On The Rebound (Steinbeck U #1) - L.A. Cotton Page 0,42
Messiah wasn’t only imprinted on my heart, he was entwined with the very fiber of my soul.
“What are you doing, Zach?” I finally found the courage to speak.
“You kissed him,” he said coolly. “Do you want to kiss him again?”
“Does it matter?”
“I told you to stay away from the team, sweet pea.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do, Zach. You lost that right a long time ago.”
His hand remained at my throat, his thumb stroking back and forth. I wasn’t even sure he was aware that he was doing it. Zach tipped his head back and inhaled a ragged breath. Torment rippled off him, turning the air around us thick and heavy.
I needed to go. I needed to slide out from between the tree and his hard body and go... but we both knew I wouldn’t.
It was decided the second he pulled me into the shadows.
“Zach.” I reached for him, tentatively running my hands over his shoulders. A low groan rumbled in his chest. “Maybe we should talk about what happened back then.”
He froze, his eyes snapping to mine, and the expression he wore turned dark and menacing. “You think I want to talk? I don’t want to fucking talk. I want you gone, Calli. This... you and me being here together. It isn’t going to work. I can’t walk away from the team so you should go.”
“Go?” I asked incredulously, trying to keep the hurt out of my voice. “I’m not going anywhere. This is my college, my future. If you can’t accept that, then that’s on you.”
Go?
He wanted me to... go.
How dare he.
Anger unfurled in my stomach, spilling over like hot lava. “You’re a real asshole, do you know that?” My eyes narrowed with indignation.
Zach’s narrowed right back, the two of us glaring at each other, unwilling to surrender. I realized then that there would be no walking away. So long as we both went to SU, so long as our paths continued to cross, we would continue to butt heads.
“I could make life very difficult for you, Calli.” His breath fanned my face, and I caught the faintest whiff of something sweet.
It was a girl’s smell. Her perfume or lip gloss.
The thought hit me square in the stomach.
“Did you really kiss that girl like that to get back at me?”
His eyes flared, but then he smirked. “She was hot.”
“Yeah, sure, keeping telling yourself that.”
“Jealous, sweet pea?” He leaned in further, caging my body against the tree. It was dark, the shadows shifting around us. There’d been a time we had bathed in the light, but not anymore. Now we belonged in the darkness.
He flicked his tongue over my bottom lip, eliciting a moan from deep inside me. My body was fickle. She didn’t care that Zach had hurt me over and over. All she cared about was the feelings he evoked. Feelings that distracted me from the loneliness, the bitter sting of abandonment.
It didn’t make sense to want the thing that continually hurt you. But my brain wasn’t wired correctly where Zachary Messiah was concerned.
Maybe it never had been.
He pulled away, chuckling. It wasn’t a light sound, it was dark and twisted, full of wicked intent. “Just how much would you give me right now?” His knuckles glided down my cheek. “Would you let me slide my hands into your panties and finger fuck you? Or maybe you’d drop to your knees and open those hot pouty lips for me?”
“Fuck you,” the words tore from my throat.
“That can be arranged.” Challenge glittered in his eyes.
The air crackled between us. The invisible rope tethering us pulled so taut, it was at breaking point.
A beat passed.
We stared at one another, suspended in time.
Then the tether snapped.
“Fuck it,” Zach rasped before diving at me, kissing me so hard the air whooshed from my lungs. He plunged his tongue deep into my mouth, tangling it with my own. It wasn’t a kiss... it was a siege. A battle of the wills. One I was losing.
My fingers curled into his jersey, pulling him closer. Pushing him away. I didn’t know, my head at war with my heart. This was wrong on so many levels. I could still taste Joel, and Zach still had the girl’s lipstick smeared over his lips, but I didn’t care.
In that moment, nothing mattered other than Zach kissing me and never letting go.
“Fuck, Calli,” he breathed the words against my mouth, still kissing me. “Why does this feel good? Why does it always feel so good?”