Make My Move (Hannaford Prep #5) - J. Bree Page 0,94

biggest piece of shit. Probably because it reminds me of all of the times I’ve stumbled upon my mother sobbing quietly in a cupboard thanks to my fucking asshole father.

Lips huffs and moves to stalk away from us both, obviously thinking that I’m just going to let this bitch hang off of me, so I take a quick side step and sling my arm around her waist to catch her, pulling her into my side.

I turn my face into her hair and murmur,“I’m here to walk you back to your room, don’t run off without me.”

She startles a little, a blush creeping over her cheeks, but she doesn’t pull away from me so I take it as a win. I turn us both and start toward the door, trying not to bury my face in her hair and creep the hell out of her.

It’s so fucking tempting and Annabelle can see it too. “You know she spent the night with Harley while you were at Avery’s recital. You blame me for loving all three of you but it’s okay for her to play you all off of each other!”

Fuck her.

Lips tenses up and tries to shift away from me, but I tighten my arm around her because there’s no fucking way I’m letting Annabelle ruin this. If I could go back to freshman year and never give that bitch a moment of my time, I would in a heartbeat.

It’s probably a little too honest but I can’t help calling out over my shoulder, “Nice try, Summers, but we all know what’s going on. Harley has not been discreet and, like you said, I don’t give my music away to anyone. C’mon, Mounty. Avery will have my balls if I don’t get you back soon.”

She yells something back at me, but Lips and I get out the door and leave her behind. I don’t want to have to let Lips go, so before she can pull away, I grab the iPod from her and hand her one of the earphones as I flick through the last playlist I’d made for her to pick out a song. When the opening bars of ‘Iris’ start playing, the corners of her lips turn up and I feel like I’ve won something, because there’s nothing as good as making this girl smile.

Even if it’s just a little smirk.

We walk in silence, wrapped up in each other as we listen to the song, and the moment it ends I start it again, a wild grin tugging at my lips when she ducks her head to hide her own smile. When she doesn’t look back up, I glance down to see what’s caught her attention and land on my carnation skulls tattoos on the tops of my bare feet.

Oh God.

I don’t want to have to talk about them but if she asks me anything, I’ll cave in a hot minute. “Don’t ask about the tattoos, it’ll only push me to drink.”

We arrive at her room and she shrugs. “I’ll take a stab at it and say your dad. Yellow carnations aren’t exactly the norm to find on album covers so I looked them up. Disappointment and rejection. Didn’t make sense to me back then but now I know what a dick your dad is, I get it.”

Fuck.

Fuck, every time I speak to this girl she surprises me, and the idea that she’s cared enough about me and my music to look into my cover images makes me feel like I might do something fucking embarrassing here.

Like swoon.

Or push her up against this door and eat her out until she wakes the whole fucking building with her screaming.

The last one is too tempting for me to just push aside and when she fishes around in her bag for her keys, I grab her hand, leaning down until our noses brush. She stops breathing, but I can’t stop myself. I can’t be the one to pull away.

My voice is rough as I say, “Stop me now, Mounty, or I’m going to kiss you. No pity, no ulterior motives, just a kiss because I can’t stop myself.”

Her response is instant, her lips tilting up to meet mine and what little restraints I have on myself melt away as I meet her halfway.

This is the first kiss we should have had last time.

There’s no hesitance in me at all, not even at the thought of how much my friends would fucking hate me for doing this, and when she sucks my