On The Rebound (Steinbeck U #1) - L.A. Cotton Page 0,58
cheek as he brushed away the tears.
“I can’t, not anymore.” A sad sigh escaped my lips, pain breaking my insides apart.
His expression darkened. “But you can talk to Molineux and his sister? They don’t know you like I do, Calli. They don’t know your mom and what she was like. She was a good person.”
“Yeah,” I choked out, forcing my gaze away from him, “she was.”
Zach slid his fingers under my jaw, tilting my face back to his, refusing to give me space. I squeezed my eyes shut, unwilling to do this. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Not now, standing in my dorm; not at SU fulfilling his brother’s shoes. It was like some sick joke. Some warped nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
“Give me your eyes, sweet pea.” His voice was a soft caress, trying to coax me back to him.
“You hate me remember?” I said as my eyes fluttered open, the words cracking my chest wide open.
“Yeah, well, I hate seeing you with him more.”
A bitter laugh crawled up my throat and came out all strangled and wrong. “Between you and Victoria, you did an excellent job in making sure Joel never speaks to me again. So, congratulations, your mission was a success.”
“That’s not—”
“Not what? True?” I mocked. “We both know it is. Victoria clearly hates me for some unknown reason. Probably because she figured out Callum is my brother and I know you. She already lost Declan; she doesn’t want to lose you too.” I jerked back, clapping a hand over my mouth.
Zach ran a hand down his face, his eyes narrowed to thin slits. His anger was palpable, swirling around him like a dark, dangerous mist. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It doesn’t matter. This... me and you,” I shook my head, “I think we need to just stop. We clearly can’t be around each other without acting crazy. I’ll stay away from the team and you can stay away from me.”
It was for the best.
It was stupid of me to think I could ever be around Zach and not completely lose all sense of reason. He was still inside me, wired into my make up somehow. There was too much unresolved crap between us to just forget.
Blood roared in my ears over the deafening silence. Zach didn’t do anything, didn’t say anything. Just stood, watching me. Searching my face for answers I didn’t have.
Answers I couldn’t keep looking for.
“Zach, I—”
“You think you just get to decide we’re done? I didn’t ask to be here... I certainly fucking didn’t expect to find you here. But you think I can just walk away?” His lip curled as he started to edge forward.
I inched back, trying to keep a safe distance. “Zach, please...”
He reached me just as my back hit the wall. The air crackled around us, thick and heavy with the sins of our past. Sins I still didn’t fully understand. But I realized now, maybe I didn’t want to. Too much time had passed, and we weren’t the same people anymore. I was broken, lost and fighting to keep my head above water every minute of every day, and Zach was cold, cruel and closed off. He was a menace to my heart, and I had to let him go.
If I was going to survive my time at SU, I had to walk away and never look back.
“Just go, Zach, please,” I said, pressing my palms against his hard chest. His eyes dropped to my hands, before slowly lifting to my face.
“I can still remember what it felt like to be inside you, Calli. To take you hard and fast against that wall, to lose myself in you.”
“Don’t...” I squeezed my eyes closed again, inhaling a ragged breath. I didn’t want to remember that night last Halloween.
“Don’t you remember, sweet pea?” His lips brushed my cheek, moving to my ear. “Don’t you remember how good it felt? How much you wanted it?”
“Zach...” My fingers curled into his baggy tank top as I smothered a whimper.
“Look at me,” he moved back, “give me those eyes.”
My lids fluttered open, and I was swallowed up by two black orbs glittering dangerously in the dark. “There she is,” he said. “My sweet little liar.”
“Zach, I—”
“Why can’t I just let you go?” He said it like I was a curse he needed freeing from. Like he wanted me to say something that would break this tether between us. A plea on his lips.