morning. “Who?” Calix snaps, his voice like venom when I don't answer right away.
“I have no idea. Honestly, the reason I came here was to see if it was you,” I growl back. There's nothing to fear today, is there? Because today is just one in a string of repeats. Maybe if I fuck up badly enough, the universe will let me move on, like some big cosmic joke.
“Like I'd want anyone to see that shit,” he snarls, raking fingers through his hair and cursing under his breath. “Show me the messages.”
“My phone got smashed in the road this morning, courtesy of Raz,” I grind out between clenched teeth.
“What a goddamn nightmare,” Calix murmurs, looking back at me like he isn't sure if he wants to kill me or fuck me. “Was it a text? An email? Social media?”
“A text,” I lie. “Unknown number.”
He curses again and adjusts his lilting crown, further smearing his fingers with the bright red juice of the berries.
“I'll take care of it,” he says, his voice a poisonous kiss that makes my blood hurt. How can he do that? Hurt me with such simple words. Take care of it? Like what we did is so unspeakable, so awful. “But before I go, I want to know the truth. Stop fucking lying to me. You didn't just decide to hit my car for no reason. What is it you want? Attention? Is that it?”
A scathing laugh escapes me, and Calix scowls.
“Attention?” I ask, pushing purple hair back from my face. “I want you and your goons to leave me alone. I want to know why you hate me so much. I want to know why you told me you loved me and then broke my fucking heart. Grow some balls, Calix Knight, and step up.” He grits his teeth and something bold arcs through me, a devil summoned up on the darkest day of the year. Before I can stop myself, I step forward and throw my arms around his neck.
You'd think I slapped him, the way he reacts.
Calix jerks away from me, but I don't let him go. I force myself to my tiptoes and slam our mouths together in a rush of heat and hate and violence. There's so much pain in that kiss that I immediately draw back, my blood infected with the shadows of a dark faerie prince and his terrible tongue.
But Calix doesn't let me go.
He locks one hand on the back of my head, his fingers tight, digging into my scalp. His other arm encircles my waist, tugging our bodies together. He's hard beneath his academy slacks; I can feel the thick length of his shaft through his pants, straining for me, an undeniable piece of physical proof that he's attracted to me. His tongue slips between my lips as he slams my body back into the side of the train car, moving his hand from the back of my head to beneath my skirt.
Those fingers of his, the ones I remember all too well, stroke across the wetness of my panties, teasing whimpers from me that are as undeniable as his erection. We want each other; we were good together. So why? He asked me that question, but he never bothered to answer mine.
It doesn't matter.
His fingers are playing my body like an instrument, and my life could use a little music. I let him do it, too, reaching a hand down to fumble with his slacks. Calix makes this dark, awful sound against my lips, trapped somewhere between loathing and lust as I free his cock and take the warm, velvety length of him into my palm.
“You crashed into my car because you wanted this,” he growls as I tighten my fist around his shaft, squeezing him until he grits his teeth in pain. Calix pauses his stroking of my panties to snatch my wrist, forcing me to loosen my grip. “Say it.”
His command is imperious, peccant in nature. It very nearly demands a laugh, but I can’t seem to get my lips to form anything but a moan as Calix returns his fingers to their sinful little dead, sweeping my panties aside to tease the slickness of my opening.
Instead of responding to him, I lift my palm between us and spit into it, our eyes locked together in defiant sexual challenge. He’s demanding that I admit my need for him while adamantly denying that the same feeling dances behind his own shuttered gaze.
Well, he can eat shit