He was still smiling, and suddenly leaned in closer, so that our faces were inches apart. My breathing sped as I smelled his sweet cologne. I could almost taste it on my tongue and I instantly wanted more. Unconsciously, I leaned my head a tiny fraction in his direction, and he chuckled before sliding off the desk.
“She wants me,” I heard him murmur to one of his friends as he approached his own desk and gracefully sat down. My jaw dropped and I stared after him with narrowed eyes, feeling both frustrated and flustered.
So this was Kane Richards.
3. FAVOUR
Suranne
“What the hell was that?!” Kate asked leaning against her locker as I put my books in the one newly allocated to me. The locker door was obscuring her face so I couldn’t see her expression, but she sounded annoyed.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“You weren’t supposed to speak to him,” she snapped as I shut the locker door and peeked at her face. I was right. She was annoyed.
“I couldn’t just ignore him, Kate; that’s not how I was raised.” I sighed, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose with my forefinger and thumb. His sweet smell was still overpowering my senses and I was starting to get a migraine.
“Yeah, well, you know, Suranne, when it comes to—” Her voice was cut short by someone clearing their throat. “Hey babe, could you do me a favour?” The delectably smooth, deep voice rang in my ears. I stiffened and at once was engulfed in that luscious smell of Kane Richards’s cologne.
“Err . . . sure,” I heard Kate answer breathlessly and opened my eyes to glare at her. Here she was snapping at me when she’s drooling over him just the same. Hypocritical or what? Kane raised an eyebrow at Kate whilst she stared wide-eyed at him.
“Move,” he said, like the answer was stupidly obvious and this time I turned to glare at Kane. How could girls be dim-witted enough to like this guy? He spoke to them like they were pieces of dirt. Kate just stood there dumbfounded for a second before her cheeks went red and she stared at the floor.
“Sure,” she mumbled, trudging off. I could commiserate with how she felt and stared at her back retreating down the hallway. Once again I heard Kane clearing his throat. I took a deep breath and turned back to him.
Whoa . . .
He was standing much closer than I expected; his arm stretched above our heads, resting his palm on the roof of my locker, whilst his other hand was tucked in his jeans pocket. His head was slightly ducked and his thick black eyelashes were casting long shadows across his cheekbones. His lips were parted as he slowly eyed my body from the waist upwards before curving up into a smile.
“You know, that wasn’t very nice. Do you have any respect for girls at all?”
He shrugged lightly, his eyes still moving up my body. They lingered at my neck and his smile grew wider. “Sure I do, but she was in my way so . . .” he trailed off as his eyes reached my face, slowly travelling up until they finally reached my eyes.
“What do you want?” I demanded. His presence was messing with my mind and I was beginning to become flustered, with his aroma swirling around me and his silky voice hugging my eardrums. I needed some air, and fast.
He leaned his face even closer to mine, and licked his bottom lip ever so slightly before grazing it with his teeth. “I need a favour,” he murmured, his breath fanning across my face, his musical voice dominating my mind.
This wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought.
“What could I possibly give you that no one else can?”
He chuckled and glanced down at my body again, shrugging his eyebrows rather suggestively. “Well . . .” he started before I interrupted him.
“If you’re after sex you can forget it. I’ve only been here a day and I can pretty much figure out the type of guy you are,” I said through clenched teeth, remembering the girl who stood next to him when he was sitting at my desk. I mean he couldn’t even remember her name! No way was I going to be one of those girls. Kate was right. I should just ignore him.
I stood there waiting for his comeback or an egotistical comment of some kind about how I would regret it but he didn’t say a word. He just continued to stare at me, his light brown eyes seeming to be calculating something.
“OK, then.” He lowered his arm and strolled down the corridor. I stared after him, my mind blank. Is that it? Just “OK, then?” What does that mean? Was that really what he was after? Sex?
I huffed angrily and headed for the canteen to look for Kate. My eyes roamed over the various tables, but I spotted Kane first, already seated with his perfectly toned arm around some straight-haired brunette, smiling at him like she had just won the lottery. I looked around the room again and mercifully spotted Kate sitting at a table. I quickly joined her and slung my bag on the floor.
“Hey,” she muttered quietly, she seemed a little glum.
“Hey,” I replied back in a low voice. There was no more conversation after that. We both picked at our food silently, and I was a hundred percent sure that Kane Richards was on her mind.
He was definitely on mine.
If I thought the first day was bad, it only got worse. There was more than one reason for this. Firstly, my teachers were persistently giving me hell because I was constantly zoning out in their lessons, even though they realised that I already knew everything they were teaching me.
Secondly, the weather in South Carolina had turned unbearably hot. Back home, if it was sunny any time other than summer it was a blessing, and as a rule, we enjoyed it while it lasted. I had grown up with the climate there, was used to it, quite comfortable with it, even. So having this kind of weather in February was madness. I was sure I was going to become ill if it stayed this hot any longer.
And the last reason was the most annoying, and the most unbearable. It was unbearable because Kane Richards completely ignored me. It was as if I didn’t exist. He didn’t speak to me, didn’t look at me, he didn’t acknowledge my presence whatsoever. I knew that this should be a good thing; after all he was possibly the worst form of guy out there. But I couldn’t help it. I kept thinking back to our last conversation and how he had so casually walked away from me.
Already my mind was agitated, wondering about what he could have possibly meant. Already I was yearning for him to be back in front of me again so I could smell him, see his smile, listen to his wondrous voice.
I was like this already. And he’d spoken to me twice.
Slowly I began to realise that I wasn’t going to become one of those girls who had been dreamily sighing about him just yesterday. I wasn’t going to be like the girls who had greeted him so eagerly upon his approach and had watched his every move with rapt interest.
Oh no. Because instead, I realised something else.
I already was one.
4. DISCOVERY
Suranne
“You would think that as someone who enjoys female company so much, he would be kissing her like crazy. It’s obvious she’s dying to make out with him.”
It was a Friday, and Kate, Lawrence, and I were sitting at a table in the canteen. Across the way stood Kane Richards; his arm casually thrown round a wavy-haired blonde with a huge bust and long legs. She had her arm around his waist and was gazing at his face like she had seen the sun for the first time. I couldn’t blame her. I would be staring at him like that as well.
“Kane doesn’t kiss his chicks,” Lawrence snorted whilst he picked at a breakfast bar with his fingers.
“Really?” I asked. That seemed weird; you would think that he’d at least kiss these girls before he slept with them. Surely they wouldn’t just jump into bed with him without any effort on his part. But as I stared at him, I could easily believe that they did. He was wearing a clean, crisp white shirt today. The collar was stiff so it must have been brand new, and the sleeves were rolled up around his firmly toned forearms. The front of his hair was spiked up neatly as always, and he wore dark jeans with a black belt, the buckle just slightly
showing over his shirt.
“Yeah, well not on the lips anyway; he’s happy to kiss anywhere else,” Kate said rolling her eyes. “Everyone assumes that it’s some kind of statement, that the girl who he does kiss on the lips will be like ‘The One.’” She raised her fingers into quotation marks as she said that and chuckled.
I had never noticed before. I was usually too busy staring at his body, or his face, but it was true. For the past three weeks, he’d never once kissed any of the girls on the lips. And it wasn’t like he didn’t have many to choose from. Every lunchtime meant a different girl he had his arms around, kissing her forehead gently whilst she giggled and blushed.
“He’s gonna be sitting with us by the way. He told me at practice,” Lawrence announced dryly, still picking at his food.
“What?!” Kate hissed, glaring at Lawrence. “Why didn’t you tell him No? He never sits here!”
Lawrence just shrugged and continued picking at his food broodingly. I felt guilty watching him sitting there. I hadn’t really paid much attention to him since the whole locker thing, and only now noticed that this seemed to be his usual mood recently.
“What’s wrong, Lawrence?” I asked gently. He was sitting opposite me and Kate, so I got up and switched sides, sitting in the empty seat beside him and shuffled it closer to his side.
He just shrugged weakly. “’s nothin’ I guess,” he murmured.
Although I no longer felt any attraction towards Lawrence—mostly due to the fact that my attention was solely directed at Kane—I still found him unbelievably cute. His clear blue eyes were the most prominent feature on his face. They literally shone against his skin, and seeing them sad was discomforting. I leaned closer to him and his lower lip jutted out slightly before he groaned and leaned his head on my shoulder.
“Life’s shit,” he whined before sighing and closing his eyes, seemingly pleased with his new position.
“Tell me about it,” Kate muttered sourly. “And thanks to you it’s gonna get a whole lot worse.”
“He would’ve come anyway Kate, you know that,” Lawrence announced, his voice seemed brighter as his head rested on my shoulder and I stroked his hair instinctively. He reminded me of an adorable little brother you wanted to cuddle. He sighed contently and seemed to relax a little.
“Well this is cozy.” The sound of his voice was like some kind of addictive drug. The fact that I hadn’t heard it in almost three weeks had been giving me withdrawal symptoms and hearing it now gave me some kind of internal high as the smooth words embraced my ears once again. Lawrence sighed and sat up, whilst Kane pulled up a chair next to him. I frowned, wondering what was wrong with the empty chair next to Kate.
I realised that he didn’t have the blonde tucked under his arm anymore. Kate seemed to notice too, and raised an eyebrow at him. “Where’s your latest piece of meat?” she asked sarcastically, but Kane just shrugged and looked at me for the first time in what felt like forever. I tried to prevent myself from hyperventilating, and focused on taking deep breaths instead of on the light brown that dominated his eyes.
“I told her to go eat, she was boring me,” he replied, still looking at me.
“Boring you? I assume you had sex with her last night?” Kate challenged. Kane looked at her then, and raised an eyebrow. “So?”
Making a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, Kate leaned back in her seat and folded her arms whilst Kane started talking to Lawrence about some basketball game. Only the smaller part of my mind was keeping tabs on what was happening around me. The rest of my mind was focusing on his face. A certain thought had come to me and so I stared at him as he chatted and laughed with Lawrence before the curiosity got the better of me and I had to ask.
“Why don’t you kiss girls on the lips?” I blurted out, interrupting their conversation, and all three of them turned to look at me stunned. I kept my eyes on him.
He shrugged casually. “I have no desire to. If I wanted to, I would.”
I cocked my head to the side whilst my mind processed his answer. So he had the desire to sleep with these girls, but not kiss them? Kane must have assumed that I wasn’t going to comment on his answer, considering that he turned back to Lawrence and continued his conversation.
“You know, some people seem to think it’s a statement,” I blurted out again, and like before, all of them turned to stare at me. Kate looked angry, like I was saying something I shouldn’t. Kane looked curious and Lawrence slightly frustrated.
“A statement of what?”
“People think that it’s some kind of imperceptible certainty that the girl you do kiss on the lips will inevitably be‘The One.’” I shaped my fingers into quotation marks like Kate had done earlier. Both of them turned back to Kane awaiting his reaction as I stared at him with nothing but curiosity in my eyes.
“What do you think?” he asked, arching a perfect thick brow.
I shrugged before voicing my opinion.
“I think it’s a subconscious attempt to make yourself feel better. It’s believed that kissing on the lips is a higher assertion of intimacy than sex itself, and that maybe if you don’t kiss them, you won’t feel so guilty about jerking them around. Of course, if this is true, then it means that there is hope for you after all,” I announced nonchalantly, even though my heart was racing in my chest. “Maybe you’re not a complete arsehole in spite of everything else.”
My outburst seemed to take everyone by surprise. Kane had his eyebrows raised, but there was a slight tension in his jaw which convinced me that I was right. Lawrence once again looked frustrated and Kate just stared at me in awe, before eyeing Kane up and down to consider whether my opinion was even possible.
Kane chuckled somewhat tightly, as if forcing out the sound and then playfully punched Lawrence on the shoulder. “Dude, I gotta go, coach said he wanted to speak to me ’bout somethin’. Catch you later.” After that, he stood up and walked off without another word.
I smirked whilst staring at his retreating figure. It seemed I had touched a nerve.
Maybe cracking Kane Richards wasn’t going to be difficult after all.
5. IMPRESSED
Kane
I sat on the bed with my back against the headboard as this brunette was straddling me and nibbling on my neck. The strong beat of some Xzibitsong resounded through her stereo, vibrating through the foundation of the house. The heavy bass rang through my ears as she unbuttoned my shirt, and her breathing became heavier.
The words coming from the stereo surrounded me as her hands reached my belt buckle. I closed my eyes waiting for the real action to start, and instantly behind my lids, was Suranne smiling as she sat at the table with Lawrence on her shoulder.
Suddenly I felt some unfamiliar emotion flow through my veins and pushed the brunette off and sat up. Why the hell was I so angry all of a sudden? And why was she even on my mind when I had a hot chick all over me? I felt my fists clench and my body stiffen as the image of Suranne stroking Lawrence’s hair flashed in my mind.
“What’s wrong, baby?” The brunette purred in my ear seductively and took my ear lobe in her mouth, nibbling on it slightly. OK, I usually loved this shit. I should have been turned on already, eager to get the evening started.
This can not be happening to me, I thought, as I glanced down and willed my man to come back to life and work his wonders, keeping up the Kane Richards name. But nothing happened. Nothing. Not even a twitch.
The brunette was peppering kisses down my chest now and her hands were slowly sliding down my abs. Christ.
Pushing her off again I started to rub my temples with my fingers, squeezing my eyes shut, but instantly regretted it when her face flashed behind my eyelids; her deep mahogany hair and profound gray eyes staring back at me widely. I began to get a headache and the brunette started rubbing her hands all over my shoulders and down my chest again.
“Turn this crap off will you? I’m getting a headache,” I muttered, shrugging out from under her grip. A
ll of a sudden the thought of this girl all over me turned my stomach and I decided to get the hell up out of there and maybe get some fresh air. Sighing heavily, I heaved myself off the bed, doing the buttons back up on my shirt.
“Oh, come on. Don’t leave already,” she whined, her lips slipping into a pout. “We haven’t even got to the best bit yet.” She smirked and winked at me suggestively, but it still did nothing for me. I growled inside my head, begging to get some response down below.
Nope. Nothing.
No way was I going to become impotent just because some new chick with a hot accent and a slamming body decides she wants to put up a fight. I’m Kane Richards for Christ’s sake. They all cave in the end, just seems like she might take longer than I thought.
“Earth to Kaaaannnee?!” the brunette wailed, waving her hand in front of me and pulling me from my thoughts. I sighed and carried on fastening the buttons on my shirt. “Look . . .” I glanced at her, raising my eyebrows waiting for her to say her name.
“Rachel,” she growled, glaring at me.
“Look, Rachel, maybe another time, babe.” I replied, focusing on a text that I just received on my cell. It was one of my boys letting me know about some new joint in town, and asking whether I’ll be there hitting it up. A party ain’t shit without me and everyone knows it. I tapped in my reply and made my way out the door of this ‘Rachel’s’ place and into my ride.
“Why don’t you kiss girls on the lips?” she had asked. I smiled at the memory of her voice as she was stating her own theory as to why I didn’t kiss them. I had been considering her words, wondering if there was any truth to them. It was true that I felt it was a bit too . . . intimate. But it was more about the fact that I just never wanted to. I never felt the desire pulling at me to kiss them. Maybe she was right then? Maybe I was trying to make myself feel better? I knew there was some truth in her words, but she could go to hell if she thought I was planning to admit that to her. No one knew about my life, my preferences, and no one cared. And that was exactly how I wanted to keep it.
Kane Richards Must Die Page 2
