you on the dining room table while Bailey helps herself to another serving of pie.”
I raise my hand and slap him. Hard. He throws his head back and laughs as if this is all a joke. As though he wanted me to hit him. Now both our cheeks are tinted pink. Mine from embarrassment, his from the slap.
“Shit. You actually think that.” He shakes his head, grabbing another beer from the six-pack and cracking it open. “You think you’re that unlovable.”
“Stop,” I say, plead, beg. I’m not sure he is wrong. “Please stop.”
“So fucking gorgeous, so fucking popular, so goddamn despised,” he continues, and I advance toward him to slap him again because I don’t know how else to shut him up. He grabs both my wrists and pins me against a tree, getting into my face and snarling. I stumble back from the tree, but he deliberately steps on my toes, and I fall butt-first onto a bed of crunchy auburn leaves. I lie on my back and stare at him, my tears clinging to my lashes for dear life.
He lowers himself on top of me, his knee pressed between my thighs, his gaze dripping anger and adoration I’ve never seen there before. He hates himself for being attracted to me. And he hates me for making everything so difficult for everyone. Him included.
Penn puts his hand on my throat and curls his fingers around it. My pulse quickens against his hot skin, and I fight the urge to let my eyelids fall shut.
“Why are they ignoring your birthday, Skull Eyes? Tell the truth.”
It’s painful to swallow. There’s so much bitterness in my throat. The truth seems oceans away. I see it in the distance, but it’s unreachable. So hard to put into words.
“I asked them to ignore it.” I choke. “I made them promise.”
I close my eyes, and I feel his breath on my face. We’re all alone. Anything can happen. Everything can happen.
“Why?” he croaks.
“Because I can’t take another disappointment.”
Silence.
“I’m not going to have sex with you, Penn.”
“Why’s that?”
“You have a girlfriend.”
“Maybe I don’t.”
“But you do.”
“Actually, I don’t.”
“Huh?” I let out a nervous laugh, but it stops between his fingers pressed against my throat. “What do you mean?”
“Can’t really get into it right now but think about it for a second. Am I with her? Do I go to her? Do you see us talking on the phone? Shooting the shit? Hanging out? Have I ever talked about her? Brought her over? Adriana is not my girlfriend.”
So you just knocked her up. Sweet.
“Ever watch Lady and the Tramp?” He drags the tip of his nose along mine, trying to distract me from whatever’s in my head.
“Y…yeah?”
“Remember the spaghetti scene?”
“I think so.”
“Who was the one to pull away from the kiss, Lady or Tramp?”
I search my brain for the answer, but it’s been years since I’ve watched it. Honestly, it wasn’t one of my favorite movies. I always wondered what a royal bitch would find in a dirty stray. But I know now. Oh, I know very well why girls of pedigree love the mutts. They’re forbidden. Exciting. And taming them is a challenge no silver-spooned princess can turn down.
“I think she pulled away,” I say. “Lady.”
“Ding, ding, ding. Ten points.”
“What is the point?” I swallow as his knee digs between my thighs, pressing at my clit, spreading delicious pressure all over my sensitive area.
“You never pull away when I kiss you.” He still holds my gaze.
“I don’t?”
He shakes my head, looking down at me, his longish hair falling across his eye.
“You want me,” he says simply.
I snort. “Jesus, you are conceited.”
He leans in until our noses touch again. His hand is still wrapped around my throat. He squeezes it lightly as his tongue brushes from the base of my chin all the way to my forehead, where he kisses my hairline.
“Tell me you don’t want to fuck me as much as I want to fuck you, you screwed-up, messed-in-the-head, gorgeous girl with skulls in her eyes,” he whispers hotly, his free hand traveling over my thigh, up my skirt, his callused finger pads grazing my bikini line. My throat bobs against his hand.
“Tell me you don’t want me to push my finger into you and make you come.”
“I don’t want you to…” I start, but then his hand skims between my legs, and I shudder. My eyes are at half-mast, and I can barely see what’s happening. I spread my thighs wider for him. He said he