see that it's Carter who grabbed me. He's staring at me like he's desperate. Desperate for my taste, my body, or is it my soul?
"What are you—" I begin to ask, but his lips slamming against mine cut me off.
He kisses me like I’d never been kissed before. Like he’s going to war. Like he doesn’t care about breathing. Like something in him needs something in me so desperately, he has to find it or die trying.
His hands are all over me. He shifts my body so I’m straddling his thigh, pulling my head back as he runs his tongue along the base of my neck. My clit pulses at his touch. My hands flex on his back. I whisper his name…and he pushes me away.
As if hearing his name has signaled the end of a scene we were filming, he puts his hands on my shoulders and steps back, separating us. We stare at each other in silence, both of our chests rising and falling with rapid breaths. His eyes are clouded with something I can’t read—I see desire there, but pain too.
"This was a mistake," he growls before he strides away, leaving me staring after him in shock.
It takes me a minute to recover, but eventually, I find myself back at our table where Logan and Quaid both see my swollen lips and smirk knowingly. There's no sign of Celeste though.
Carter still goes back to his hotel after we're done dancing.
And I fall asleep dreaming about his lips and the way he tastes, even while safely encased between Quaid and Logan's bodies.
I guess Carter Hayes hasn't forgotten how to drive me crazy.
Chapter 14
Then
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Valentina
Carter's lips latch onto my neck, my heartbeat racing madly with the way his teeth scrape over my feverish skin. He whispers my name longingly, as his tongue traces over my skin until his mouth makes mine hostage. I give in to his dominant kiss, loving how his finger rubs against my sensitive nub over my tank top. I sigh into his warm mouth, when suddenly, my bedroom door bursts wide open, surprising us both frozen still. My father's disapproving face looming in my door’s threshold is the bucket of ice water I need to push Carter away from me.
"Is this what you two call studying for a big test? Because I can tell you right now, it doesn't look like either of you will ace it," my father states fumingly.
Carter doesn't say a word as he picks up his books from the floor and starts packing up to leave. No apologies leave his lips. No excuses either. But I guess that's Carter for you. He isn't ashamed of anything he does. Me on the other hand, I’m beyond embarrassed that my dad just caught us making out in my bedroom.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Valentina," Carter says as he presses a kiss to my temple before making his way out the door.
His face is stoic as he passes my scowling father, and if looks could kill, then the one my dad is giving Carter is a death sentence waiting to happen. I wish I was as courageous as Carter seems to be, but the minute he leaves the room, I bow my head away from my dad and scramble to pick my textbooks off the floor. It’s the only thing I can come up with in order for me not to face my dad’s disapproving glare head on. A gentle hand squeezes me on my shoulder, halting my frantic effort, and I look up to see that the anger in my father's face has morphed into a feeling I’m all too familiar seeing in his eye—worry.
"That can wait, kiddo. We need to have a serious talk right now," he exclaims with a sever tone.
I pull myself off the floor and sit on the edge of my bed. This feeling of guilt and shame is unfamiliar to me. But then again, I’ve never seen my father disappointed in me either.
"How old are you, Val?"
My brows crease in confusion. "I'm fifteen. Are you so angry with me that you forgot how old I am, Dad?"
"No. I just needed you to say it out loud so you can hear yourself. You’re fifteen, Val. Too damn young for what I just saw."
"We were only kissing," I mumble.
"No, you were doing much more than just kissing. That boy was trying to get to second base. With my daughter, under my roof, while I was in the house!" he shouts, his anger