all on the field. I’ve seen his skill, the way he moves like a well-oiled machine. The way he takes down his opponents with a singular task in mind, to destroy and to win.
Over the past three years, I’ve gotten glimpses of him here and there, and all I ever saw was anger and pain—something akin to what I’m seeing now. Something close to what I feel now.
His probing gaze searches mine, but I remain silent. After a few seconds, the pain in my chest becomes unbearable so I look away, but he growls his displeasure at that move, then with his other hand, he wraps it around my waist, harshly bring my lower body to collide with his.
And now… I can feel his thick, pulsing hardness at my stomach.
I suck in a harsh breath, as sharp arousal that I’ve been trying to avoid shoots straight down to my pussy in a flash. It’s more than an electric charge, it’s like bolts of electricity laced with wanton need has just zapped my pussy and now I’m hyperaware of him…of his hard cock right there.
“Anything you fucking want to say?” he growls, knowing exactly what he’s doing to me.
Okay. This is a mindfuck game. I’m a master at mindfuck games. I can do this.
“Your little brother deserved every word I said,” I seethe, going on the offensive. “And no matter what you might think of me, I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“It didn’t look like that when you bitch slapped him for hurting your little feelings,” he almost whispers. “Ladies don’t do that, they use their pretty words, but then you by-passed all that shit and decided to come for him, violently, because he just told you about your…issues.”
“My issues, huh?” I smile but it’s ugly and jagged, I wince internally. Somehow, this guy brings out the ugly in me. Both him and his brother, actually. “Yeah, let’s talk about issues.”
“Enlighten me.”
“First of all, the women in my family are none of his business. Calling me names is one thing but my mother and aunt—” I stop to gather myself. He just watches me with an impassive look on his face like he doesn’t understand what I’m saying. It’s freaking annoying. “The fact that he can bad-mouth them like he’s trying to somehow curse his own mother, that’s an issue.”
“Careful with what you fucking say,” he grits out, but I continue like I didn’t hear him at all.
“He’s got mommy issues.” I smirk. “And it’s not my fault your brother has…issues.” I drop my voice to a whisper, making sure that Liam doesn’t hear us, “But let’s be honest here, Julian.”
I roll his name off my tongue like a caress dipped in honey, then douse that shit in gasoline and light it up.
“Judging by your out of whack, cavemen tendencies, I bet those issues come from you.” I hold his gaze, pretending to be bold, yet I know deep down I’m throwing rocks at a sleeping monster. “You know, since you’re older and shittier, you must have made quite an impression on him if he has to come insult a girl over a nonexistent parking spot in the woods.”
That makes him livid.
“You don’t know anything about my brother.” His voice is lower than before, making shivers run down my spine. “And you certainly don’t know anything about me. You have a shitty habit of running your mouth at the worst times. Here’s some fucking free advice, have it stapled shut if you don’t know when to shut up. You don’t know shit!”
So why am I so attuned to you on some level?
“Newsflash, asshole, I don’t want to know you. I want you to take your hands off me and get lost.” I breathe. “The world doesn’t belong to you.”
For some reason, the corners of his lips twitch as if he’s about to smile.
“I thought a self-centered bully like you would be more original with your insults,” he mocks. It’s then that I remember that I said the exact same thing to him three years ago.
“Or maybe you never matured from that angry, pissed off boy. But just so you know, it’s still true. The world doesn’t belong to you.”
“The world, no.” He steps impossibly closer, out bodies practically glued together at this point. “But you are, and you know you’ve always been mine.”
I gasp, rendered speechless. What does that mean?
“Now, be a lady and use that pretty mouth to apologize.”
“I’m not apologizing to your attention seeking brother. He needs a hug from mommy dearest. And quite frankly, so do you.”
We stare at each other for a long second. I have this uncanny feeling that he can’t decide whether or not to rip my head off my shoulders or fuck me silly. Either way, I stay still, not wanting to push him any further than I have already.
“My brother was right. You are violent and brainless,” Julian scolds, and for some reason, coming from him, that stings more than it did coming from his brother. “You made a fucking mistake when you touched my brother.”
“So, what he said to me first, over a damn parking spot, was alright, but when the tables turn and I stand up for myself, you’ve got a hand around my throat?” I scoff. “I wonder where the violence is.”
In a heartbeat, his body large body rests fully over mine, crushing me to the tree. For a moment, I can’t breathe.
I start clawing at him, but he grabs both my hands with one hand, stretching me until he pins them above my head. Then he lets go of my neck, snaking his other hand into my hair, he grabs hold of it around his fist then tugs, forcefully tilting my neck to the side, then in a stunning moved that has me gasping for breath, he bites down, hard, then thrusts his hard-on into my core.
I moan so loud I’m afraid people can hear me.
“Violence is what happens when someone has the guts to touch my brother in defiance or anger,” Julian growls in my ear next, then sucks on the spot he just bit. As I shiver and melt into a pile of nothing, he lets go of my hair, wrapping that arm around my waist, leaning all my weight against him instead of the tree.
Then he starts sucking, laving, and soothing the hurt.
Holy shit.
He’s leaving his mark on me. Giving me my first hickey.
Liquid heat pools in between my legs. My knees grow weak, but he’s not done. He kicks my feet apart, then he rests his pulsing, hard erection at my very core. We fit so snugly, so perfect that I moan
in his ear, then accidentally bite his lobe. He groans and I feel it all the way to my toes, then he grinds his cock at my core in one delicious, toe curling roll…again.
I swear, I almost come right there and then.
His nose starts running along my neck, smelling me, and without warning, his thumb slips into my mouth.
Instead of biting, I look up and hold his challenging gaze. I know what he thinks of me. I know he thinks I won’t do it, but I want to prove him wrong, just like I wanted him to see me as older than I was three years ago.
So, without a second thought, I start sucking his thumb, with an illicit image of me sucking and blowing him so clear in my head, I grow even wetter.
What the fuck is going on? Where is all of this coming from?
“You’re nothing but a puppet, that’s what’s going on,” he groans.
Pain slices my insides, masking the hurt in my eyes. So, I do what any depraved puppet does, I bite his thumb, but all he does is chuckle low in his chest.
“There’s that violent Little Minx.” He watches me, his eyes as cold and indifferent as ever, as if what’s happening between us doesn’t matter to him. “Violence is me when I destroy you for doing just that.”
I freeze, the threat in his voice so damn real, I can taste it on my tongue, can feel it in my bones.
He’s not joking.
“You wouldn’t dare!” I gasp out.
He hikes up my leg, the skirt I’m wearing bunches up, then he grinds his hard on into me with a delicious roll of his hips. I moan again, my eyes rolling back in their sockets.
What the hell is happening between us? This isn’t normal.
“I think you and I both know I would dare, Little Minx.” The vibrations of his chest move into me and the next thing, I can feel his hand flexing around my neck again.
“Let go of me,” I demand, but it’s weak and not real. My body has never been so alive like this before. I’ve never been so charged, so wanton and so damn angry at the same time.
“J.” A voice breaks the tense energy between us and just like that, Julian steps back, the hunger that was in his eyes now masked behind the same darkness as before.
I look over his shoulder and notice Liam and Julian’s incredibly handsome, sexy best friend that stood next to him silently watching two years ago, smirking at the way Julian and I were shouting at each other. His name’s Cole, I think. Both of them are standing there, amused expressions on their faces.
“We’ve got TMZ wanna be paps coming closer. Leave the nice girl be,” Cole says, but Julian just watches me, not saying a word.
“Let them see what happens when you’re a lying shit who’s looking to get our attention,” Julian says to them, but I know he’s talking me.
“I wasn’t looking for your damn attention.” I roll eyes. “You’re not all that.”
They were, but that’s not the fucking point. I don’t give a damn about them other than the fact that they royally pissed me off.
Liam throws his head back and starts laughing, shaking his head as a group of people break away from the crowd, but I can’t see where they are going. “Seriously, J. We can deal with her later. After all, we now have enough time.”
I don’t know what Liam is talking about, but I swear, I can hear worry in his voice as he looks at his brother. But all Julian does is sigh silently, like a powerful force that can’t be moved.
“Don’t you have something to say?” Julian demands again, the stirrings of lust playing the chords between us.
“I’m not brainless,” I counter, unable to hide the hurt in my voice. His nostrils flare, watching me, like my pain affects him, but I know better.
“No, you’re not, so quit acting like it,” he growls in my ear, making me frown. “Now apologize.”
“No.”
“Tread carefully, little minx,” Julian mutters, his jaw locked. “You’re walking a thin rope.”
“I’m not apologizing, and your brother should know better than to talk about my family like he knows us.”
The anger is back and in full swing. My chest twists as my heart pounds like it’s on the verge of exploding.
“You can talk a big game about destroying me and all that shit,” I start, noticing from the corner of my eye as the crowd starts closing in on us, but this is between me and the brothers. “But if you ever threaten my family, I’ll come for you.”
Liam starts laughing then. Even Cole, who I think is the silent sexy storm among the three of them, looks down, as if trying to hide his smile but Julian doesn’t react in any way other than stepping closer to me, like he’s drawn to me or something.
“Let me go,” I try again, proud of myself when my voice comes out strong, not as shaky and disturbed as I’m feeling inside.
“I said, don’t you have something to say?”
“No, now get your filthy hands off of me,” I demand.
He squeezes his hand around my throat just a tiny bit, making my heart pound so hard in my chest, I’m sure he can feel it. I can feel everyone’s eyes on us. I can see phones recording from the corner of my eye, but no one dares to move or say something to defend me. Or help me.
“They won’t dare come here,” Julian whispers in my ear, making me shiver. “They know you dug your own fucking grave the moment you touched my brother.”
“I didn’t even start with your stupid brother—” I start but he cuts me off.
“And bad mouthing him isn’t making your shit situation any better, Little Minx.”
I still in my shoes, my entire body tensing the moment he growls that pet name in my ear.
All I want to do is get away from him, he’s twisting my insides, confusing the hell out of me in just a few clipped words.
We stare at each other, it feels like he’s pulling me into his current, his turbulent flow and I’m just trying to hold on to my soul the best way I can.
Julian brings a lone, calloused finger to my cheek, his other hand still wrapped around my neck. With a finesse I would never think he possessed, he caresses my cheek, still looking deep in my eyes. Then he leans in to whisper in my ear again.
“At least I have someone that actually fights for me.” He bites my ear lobe and I cry out, but he doesn’t care. “What about you? Who fights for you, little minx?”
But before I can say anything—not that I even have a comeback for that—he lets go of me like I just burnt him, then steps away.
Like he wasn’t just hot and heavy with me, like I don’t even matter at all, he turns around, has a silent exchange with his brother and then walks away like he didn’t just mess me up.
I’m left standing there, feeling oddly bereft, knowing that my heart was just stolen by a guy that hates my guts for reasons I don’t know.
13
“Shit, you wanted our attention, baby. Now you’re really going to get it. And it’s not going to be as rosy as you thought.” Liam whistles, a wolfish smile back on his face. “You know he’s going to hunt you down, right?”
I ignore him as well as the burning of her gaze on my back and keep going, as Cole walks in step with me, eyeing me.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” he questions, as we go. His voice low.
“Yeah,” I grunt, needing a beer, and well, a tight pussy. That shit was insane. Her fucking gorgeous aquamarine eyes just sucked me in and the next thing I know, I’m overcome with the urge to claim her.
All over again.
“But she seemed clueless,” I point out as Liam comes to my right.
“You think?” he demands, looking back. “Or maybe she played you. She’s a fantastic actress, can fool with your fucking mind. Maybe just like her fucking aunt or mother, whoever Dad’s about to mess with.”
She used to be so easy to read. Now, it’s all fucked up.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” I counter.
Her tantalizing scent clings to my clothes, to my skin. Her sweet arousal mixed with the same sexy perfume she wore three years ago clinging
to me like she just imprinted herself on me. All over again.
Fuck!
“I don’t like this.” Liam shakes his head. “You do know that Mia Montague is one of the queen bitches at Clintwood, right?”
I know everything there is to know about her, and still, I feel like I know nothing at the same time.
“Even more fun to take her little rusty crown away.” I assure him. Throwing my arm around his shoulders, I pull his head down to my chest and start messing with his hair. He hates it when I do that, but I know better. He secretly adores it.
“Dude, stop it!” Liam complains with a grunt. “It took me more than a minute to style this shit.”
“More like four hours, beauty queen.” Cole chuckles, shaking his head. “Didn’t you do that face mask thing too?”
“I didn’t.”
“You went shopping with Mom for that shit,” I counter, adding wood to the fire, watching as Liam’s cheeks redden.
“Fuck you, J,” he mumbles, making Cole and I laugh. “It isn’t a crime for a man to want to look his best.”
“Sure, by all means, look your best, she’s still going to break your fucking broken heart,” I say and Cole laughs.
“For your own info, I’ve got game. Girls flock by the dozen for me.” Liam smirks. “Whoever told you that skincare is a feminine thing only, lied to you two dickheads.”
“Oh?” Cole starts, titling his head to the left, trying hard not to laugh. “Does that also apply to changing outfits at least three times with panic in your eyes? Is that for your flock or it’s not just a feminine thing?”
“His flock by the dozen,” I add, winking at Liam.
“Shit, we can’t forget that part, J,” Cole adds, and I nod solemnly.
“It would be blasphemy to omit the words from the Great All-Things-Feminine Oracle himself,” I say, and we burst out laughing.
“Fuck you, assholes!’ Liam chuckles, shaking his head.
“But really, dude, you saw her, didn’t you?” Cole looks around at the crowd watching us, as if he knows who he’s looking for. “Where is she?”
“Who is she, is the question we should be focused on,” I murmur, catching a number of girls watching us. It could potentially be anyone.
Devious Kisses: A Bully Enemies -To-Lovers Romance (It's Just High School Book 1) Page 18
