I laughed, a bitter, cackling sound. “I thought I'd won,” I muttered to myself, shaking my head. Slamming my open palms against my head, I yelled my frustration. “God, I'm an idiot!”
I genuinely thought he'd given in that night, heard the plea in my words and backed off, like the gentleman he was not. But no, he hadn’t finished messing with me just yet. And what was his endgame? Get in Riley’s pants? Was that his goal now that Leon was no longer an issue? He could spout bullshit about wanting more, but really, he wanted to screw me. That’s what it came down to and I knew it.
“Whoa! I'm not about to stand here and listen to you talk shit about my best friend if that's what you're thinking, so calm the hell down, back the eff up, and kindly tell me what the hell has been going on.” Sympathy shone from her narrowed blue eyes.
“I don't know,” I said, inhaling resignedly. “I don't know what I've gotten myself into.”
Defeated. I sounded defeated.
I groaned out loud, slipping into the nearest empty classroom and planting my ass down on a hard plastic chair. “Goddammit.”
Dragging a chair behind her noisily, she fixed it into place and sank down opposite me. “I know what this is. Don't let him do this to you.”
“I'm trying, believe me. I stupidly thought we'd called a truce to this... this… whatever it is. I don’t even know anymore. But now he's pulling this shit.”
Liss eyed me, thoughtfully. “And by this shit, I assume you’re referring to him practically dry-humping Raya at the lunch table, yes?” I felt my jaw clench. She just nodded. “Spill.”
I sat silently for a minute, my body still thrumming with agitation. Reno had upped the ante. He was letting me know he’d decide when he was ready to end our game, and that he didn't plan on playing fair. No, he planned on using the dirtiest tactics available to him in order to get his way. Liss raised perfect, sandy brows a fraction, inviting me to hit her with it. She was a safe place, a place of trust. It was me I couldn't trust.
I blew out a heavy breath. “Reno kissed me.”
Her head dipped in quiet understanding. “Ah.”
Lowering my gaze, I took a moment to consider my next words. I’d gagged and bound my feelings, tossed them in a trash bag, and dumped them in a shallow grave, where I stupidly thought they'd go undiscovered.
Spoiler alert: they did not. I had no plan for what to do with them now, and I couldn't seem to figure out how to stop them.
“Fine. I know you're dying to.” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “So why don't you explain it to me.”
Tilting her lips to stifle a grin, she clasped her hands together, knocking them against the tabletop. “Okay, so don't kill me.” She paused. I glared. “But you might be the only person in the whole school who's surprised that Reno kissed you. And that includes Leon. And Raya, which is why she hates you so much.”
My eyes slid shut. Why did people keep saying this to me? Making out like Reno and I were a forgone conclusion—some foretold fairy tale—instead of the path to my complete destruction. And by fairy tale, I meant the Grimm brothers variety. Foretold or not, no sane person would seriously think this would ever be an actual love story with cute singing dwarves, sparkly glass slippers and a shiny, happy ending. Ours would be a twisted, cautionary tale. Either way, though, screw that for a laugh. Reno and I weren't meant-to-be, or fated, or any other variation of that bull. This was lust, plain and simple. Unwanted, a little perverse, hugely inconvenient, but whatever. Ultimately, it was goddamn manageable. I could fix it. I could make it go away.
“Fine, oh wise one,” I said on a growl. “Tell me what to do? How do I get myself out of it? Like, stop him invading my head or whatever. Do I get under someone else, do I have to just wait it out or... what... why are you looking at me like that?”
She tucked her bottom lip under her teeth to hide a smirk as I pinned my narrowed eyes on her. “You think you can? Get out of it, that is?”
My brows drew down as I levelled her with a look of total incredulity, one that silently queried whether she was certifiably crazy for asking such a question. “Oh my god, one hundred percent yes! I don't, I mean, it's not an option. I don't... Jesus... I don't want this.”
She whistled low, shaking her head without even trying to hide her self-righteous smirk. Man, I wanted to peel it off and give her a little slap with it.
“Wow, Ri, you lie to yourself so convincingly I might even consider believing you. If I hadn't just witnessed you strangling the shit out of a plastic bottle while imagining it was Raya Mitchell's throat. Your lies are decent, girl, but your knuckles are white and your poker face? Well, that's just fucking atrocious. Reno is back there rubbing his damn hands together.”
Launching to my feet, I speared her with a frosty stare and spread my arms wide. “Oh my God! How the hell is that helping me, Liss? You are the fucking worst!” Her laugh almost pushed me over the edge. “It's not freaking funny! How the hell do I stop him from getting to me? I can't spend every lunch time caring that he's molesting Slutty McSlutson and throttling my water bottle, I'll frickin'... I don't know... implode, or at the very least dehydrate!”
Her attempts to sober herself had me grinding my teeth. “You know, you're being super fucking unhelpful, by the way. I expected more from you.”
Clearing her throat dramatically, her face pinched tight as if it pained her not to laugh at my joke of a life, she said, “Okay, okay. But seriously, what do you expect? You're giving him exactly what he wants, playing right into his hands. Duh.”
“What?” I snapped.
“You are his biggest challenge, Ri! How do you not see this? He basically feeds off the attention you give him, always has. You know that, right?” She threw her head back at my blank expression. “How did you two leave things, you know, last time you did... whatever it is you do?”
My mouth dropped open as I gaped at her. “We don't do anything. I mean, yeah, we have these… interactions where we antagonize each other or whatever, but this isn't a thing. He kissed me. Without permission. Once. As in one-time event, never happening again, leave me the hell alone or I'll tear off your balls and present them to Old Man Hammersmith's Rottweiler as a chew toy.”
A sardonic brow lifted. “In other words, you presented a giant red flag to an angry as fuck bull who's never heard the word no before? One who's already borderline obsessed with you. And don't give me that look, like I'm talking out of my ass. You know this. Everyone knows this.”
My mouth flopped open and closed like a fish, before I slapped a hand to my head and sank back down. “I know we have this weird need to rile each other but that’s as far as it goes. I seriously begged him to back off. I didn't think he'd see that as a challenge.”
“Well, he did. And he’s pushing pretty hard for a reaction. She was riding him like a bronco. He did everything except stick his dick in that ho in front of the entire student body.” She quickly thrust a hand out to stop me when I shot out of my seat and scrunched my eyes closed. Her far too accurate recap of our lunchtime entertainment caused bile to rise in my throat and my nails to bite into my skin painfully. “But that show... was all for you, Riley babes. He might have had his hands all up in her junk, but you were all up in his head. Raya knew it, too. And for the love of God, Ri, it can’t be news to you that Maddox Renner has had the biggest boner for you since you outgrew your training bra and sprouted those little boobies! Have you seriously not realized that's the reason he can't leave you alone? He might have toned down his efforts when Leon was in the picture, but the chemistry between you two has always been damn near combustible. You can bet he’s coming at you all guns blazing now.”
The most mortifying thing about her words? How much they appeased me. The spark that had been a second from blowing as images of Reno and Raya replayed in my head, fizzled out like a faulty firework. The vomit climbing my throat receded like someone hit rewind. Her words left a warm fuzzy feeling that should have had me slapping some sense into myself. I shouldn't be hap
py I was in his head. I shouldn't relish the thought that when his hands were full of another girl's ass, it was mine he imagined, or be grateful for the validation that there was something between us. I shouldn’t be. I shouldn’t.
But I was.
I sighed heavily as my mind whirred. What if I want more? Clearing my head with a shake, I muttered with as much feigned disinterest and forced conviction as I could muster, “Yeah, well that still doesn't help me, does it?”
The bark of laughter that hit me had my eyes rolling to the back of my skull.
“Oh babe, you're practically purring like a little kitten now. Seems Reno isn't the only one who wants to play dirty, huh?” She curved a brow. “You’re in trouble.”
Awesome. Just effing awesome.
“You didn’t need to ask why it bothers me so much to see him with Raya, did you?”
She winked, mouth hitching up on one side as she clucked her tongue. “I don’t ask questions I already know the answer to. You think I don’t see you? You’re as clear as glass, Riley Mason.”
My eyes climbed up Liss’ face and landed on her knowing gaze. “Well, you saw more than I did.”
“We both know that’s not true.”
Deep down, I knew she was right… I’d always known it. It just used to be easier to convince myself otherwise.
Twelve
Riley
“You so much as think about putting those crab-infested hands on me and I will throat punch you so damn hard,” I warned, maintaining my stride as I paced down the hall.
Christ, I couldn’t catch a break. The one person I wanted to avoid, and everywhere I turned, there he was. Like a beautiful fucking nightmare.
“Jesus Christ, princess, Imma keep 'em right here, right where you can see 'em, 'kay?” The amusement in his voice had me teetering. It really did. Right on the edge of reason.
“Don't talk to me, don't follow me,” I muttered, head forward, feet carrying me away from him.
With zero warning, he lifted me off my feet fireman style. The screech that caught in my throat morphed into a grunt as my stomach came into contact with a beefy shoulder. A yelp of sheer indignation and outrage squeezed its way past the blockage when a big hand spanked my ass, though. I refused to address the spark of excitement his palm induced; that could shrivel up and die.
“You goddamn brute!” I screamed when I regained control of my voice box, my fists smacking down against his broad and infuriatingly solid back. He didn't even flinch.
“Put me down, Reno. Right fucking now!” I huffed and tried to swipe hair out of my face.
He laughed, swatting my ass again. God, I was legit going to cold-blood murder him. And not a soul could blame me, in fact, they'd marvel at my restraint this far.
“Dammit, put me down!”
He did. Planting me on my feet, he didn’t give me a split second to catch my breath before he backed me into the lockers. His hands caught my wrists and held them either side of my head. Every part of my body tensed. The logical side of my brain told me to fight, but the other part... had entirely different ideas. Caged in completely, my breaths came fast and heavy. Our eyes met and held. I saw his intentions shift the moment his gaze dropped to my lips, practically heard the band of my resistance snap when he rolled his groin into mine.
And then our lips fused. It wasn't pretty. It wasn’t soft. It was hard, bruising... punishing. I wanted him, but God, I wanted to hurt him so badly for making me want him so much. For making me feel so much. His grip on my wrists intensified as he pushed my arms up higher, forcing my body to arch into his. I couldn't think straight, couldn't take in a breath. He was all I could think, see, and feel. Our teeth clashed, tongues fighting for dominance. I might want him, but I'd never blindly follow his lead. I wouldn’t be some carbon copy of Raya Mitchell, sitting on his lap, obediently waiting for his next command like a good little show dog.
Oh my god, Raya!
What the hell am I doing?
He'd been sucking on her serpent tongue less than half an hour ago. He was probably transferring her diseased saliva into my mouth right now. Grappling free of his hold, I tore my lips from his and pushed him with every ounce of strength I possessed. His weight lifted from me slowly.
His darkened eyes met my furious ones.
“Get the hell off of me!”
His eye roll preceded a heavy sigh as he planted his thumbs on the lockers behind us for leverage and pushed himself off. He took a few steps back from me, chest still heaving, head bowed.
“What now?” he muttered, as if the idea that I might not want his dirty lips all over mine exasperated him.
I gaped at him. “Are you serious?”
He shrugged, brows raised. “You seemed to enjoy it, so what's the problem? You don't like having fun, that it?”
“Fun?” I repeated, dumbfounded.
He tilted his head, lifting his hand to rub the pad of his thumb over his kiss swollen bottom lip. Yeah, kissing half the school in the space of an hour would do that. Tramp. “Yes, Riley... fun.”
“That,” I spat, motioning between us with a flip of my hand, “was not fun.”
“It was something.”
“It was nothing! Nothing you don’t do with every other girl in the school. You only just took your tongue out of Raya's throat, for Christ’s sake! You going for a record today or something?”
“You weren’t paying close enough attention, sweetheart. I never kissed her.”
I hesitated briefly, mind flickering back, before I gave my head a vigorous shake, not wanting to revisit the scene to confirm or deny. It didn’t matter anyway. I might not have been able to stomach watching it all, but I could easily recall the memory of her straddling him, his hands all over her body and his tongue on her neck. The thought was enough to yank me back to the matter at hand and prompt me to state coolly, “I don’t care where your mouth was or wasn’t. This means nothing. You mean nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“Keep telling yourself that. We both know you’re lying. And we also know you're gonna head straight to the bathroom once we're done here to wring out those panties.”
Grinding my teeth, I pulled air in through my nose. “That where Raya Mitchell is right now? Changing her panties? Probably brings a backpack to school for the sole purpose of carrying around a stash of clean underwear, right? Because God knows you practically screw her trashy ass on the table for everyone to see every day.” I was going for disgusted, shaming even, but somehow my voice cracked and the hurt leaked out unbidden. Dammit.
I raised my jaw, not allowing myself to look weak.
Something flashed in his eyes, I could swear it looked like remorse, but then he pasted on that wicked smirk, quirked a brow, and it vanished, just like that.
“Jealousy got you all twisted up, huh? You don't want my hands on her, Ri? All you gotta do is say the words.”
I refused to do this with him. He might not be willing to throw in the towel, but I was. I couldn't keep playing these games with him. Somehow, somewhere along the way, I'd allowed my heart to enter the field. I was too vulnerable, too exposed. No matter how I played it, I'd lose. Now, it was about damage control. It already hurt to see him with her. If I gave him any more of myself, this pain would be the least of my problems.
Blowing out a breath, I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and dipped my head in his direction. “Sure, Reno. Whatever. I give in. You win.”
Pushing off the lockers, I started moving.
His hand gripped my arm. “Don't go.”
Throwing my arms up, I swung to face him, frustration twisting my features. “God, what do you want from me? Do you enjoy hurting me, is that it? You get off on it? On knowing you can touch parts of me that no one else can—” I broke off, slamming my lips together as both of our eyes widened at my words. Oh God.
I didn't say that! Please tell me I didn't say that out loud.
My back was against the locker again in a heartbeat. Reno pressed into me, victory shining
in his beautiful brown eyes and satisfaction practically oozing from his pores. But it was the possessive, hungry way his gaze scored into my features that caused me to choke on my next breath.
His voice was gruff, his breath brushing over my lips when he growled, “Damn fucking right.”
My eyes slid closed and my head rolled to the side. The cool metal of the locker caressed my flaming cheek, but Reno’s firm hands closed around my face and brought my head back to center. I had no plans on looking at him after what I'd just inadvertently admitted.
“Riley, look at me.”
I didn't react, not a damn twitch.
“Dammit, Riley. Look. At. Me.”
He breathed heavily, his voice laced with frustration, maybe even desperation, as his thumbs stroked over my cheekbones.
“Why the hell are you fighting this so damn hard?” he asked, his lips tracing my cheek. “I like you. You like me. What's the worst that could happen?”
My eyes snapped open with no instruction from my brain. I caught and held his dark gaze. Pure instinct drove my response.
“Everything.” The word broke from me with conviction.
It was his turn to close his eyes. His head dropped forward to lean against the metal door of the locker. His warm breath tickled the skin on my neck, and his coarse whiskers brushed against my cheek.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
My heart hammered, my chest rising and falling unevenly, matching his.
“Can I go, please?” I mumbled quietly.
Wagging his head in defeat, he moved back, releasing me. My feet ate up the ground, putting distance between us in case he decided to change his mind, but I couldn't outrun his voice, or his words. My steps halted before I could order them not to.
“We're not done here, Riley,” he declared to my back. “I won't let you run away from this because you're scared. I am coming for you... but I'll give you a minute to get used to the idea.”
My hands clenched. My heart rate soared.
Untouchable: (Unstoppable - Book 1) (The Unstoppable Series) Page 6
