Until Alex - J. Nathan Page 0,95

leaned down to my ear and whispered, “Take me home, sweetheart.”

“Gladly, babe.”

HAYDEN

The hot shower cascaded over my face, giving me more damned time to think. It’s all I’d done in that suffocating cell. Cooper’s words replayed in my head like a bad song. The things Remy pulled behind my back. The danger he put me in—not only with the deadbeats, but with Cooper himself.

Cooper warned me Remy would be arrested, but he never mentioned I’d be brought in. Or that the shit could hit the fan at school in front of everyone, including Alex. And while I felt confident he would’ve eventually stepped in to bail me out, it would’ve just meant I owed him more. Having Alex save my ass meant I’d cut at least one tie with Cooper. And that brought me one step closer to getting out of this life all together.

Ironically, the girl who would’ve liked to know everything about me, decided she didn’t want to know why I’d been arrested. On the ride home, I tried to open up to her, tried to explain what went down, but she blasted her radio and sang along like I wasn’t even in the car.

I switched off the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist. I wished I could say I washed off all the filth from the cell, but that would take time. I stepped out of the bathroom and into my bedroom.

My head withdrew and my body stilled.

Alex lay sprawled on her side on my bed eyeing me up and down like candy. “Lose the towel,” she commanded.

I raised my brows. In my fantasies, she was naked when she made the request. “You sure you want to go there?”

“You still have those handcuffs?”

Only she could make light of such a fucked-up situation. I slid down beside her, keeping my towel tucked tightly around me, and slipped my arms around her waist.

“You’re soaked,” she squealed.

I shook my hair like a wet dog.

She squealed even more, burying her face in my chest. She paused for a long moment, trailing her fingers over my back. “You really scared me today.”

“You? I was scared shitless.” I laughed, though it wasn’t funny.

She wove her fingers through the hair behind my neck, playing with it gently. “I know this thing between us happened fast,” she whispered. “But I can’t imagine being away from you…I need you, Hayden. So much.”

“Hey,” I said softly. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. Fast or not, me and you, it’s real. I’m not going anywhere.”

Her eyes snapped open. I wasn’t prepared for the abundance of hope filling them. “Do you know what that means?”

I shook my head. Having high expectations in my world usually got me nowhere fast.

“You’re mine. And I’m not letting you go anywhere without me.”

My stomach gave way to a giant ripple. If I was a pussy in the eyes of guys everywhere, so be it. This girl—my girl—wanted me for the long haul. And that shit made me happy. God damned happy.

Alex’s lips collided with mine, pouring everything she felt into the kiss. Relief. Excitement. Fear. I got it. I felt it, too. Her tongue slipped inside my mouth, eagerly sweeping and tangling with mine like it was meant to be there.

I dove in, feasting on her lips. Moist. Delicate. All-consuming. I needed to erase what happened earlier from my memory. I needed to lose myself in Alex for the rest of the night. I needed to remain lost in our own little world for as long as humanly possible.

Before I realized what she was doing, Alex pulled her body away from mine so quickly I fell onto my stomach. She hooked one leg over my hips and straddled my towel-covered ass.

She leaned forward, her chest pressing into my back as her breath tickled my right shoulder, the one with the heart and dagger tattoo.

Oh.

She’d never seen the ugly thing up close. I relaxed my body and let her examine it.

Her finger replaced her breath, lightly tracing the outline of the heart over and over again, avoiding the dagger entirely. She eventually abandoned the image and traced the words scrolled through it with her fingernail. Tiny shivers rolled through me as her nail dug into my skin.

I felt her warm breath as she leaned even closer, planting a soft kiss over the words. “Have you changed your mind?” she whispered against my skin.

I turned my face on my pillow. “About what?”

“Never again.”

I smiled. “What do you think?”

Instead of telling me, she traced