The Alpha - Joel Abernathy Page 0,95
Colt even more.
Love. Hate. Was there even a difference?
“You can’t do this,” Ronnie said, shaking his head. “You can’t look at me that way and say the shit you say when you don’t mean it. It took long enough to get my head straightened out without you coming in and fucking it all up with one look.”
Colt’s expression softened, which just added insult to injury. “I haven’t said a damn thing to you I didn’t mean, and if this is about that night on the balcony--”
“It’s not,” Ronnie snapped. Maybe that had been the catalyst that finally pushed him to make the decision to move out, but it certainly wasn’t the inception. “It’s everything. Every day, every moment, you’re right there next to me and a thousand miles away. You have no fucking idea, do you? You think you know what it’s like to want someone you can’t have, but you don’t. Everyone wants you. And now you’re fucking Evelyn.”
“Evelyn?” Colt echoed. His eyes widened in realization a second later. “You talked to Jason.”
“Yeah. I did,” Ronnie admitted. “I saw him on campus, and FYI, he’d take you back in a split second if you gave him the chance. I never thought I’d feel bad for someone like him, but I get it now. No matter who it is, whether they’re Mr. Perfect or a dumb fuck like me who never stood a chance, we all just revolve around you like satellites caught in your orbit. And I used to think it was an accident. That you were just clueless about how you affected people, but you’re not, are you? You know, and you use it just enough to keep them where you want them: at arm’s length. As a friend, as an enemy, as a ‘brother.’ Hell, you’ve even got Andrew wrapped around your finger, and he hates your fucking guts.”
Colt didn’t respond for a few seconds that felt like years, and Ronnie wasn’t even sure what he’d say. He certainly didn’t know why he’d said what he had. He couldn’t take it back, either. It had just spilled out like the tears. Like that billowing black smoke that burrowed into its victims and made them as hollow inside as he was.
Ronnie knew he was lashing out, and it wasn’t fair. The regret was already setting in, but before he could apologize, Colt stepped closer and took Ronnie’s face in his hands, his own features set in an unreadable expression.
“What the hell are you--?”
Ronnie didn’t even have time to finish the thought before Colt’s lips crushed his, the other man’s fingers digging greedily into his damp hair. He gave a startled cry against Colt’s lips, but the other ghoul wouldn’t let up or give him the chance to breathe. Instead, he pinned Ronnie against the dresser, kissing him hard enough to wipe every thought from his mind.
If shutting him up was what Colt had wanted, mission fucking accomplished. And Ronnie couldn’t do a damn thing but play into his hands, his lips parting obediently when he felt Colt’s tongue flick against his bottom lip. He gasped as the other man’s tongue delved into his mouth with relentless force, and somehow, he ended up on top of the dresser, Colt’s firm body pressed between his legs.
When Colt finally broke off the kiss, Ronnie was left with an all-too-familiar hollow feeling. All he could do was stare up at Colt, breathless and gaping like a complete idiot. He felt like a pathetic child whose tantrum could only be mollified by giving him what he wanted.
“You fucking prick,” Ronnie seethed, trying to get down off the dresser. He pushed against Colt’s chest when that failed to work. Colt responded by pressing his body harder into Ronnie’s and taking his wrists, pinning them to the wall at his back.
Ronnie froze, staring at him in shock. He couldn’t move or even blink, caught in the intensity of Colt’s gaze.
“You talked, and now you’re going to listen,” Colt said in that firm tone he typically reserved for the idiots who talked back to him at Kinship meetings.
It wasn’t as if Ronnie could have spoken even if he wanted to. That kiss had blown away his last defenses. Even his sarcasm had fled him, leaving nothing behind but the very raw vulnerability he’d been so desperate to avoid in Colt’s presence.
“First of all, I’m not fucking Evelyn. That’s just what I told Jason to make a clean break. Second… You’re right,” Colt continued once he seemed