Red: Burning Desire (Spectrum Series Book 7)

by Allison White

  “Don’t get all jealous, prep.” She pauses and glares off into the distance where the mystery man wandered off to. Something pierces her tough, cool exterior, but it’s gone the second I notice it, as she sets her fixed gaze on me. “He was nobody.”

  “He didn’t seem like a nobody.” I keep up with her as she storms off aimlessly. She pushes past a laughing couple, and I apologize on her behalf. “Red, slow down. Please. I need to talk to you.”

  She scoffs and picks up speed. “No, what you need to do is fuck off and leave me alone.”

  “Why are you acting like this?” I ask and get no response, just more speeding. “Red! Did I do something to make you act this way?” We were fine this morning. Great, even. We got deep enough for me to get to know her better, we were playful. And now…now she’s acting as if she doesn’t even know me.

  “Last call for the last cab,” a lanky boy calls out, standing in front of the Ferris wheel Rachel was talking about. An idea pops into my head, and I hold up a hand to catch his attention.

  “I’m making you talk to me whether you like it or not.” I grab her hand and drag her to the Ferris wheel. My fear of heights kicks up, and I pause for a second in front of the boy holding open the door. But the screaming, violent girl slapping my arm pushes the fear to the side, and I pull us into the cart.

  Slapping the ride, the boy says, “Enjoy the riiiiiide.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Red snaps as the cart jingles and the ride starts. She scoots over to the side and peers over the side, then snaps a furious look over her shoulder.

  “I’m just trying to understand,” I tell her, frustrated myself.

  A heavy sigh leaves her lips as she shakes her head. “There’s nothing to understand. I didn’t feel like spending the night with you being dunked in tanks and winning bears and shit. I just had some business to take care of. I was going to leave right after.” Her words are packed with a sting I never experienced.

  “Why come here to conduct ‘business?’” I question, and she reddens with anger, fisting her untamed hair.

  “Because he’s an asshole.” I sense irony hidden behind her words, but she covers it when she turns to me and spits, “Trust me, I wouldn’t come here if he didn’t drag me here.”

  I grasp for words. “Why are you acting like this?”

  “Like what?” she snaps through grinding teeth.

  I pause and scoot closer to her; her eyes flash wider, and she looks down. “Like you don’t know me. You’re acting cold to me for no reason, and I want to know if I did something wrong.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she says, and I frown.

  “What? Then why are you being like this?”

  “Because…” She swivels to meet my eyes, visibly gasps for breath, and groans, “Because I…like you, or whatever.”

  I am so confused.

  “And how is that a bad thing?” I ask, unable to control my smile.

  The corners of her mouth seem to fight a smile of her own. Grunting and groaning as if the fight of the century is occurring within her, she bursts into a rant of words. “It’s a bad thing because I don’t want to like you. I shouldn’t. I’m seriously bad for you. If you knew that…” She pauses, and I want her to continue that train of thought, as my curiosity is piqued. But she brushes the words away using her frazzled, waving hands and goes on.

  “You’re just really different than any other guy I know, and sometimes it…” Another pause, and, growing too stressed over her words, she grabs me by the collar of my jersey and tugs herself over to my side. “Sometimes I get crazy thinking about you, and I want to kiss you. Like, badly. But then I think about…about how you should have more, and—”

  My lips crush hers into silence. I wrap my hands around her slim waist, pulling her into my chest. Her small hands cup my face, and I melt at her soft, warm touch. Fire floods my veins and sizzles beneath my teeth; they vibrate as my tongue meets hers, and a moan escapes her open mouth. Her toxic taste buds make mine go crazy, and I press her against the side, desperate for more. I don’t think I will ever get tired of kissing her lips. Feeling her hands slowly find their way into my hair. Hearing her heart if the buzzing of fire is low enough.

  I gently pull away, smiling against her needy lips pecking mine. “I don’t want anything that isn’t you, Red. You make me wild for your kiss, and just…you.”

  “So I don’t need to burn down your shrine?” she jokes in a whisper against my lips.

  I laugh against her warm, full lips and feel her chuckle into my mouth. I groan at the strangely familiar sentiment, like we were doing this in another world, and pull her to me. “I won’t melt down yours if you don’t melt down mine.”

  She laughs, and it’s free and snort-full, and I love it. “Deal.” She holds out her pinky. I take it feverishly, kiss the tip, gauge the air catching in her throat, the flutter of her beautiful blue eyes.

  I whisper against her nose, “Deal,” before pecking her forehead. As she sighs against me, a crease in her forehead like the entirety of her can’t accept that the rest of her is content, we’re jerked slightly.

  “Ride’s over, lovebirds,” the boy who let us on jokes. I think. I can’t tell by his blank expression.

  We get off the ride much happier than when I dragged her into it.

  “What now?” she asks as we stroll aimlessly. I eye her hand that’s next to me with the inexplicable urge to take it in mine. To feel her small hand in my large one, watch her fight a blush. But I don’t know what we are, and it’ll just ruin the content peace between us. So I push my hands in my pockets to avoid looking like an idiot and answer her.

  “We do what friends do at a fair.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “This.” I grab her hand, but it’s short-lived as we stop at the cotton candy stand. “One pink, please,” I tell the young girl behind the register. She accepts the five dollar bill and hands me the cotton candy and tries to give me my change, but I let her keep it.

  “I don’t like this,” Red says as we walk away.

  “What?” I sling an arm around her, lean down, and pick a piece off. “How can you not like cotton candy? It’s like saying you don’t like puppies.” I push the sweet fluffy treat in my mouth and notice her silence. I gasp, nearly choking as I exclaim, “You don’t like puppies!”

  She reddens and nudges me in the ribs. Hard. But I just laugh. “I didn’t say that. I just don’t like sugar on a stick.” She makes a face of disgust.

  “Come on. Just give it a try.” I pick another piece off and push it near her mouth.

  “No way! No! Noah!” She laughs as I tug her mouth open and plop the candy on her tongue. I watch it dissolve and smile widely as she twists her lips, punching me in the shoulder. “Not cool, prep!” I catch her incoming hand, kiss the knuckles, and then her forehead. And then again. And again. “Stop with the kissing! Ah! Stop!”

  I throw her over my shoulder and wheel her around. “Tell me I’m the cutest ever and then I’ll let you down!”

  “No fucking way that’s happening!” she screams.

  “Okay, then I’ll wear you like an accessory,” I sing-song, ignoring her pleads to put her down, spinning in slow circles. She laughs more than she pleads. My heart expands more and more as I listen to her hearty laugh.

  “Okay, okay!” She kicks her legs.

  I set her down but keep my hands locked around her waist. Her soft glare into my eyes only makes me shine brighter. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that.” I lean down to her mouth, hand cupped around my ear.

  She groans against my chest, “You’re cute or whatever.”

  “What? Oh! You want me to spin around but upside down this time?” I move to hook my hands around her knees, bent over so we’re kind of eye level.

  “No! No!” She pushes then grips my shoulders. “You, Noah Wells…are the cutest, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t pick me up again.”

  “I can’t promise anything.”
I let out a breath and push some hair tendrils behind her small ear. She gasps lightly and lets the blush melt onto her cheeks. I’m gutted and moved by how simply beautiful this girl is, even though she doesn’t seem to try at all. I just want to draw her face and blend our lips like paint. I want to hold her and kiss her, and so I do.

  The kiss is slow and soft and incredibly warm. There’s no explosion underneath my skin. Just an inkling of familiarity and a bubbly feeling in my chest. Her fingertips gently hold my cheeks, like she’s afraid I’ll slip away from her. And when I slowly pull back, her eyes frantically search mine.

  “What was that for?” she asks softly.

  I break into a smile. “Just ’cause.”

  A smile breaks out onto her face, but before she can completely turn soft, she laughs and pushes me back. “Don’t get too soft on me, prep. I want to see what you can do with a gun.” She nods toward the booth with the fake rifles and the bottles no one seems to be able to break. But isn’t that the point of these booths? Being impossible to win so you spend more money for more chances that won’t matter?

  “Oh, you don’t wanna see what I can do with a gun.” Spinning her a bit because I love to hear her laugh, I grab her hand and walk us over to a pissed-off couple. “When I was ten, I shot and killed a deer. We had it for dinner.”

  “Really?” Her eyes search mine, and I shake my head.

  “Nah, but wouldn’t that have been cool?” I say.

  “Shut up.” She chuckles and slaps my chest.

  I listen to her laugh and almost don’t hear the man behind the booth asking if we’re going to play. I give him a ten dollar bill, which pays for five games, and am handed a large rifle. As we shoot and mostly miss the green bottles—Red hits two of them, pissing the guy off—I can’t help but feel like I’m being…watched. But when I try to look around, the man threatens to take the gun away, so I just brush the feeling off and continue shooting beside my girl who teases me for not making one.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  A few hours later, Red and I are laughing over an incident at the carnival. After winning a booth game where we have to win a race by shooting water in a clown’s mouth, the guy attending the booth refused to give us the teddy bear we won fair and square. I tried to talk him out of being a douche, but Red had other plans. She socked him in the mouth, snatched the huge bear holding a honey pot, and we booked it out of the fair altogether.

  I still can’t believe we did that. She didn’t punch the guy so hard he gushed blood, but I didn’t apologize nor get him to the nursing tent. I just let Red grab my hand and ran as someone threatened to call the police. My heart never pounded so hard in my chest before; it’s a miracle I’m not passed out right now. I don’t ever do things like this, at least until I met Red. And now I feel like a criminal on the run most of the time. Which should make me worried…but all I can do is look at her with a smile on my face.

  “That was unexpected,” I say and look over at her. “Do you normally clock guys and steal their teddy bears?”

  “If a guy has a collection of teddy bears, then he deserves to be clocked.”

  I laugh, and she smiles at me. “A little harsh, don’t you think? I mean, once I take my half of our little stash back there, are you gonna punch me too?”

  She scoffs and pulls to a stop in front of the fraternity house. “If you dress them up in princess dresses and have tea parties with them—yes.”

  “Then you can just beat me up right now,” I joke as I turn to her. She narrows her eyes and moves her small hand to punch me in the shoulder. But I have too fast of a reflex. That and I knew she’d try to hit me. Grabbing her wrist, I tug at her, pulling her onto my lap.

  “See that coming?” she asks, crooning in that slow, raspy voice of hers. Her hands loop around my neck and rest in my hair. Her fingers tug lightly, and her chest is pressed against mine. She molds to me so perfectly it makes me giddy on the inside. But don’t tell her or I’ll be hospitalized.

  “Maybe. You become predictable after a while.” I tighten my arms around her waist, erasing whatever space bubbled between us. Those bubbles explode, and my smile widens when her eyes lighten.

  “Oh. Then I’ll just have to change that then, huh?” Her tone is dark, and her hands are sliding down my chest.

  “Please do, but I’ll still know what you’re going to do,” I tease. Bullshit. I could know this girl for a thousand days and still be in the dark about what she’s going to do next. She’s a firecracker without a warning.

  “Then I guess you just know that I’m going to do this…” she says, fingers gliding down my stomach.

  “What do you—oh. Oh.” I bounce my eyebrows as her fingers tighten around the waistband of my jeans.

  She giggles, and I kiss her mouth. “Don’t act surprised, Mr. Know-It-All.”

  “I’m not surprised, just taken aback.”

  “Basically means the same thing.” She squints an eye at me. She’s making fun of me, and I laugh at myself because I actually didn’t see that coming. Doesn’t mean I’m opposed to it, though. Jesus Christ. Why am I actually talking to myself right now? I may have traveled the world in a year opposed to normal nineteen year olds, but I know when to shut up when a girl has her hands digging into my pants.

  “Sorry, my brain shuts off when you tease me.” I push open the passenger door.

  She pulls back and looks outside, then at me, confused. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting out of the public view before cops roll by and give us a ticket for indecent exposure.” I grab her hand.

  “They still do that? I thought that was made up because cops catching teens doing it in a car reminds them of their depressing lack of a sex life,” she jokes as I unlock the front door.

  Admittedly, her talk about sex makes me clam up a bit. I’m not a virgin or anything. I’m far from it, actually. Ask a few girls in Italy, Moscow, India—I’ve gotten around, okay? But with Red, it’ll be different because I have feelings for her. Actual feelings that run deeper than my brief visit before I haul ass to another continent. She’d linger and it’d lead to something bigger, make us more intimate. I want that. I really do, but to her, it sounds like it wouldn’t be a big deal.

  “You okay? You seem a little…off.” She walks over to me and palms my face. I stopped walking on the way to the stairs, and she looks genuinely concerned. My heart tugs at the frown on her mouth and forehead.

  I smile and wrap an arm around her. “I’m fine. Perfect…if we can get to my room in less than ten seconds.”

  “Guess we better run, huh?” Her face brightens like a blossoming sunflower, and I shake my head. If I look any longer, I’ll be serenading about how much I really, really like this girl.

  “I have a better idea.”

  “What are you—Noah!” She squeals as I hook my hands around the backs of her knees. I bring her to my chest and accept as she hits my shoulder. “You are insane,” she claims but snorts in laughter, eyes pinched closed as I walk to the stairs.

  “I prefer tenacious,” I say, and she merely rolls her eyes.

  In my bedroom, I gently set her down. I become very aware of what will happen. Or what I think will happen. My heart’s pounding. I take subtle, slow breaths to calm myself.

  “Noah? Why do you look like you’re either about to kidnap me or pass out?” She laughs, and it’s a light, glorious sound I want to listen to forever.

  “Sorry.” I blush, and she waves it away, eyes growing…sharper. Watching me as I close the gap between us. “You just make me a little insane and a little bit alive. But right now, I want to feel your lips on mine. Is that okay?” I push my hand into her hair while the other gently cups her lower back.

  Her lips part, and she gazes at my lips, then smiles as she looks into my eyes. “Noah, it’s more than okay. And just to be clear…” Her fingertips, black and chipped, dance their way up to my hair. Literally. I laugh, and she chuckles before sighing deeply. “You make me a little insane too, not
that I wasn’t before.”

  I shake my head and duck to be near her height. “You aren’t insane. You’re perfect,” I whisper and watch her eyes drop silently closed. I smile and erase the distance between us.

  The minute our lips press together, we sigh into each other’s mouths. The fire that usually sparks when we kissed in the past is less intense. More intimate and slow-burning. But then her hands fly to my pants and hellfire burns. I nudge her until the backs of her knees hit the mattress, and she tilts toward the mattress. I turn last second and we land sideways, but she straddles me. She breaks the kiss to sit up and take off her jacket and tank top, leaving her in a black bra.

  My breathing becomes difficult, and she smirks as if she knows it. After taking off my own shirt and kicking off my shoes and socks, I reach up and tug her back down using a bra strap. She smiles into the kiss as I cup her breast. But that teasing smile fades into a moan as I dip my hand inside and tweak her nipple. She rubs herself against me, eliciting a groan from me. I push her hair out of the way and begin nipping at her skin, gliding my tongue on the smooth surface.

  “Noah,” she moans, and her hands disappear behind her back. A few seconds later, she flings the bra across the room.

  I push her to her back on the bed and stare down at her. I thumb my bottom lip, trying to not lose my shit like I am on the inside. She is the most beautiful creature on this planet. I want to paint her body. I want to paint on her body. I kiss her lips, then her chin, then her neck. She moans my name when my lips softly press into her stomach. Her back arches, and I smile against her right hipbone…then the left.

  “I’ve wondered what you taste like on your lips…” I pop open the button on her jeans, and she gasps. “Down here.”