by Rina Kent
“You too!” Little Brother said. I hadn’t even caught his name.
My anger had mostly dissipated by the time I made it to the top of the stairs. I was mostly confused. Yesterday, when he’d picked her up, she must’ve complained about me. She must’ve told her family about everything I’d done, all the shit going on at school. They knew something was wrong, so if she hadn’t told them it was me… why?
Better question, why did it matter?
My eyes narrowed when I set sight on her door. It stood out with a wooden, purple “E” nailed to the front.
The anger was back.
Eden
Sine is opposite over adjacent. Cosine is adjacent over oppos—no opposite over adjacent… no, that’s sine.
I turned over my notes to see what the correct answer was and ran a frustrated hand through my hair. This was fucking impossible, and it was only the very basics. By the time I was done with this, I’d be bald.
With a groan, I chucked my notes into my textbook and slammed it shut. This was hopeless. I was hopeless.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
There were several more days before Monday when I had to take the test. I’d get it, I just had to keep trying. I couldn’t quit now. I’d take a break and practice one of my pieces for the fall concert… the one I wouldn’t be playing in.
Ugh.
I still had my eyes closed, still trying to keep myself from flinging my trig book across the room, when my door flung into my wall.
My eyes flew open and I snapped my head in that direction, ready to yell at Jordan to knock first.
It wasn’t Jordan.
It was him.
My eyes widened and lips parted as Camden stepped into the room and swung the door closed with his heel. His eyes never left me, and neither did the threat in them. The malice.
I gave my head a slight shake and neutralized my expression. Then I hardened it.
“What do you want?” I asked, jerking my textbook back open and pretending him being here hadn’t caught me by surprise. Did my parents even know? If they did, they wouldn’t just let me be in my bedroom alone with a boy… I don’t think. The opportunity had yet to present itself.
He stalked over to me, slow and angry like. A tension filled the space, condensing the air going into my lungs and making it harder to breathe. I kept my gaze down at the notes, intent on ignoring him, but his presence wasn’t one I could ignore. It used to be, before all of this started. I hadn’t thought much of Camden at all, and he’d never known I’d existed. One party, the only one I’d been to, changed everything.
“You know, I thought Easy Eden was more of an ironic nickname, with you being a virgin and all. But I guess it fits you pretty well. You’re not used to a lot of attention, are you, Thompson?”
Once again, my lips parted and eyes snapped to him. It wasn’t shock this time, it was disbelief. “Get out,” I said, my voice as cold as his.
“Excuse me?”
I stood from the bed in one angry jerk and squared my shoulders in front of him. We were close enough that my head was tilted up to look at him, but I didn’t feel any smaller. Just the opposite. I felt like I’d grown six inches.
“You’re not going to come to my house and talk to me like that. I’m done with your bullshit, Camden. One day, everyone else is going to be done with it too, and you’re going to be that guy, that forty-year-old man that keeps talking about his high school football days to his one loser friend. And I can’t wait to see it.” A bitter laugh erupted from my throat. “Actually, scratch that, I won’t be around. But you will.”
I was feeling proud of myself. Strong. Tall. Vicious. Almost as vicious as him. His face remained hard, his eyes narrowed and jaw clenched, but there had to be some hurt underneath. He had to see a sliver of truth to my words. He couldn’t think his days as king of Lincoln High were unlimited.
He could make my life as miserable as he wanted, but he’d always end up losing in the end. His entire pathetic group would.
Camden inched his way closer until the material of his jeans grazed the hem of the pajama shorts I’d put on after I’d gotten home. My legs heated with his warmth, and I caught his scent.
At first, I thought he was trying to intimidate me. That he wanted me to back away, but when I searched his eyes, I spotted something else. Something I couldn’t quite figure out.
He placed his palms on my shoulders and pushed, sending me stumbling backward and falling to my bed. I caught myself with my hands on the mattress, but before I could stand back up, Camden was there. He shoved me down and pinned my shoulders to the mattress, situating himself on top of me.
I was rendered speechless. My lips were parted, but the only thing that came from my mouth was flustered puffs of air.
He shifted so that his boner pressed into me, and I turned my face from him to hide the fact that my cheeks were heating.
I should’ve screamed.
One cry for help and my parents would be crashing through my door. I could picture Roman throwing Camden off me. My mom hugging me while we called the police, filed a restraining order. Called the school to ensure I wouldn’t be near him. All it would take was one scream.
I stayed silent.
Camden nuzzled my neck, inhaling a deep breath before letting it exhale over my ear. Goosebumps rose all over my body, but the area his breath touched concentrated the tingling sensation. “Do you think you know me, Eden?”
Yes, was my initial, stubborn thought, but I quickly realized that was inaccurate. I didn’t know him at all, and that’s the part that scared me… but it was also the part that excited me.
“Camden,” I whispered, trying to simmer whatever rage-fueled need was happening inside of him.
He groaned into my ear, shifting himself and rubbing his hard-on against me in the process. “I love it when you say my name.”
I didn’t have a chance to regret the failed attempt at calming him. He shifted again, and again. He gently thrust his hips into mine, rubbing me in a spot that kept all my protests perched on my tongue, sitting there, waiting for me to make the call. Waiting for it to feel bad, for me to feel violated.
I should’ve felt violated. I hadn’t asked for this. I hadn’t wanted this… or maybe I had. I didn’t know. What I did know was that my shorts were too thin, his smell was too delicious, and his warmth bathed me like a bonfire on a chilly October night.
It felt too good to tell him to stop. To even want him to stop.
Camden’s breath quickened. It was deeper, heavier. The audible sounds of his desire heated me even more. The tension in the room moved to my core, packing itself into the bundle of nerves Camden kept hitting. It twisted itself tighter and sent a wave through my body with each round of friction.
My head was still turned away from him. My eyes were closed, and I couldn’t force myself to open them and look his way. I was frozen beneath him. Frozen, while also on fire.
His lips pressed against my ear, kissing it before sucking my earlobe into his mouth and nipping it.
A rush of air blew over my lips and I squirmed, not to get away, but to get closer. I’m not sure he knew that, though. I had no idea what Camden knew. Maybe he could feel the desire pouring from me as much as I could see it pouring from him.
Or maybe he didn’t care.
His lips travelled my jawline before dipping to my neck while his hands ran down my sides. He slipped underneath my T-shirt and cupped my breast, squeezing and jerking his hips harder against me.
“Fuck,” he whispered, sending hot breath over my already inflamed neck. Every part of me he touched burned.
Pressure built in my chest, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer. A soft moan vibrated my throat, throwing the last bit of chance I had at protesting out the window.
He had me, and he knew it.
His hand squeezing my breast paused. He pulled it from my shirt and lifted off me and rested on his forearms. His hips had stopped moving.
I
thought maybe it was over, but a moment later he gripped my jaw and forced my face toward him. My eyes opened wide and muscles tensed.
“Don’t fight it.”
The command held an authority to it that the stubborn side of me immediately wanted to challenge. I took a breath, not sure of what I was going to say, but it was stolen from me.
Camden’s lips crashed to mine. He used both of his hands to cup my face, and it was a tossup whether he was doing it out of passion or to hold me in place.
I couldn’t bring myself to care.
My eyes closed and my hands came up to his chest.
His kiss was rough. Brutal.
His tongue sought entrance into my mouth, and I parted my lips for him. No, I parted my lips for me. I wanted this. I wanted to feel good, to feel desired. I didn’t want to be enemies with Camden, and I didn’t want him to hate me anymore. If he ever had.
I wanted peace. Peace felt like ecstasy. Or maybe it was the tongue inside my mouth, or the hands holding me in place, or the bulge in Camden’s pants pressing against me.
Or maybe it was all of it.
I sucked in a deep breath through my nose, just realizing I hadn’t been breathing. It wasn’t the priority it typically was. My body didn’t want oxygen as much as it wanted Camden.
Camden. I was kissing Camden Knight.
A knock sounded at the door, breaking the spell. My body went rigid and eyes popped open.
Camden rolled off me and sat up, scooting himself farther up on the bed away from me. My heart skipped and face flushed as I sat up catching my breath and yanking my fingers through my tangled hair.
“Yeah?” I flinched at the breathiness of my voice.
The door opened and my mom appeared. Her brows were knitted together, and she looked from Camden to me.
“Dad mentioned we had company.” She turned to Camden and nodded. “Hello.”
Her words were light, but her tone was not. She knew what we were doing. She could probably sense the itch I had to straighten my clothes and see the obvious nervousness in the way I shifted. And there was no telling what I looked like.
“Hi,” Camden said, not standing. He was bent over, forearms resting on his knee. I blushed when I realized what he was doing—hiding his boner.
My mom turned back to me without so much as introducing herself. It was a little rude, but justified given the circumstances. “Dinner’s almost ready. Will Camden be joining us?”
I knew my mom. That question was a formality. The only appropriate answer at that time was no. Thankfully, Camden caught onto that.
“I’ve actually gotta go.” He stood and cleared his throat. “See you tomorrow,” he said to me before awkwardly making his way toward the door. My mom stepped to the side and didn’t take her eyes off me as he left.
“What are you doing in here with the door closed?”
I looked down at my feet and shrugged. “I didn’t know it was supposed to be open.”
“Eden.”
I glanced up and sagged my shoulders when I met my mom’s disapproving stare. She was a really great mom. She cared for me, loved me. But she was not someone I wanted to disappoint.
One more area of my life Camden poisoned.
That wasn’t fair to think that, though, and I knew it. My stomach sank with shame because of it.
Why did I keep making things harder for myself?
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
She sighed, and her face softened. It was still disappointment, but less intense. Less angry.
“We’ll talk about it after dinner.”
Chapter Twelve
Cam
Her Corolla pulled up to the school at the same time it always did. Just a few minutes before the bell. It was hard to say if she did that to avoid me or if it’d been a habit of hers before I’d noticed her. How many times had she walked past me before, hiding that body underneath frumpy clothes?
She hadn’t wanted the attention. She hadn’t wanted to be noticed.
She couldn’t hide anymore. Not from me.
Her car door opened and she stepped out a moment later, pulling her bag out of the car with her. Her hair was in a ponytail again today. Last night it hadn’t been. I’d had the opportunity to run my hands through it and pull, and I hated myself for not taking it. Her fucking mom had interrupted too soon, and I’d missed my chance.
I’d have another one.
A hand waved in front of my face and I blinked, focusing my stare on Hunter, who was standing beside me.
“Did you miss everything I just said?”
“What?”
“Party tonight at my house. You in?”
I nodded and went back to staring at Eden who had by then reached the sidewalk. He didn’t need to tell me there’d be a party tonight. It was Friday, and we had an away game. There was always a party at Hunter’s house on game day, no matter how late it was and whether we won or not. His parents were cool like that. Well, Sherry was.
Trey whistled when Eden walked up, and her head turned in our direction. Her gaze zeroed in on me.
“Hey, Easy Eden,” Joshua mocked.
She flicked her gaze toward him, then back to me. Why? Did she want me to tell him to stop? She couldn’t think it was that simple. That she could kiss me and give me a massive case of blue balls, and everything would just go away. The fun would stop.
Don’t be so naive, Eden.
“That’s enough,” Hunter snapped.
All conversation came to a halt, and all eyes, including mine, turned to Hunter.
What the fuck was he doing?
He took a step away from the group and turned to address all of us. “I’m tired of this shit. Eden is a nice girl, and it’s time to leave her alone.”
His eyes roamed everyone except for me. A few people turned to look at me, but I kept my stare on Hunter. This was my game. Everyone knew it, and he was trying to end it.
He didn’t like her. He wanted to fuck her. And the only reason he wanted to fuck her was because I told him she was easy. I’d made her look like a slut, and sluts just so happened to be Hunter’s type. Except, there was an abundance of girls that would sleep with Hunter, so why her? Why now?
Just... why?
I glanced over at Eden, who had also paused when Hunter said something. Her lips were parted, and she was staring at him. Her wide eyes blinked, and she must’ve felt my gaze on her because she looked my way. She scowled before turning and heading toward the school.
She fucking scowled. Because I wasn’t her protector. Hunter was.
Why?
When I turned back to him, he was eyeing Eden’s ass just before she walked through the school door. A shit-eating grin was sketched on his face.
“Well that was cute,” I said, pretending that little charade hadn’t lit my bones on fire.
His grin widened and he waggled his eyebrows. “Seriously, dude. You owe me a hundred bucks. She wants it.”
A few people around exchanged looks and laughed, realizing that had been an act. Big bad Hunter wasn’t really mad at them.
Pussies.
I didn’t answer him. If I did, I’d say something I’d regret. I was sure of it.
He addressed the group again. “Really, though, guys. Time to chill. It’s getting old.”
“I’m not done.”
All heads turned my way, and Hunter’s smile fell. He wouldn’t challenge me in front of the group, but it was clear he didn’t approve. I didn’t blame him. There was no reason to keep picking on Eden. She was all used up, and she didn’t react in a way that was any fun for the rest of them. But she reacted against me, and there was this part of me worried that if she wasn’t retaliating against me, fighting me, she wouldn’t have any more interest in me. As it was, I had her. No one had the balls to go after her while she was my target, and it was only a matter of time before someone realized what a catch she was. I was certain her friend, what’s-his-face, already had. And now maybe Hunter, too.
Shit, Hunt
er had the balls to go after her.
“All right… Nevermind then.” Hunter bit the side of his cheek, something he did when he was frustrated, and waved his hand to dismiss the attention everyone had on him.
Conversation started back up after an awkward pause, and Hunter came to sit on the bench beside me.
“You trying to ruin my chances?” He nudged my knee and chuckled to try and lighten the mood. It didn’t work.
“Let it go.”
He nodded and rubbed at the back of his neck. All I had to do was tell him she meant something to me. That I hadn’t used her for sex, that I’d lied about her, that she was someone I was genuinely interested in. If I did that, then he’d drop it. He’d walk away. He wouldn’t see it as me being greedy with my girls or me wanting to be an asshole. The problem was, if I admitted it to him, I’d be admitting it out loud to myself, and I wasn’t ready to do that.
It would take no time for word to spread about an actual relationship with Eden and me. But then what? I’d lose interest. She’d lose interest. It wouldn’t be exciting anymore. We’d be as boring as any other couple.
Couple? Was my mind really going there?
I felt eyes burning into me on my right, and I turned to meet Paige’s stare. She immediately looked away, blushing at being caught. I took in her too short skirt and recognized it as one I’d seen on Leilani a dozen times.
That is the shit I’d end up with if I dated Eden. Band geek turned wannabe gossip-girl. Pass.
I rolled my eyes and stood as the bell rang. I wouldn’t see Hunter until after third period when he met me to walk to English. Normally, it was annoying to spend time with people who weren’t my friends, but today, I was grateful we didn’t take the same classes.
Today, I needed a break.
“Later,” Hunter called at my back as I walked toward the school door. He was waiting on Trey to finish kissing his girlfriend before class like he was going off to war. It made me want to puke, so one more reason I was glad I didn’t have first period with them.
I lifted my hand without looking back and gave a half-hearted wave.
