The Boy Next Door - Jennifer Sucevic Page 0,55

almost as if Colton can sense the disconcerting thoughts crashing through my head as he props himself up on his elbows and watches me. “Am I hurting you?”

“No.” I shake my head, realizing that if there’s anyone inflicting pain, it’s me.

His voice turns cautious. “Are you all right?”

Rather than meet his inquisitive stare, I keep my attention focused on the ceiling. I need to come up with an extraction plan. “I’m fine.”

His cock is still buried deep inside my body. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want him to pull out. Even though I’m not looking at him, I feel the weight of his stare. There’s no hiding from it. “You don’t seem fine.”

A sigh escapes as my gaze flickers toward him. Now that the ecstasy has faded, an odd kind of regret rushes in to fill the void. “This shouldn’t have happened.”

“Don’t say that,” he whispers, sounding almost wounded by my words, which is laughable considering that he’s the one who threw me away. When he buries his face against the side of my neck for a second time, a shiver scampers down my spine as his warm breath feathers over my flesh. “Give me another chance.”

My heart stutters.

No.

Sex is one thing, handing over my heart is an entirely different matter. “How can I do that when I don’t trust you?”

His breath catches, but he doesn’t offer up a response.

And that, my friends, is all the answer I need.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Colton

I check my phone for the umpteenth time for any missed messages.

Unfortunately, it’s just as I suspected.

Nada.

I reached out and texted Alyssa a few times, but it’s been stereo silence from her end, which isn’t a total surprise. Nothing I do seems to make a difference. If anything, my actions have only pushed her further away. At this point, I have no idea how to bridge the gap that now separates us.

It’s been more than a week since she stomped over, and we had sex. I find myself hanging around the apartment building, trying to catch sight of her, but she remains elusive. Almost as if she’s trying to evade me.

Actually, that’s exactly the tactic she’s employing.

That girl wants nothing to do with me, and there doesn’t seem to be a damn thing I can do to change that. I hate to admit it, but I’m teetering on the verge of giving up. There are times in life when you fuck up and are able to fix the mess. This isn’t one of them.

My head is full of Alyssa as I walk across campus on my way to my last class of the day. It’s a business course and boring as hell. Although I suspect that has more to do with the professor than the material. He’s a middle-aged dude with a monotone voice. No matter how many energy drinks I guzzle, it’s never enough to keep me from dozing off.

As I pass by Grinders R Us, the local coffee house on campus, a flash of long, blond hair catches the corner of my eye, and my head whips in that direction. My footsteps falter as I spot Alyssa sitting at a table inside. Her lips lift into a smile as she tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear. A bolt of electricity surges through me as my attention zeros in on her, eclipsing everything around me. I wrack my brain, trying to remember the last time she looked at me like that.

It was more than a year and a half ago. Before I blew our relationship to hell. Back then, there were times when I would catch her staring at me like I was a fucking god. I loved it. Craved it. Reveled in it. In the end, I took her feelings for granted, thinking it would always be that way. Turns out that’s not the case.

I don’t realize I’ve sidled up to the picture window until my nose hits the glass.

“Fuck,” I mumble, rubbing the tip with my fingers and taking a hasty step in retreat.

Is this really what it’s come to?

Me stalking some girl in the middle of campus in broad daylight?

Don’t answer that.

No one has ever twisted me up inside like this. Every instinct is screaming at me to go inside and claim my girl. But how can I do that when it’s become increasingly clear that Alyssa wants nothing to do with me? The mature thing to do would be to respect her wishes and move on. As I force myself to

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