But then he reached for me, tugged me by my hand as he sat against his bike with his legs spread wide, and nestled my hips between his muscled thighs. With hands splayed over my waist, his gaze drifted; over my shoulder, my chest, my mouth. Everywhere but my eyes. Fear stabbed me in the gut like a sliver of broken glass, jagged and sharp and lethal. Something felt so off. So, so off. Part of me wanted to turn tail and run as fast as I could, away, away. Away from any possible hurt. The urge to protect myself, to throw up steel armor around my heart to keep all pain from worming its way in, nearly choked me. My body quivered. I tensed. I wanted to hide my fear. I didn’t want Brax to see the weakness he’d created within me.
But then Brax pulled me to him with a frustrated exhale, wrapped those powerful tattooed arms around my whole body, and buried his face against my shoulder. His lips pressed to my throat, warm, firm, possessive and I felt the tension ease out of his body once again. Confusion webbed my brain, and at the same time my fear eased, too, as Brax’s mouth dragged slowly along the column of my throat, grazed my jaw, then his kiss consumed me, and I wanted it. I wanted this, wanted him, so badly that I felt pressure in my chest, heat where our bodies touched, an ache that I couldn’t describe. I couldn’t say it. God, I wanted to, but I just couldn’t. My fingers threaded through his hair, kneaded the muscles in his neck as I kissed him back, and I couldn’t help the groan that escaped me.
Out of breath, Brax broke the kiss, resting his forehead against mine. We breathed in silence, and then he kissed my nose. “’Night, Sunshine. See ya in the morning.”
I let my hands fall from his hair, and grazed the top of his thigh. “Good night,” I responded, still breathless, a little hurt, a lot confused by the sudden end to our kiss. I turned without another word and walked to the dorm’s entrance, slid my key card and didn’t look back as I crossed the common room. The rumble of Brax’s exhaust trailed after me as I hit the stairwell and climbed to my room.
Tessa’s steady stream of excited chatter about how hot Cory was and how sculpted his abs were and oh what an Adonis ass he had kept my mind occupied until she finally fell quiet, exhausted, in her bed. With a couple of astronomy chapters to read before class the next day, I sat against the wall with a pillow behind my back and my knees pulled up, book balancing on top like a mini-shelf. Concentration on my work proved challenging; all I could think about was Brax, us, and what seemed to be changing. Was it changing? Or had my self-confidence taken a nose dive again? Tessa’s tinny voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Hey,” she said while yawning. “What do you think dickface really meant about the dare, anyway?” She rolled onto her side, braced her head with her palm, and looked at me. “I mean, seriously. That was weird. To risk getting his face bashed in by Brax? Sadistic as all holy hell if you ask me.”
The words in my text book blurred as I stared, thinking again. What had Kelsy meant by the dare? He’d known Brax would see him, would charge him. That was an awfully risky chance to take on a Winston urban legend. Was there a deeper meaning to it? God forbid, some truth? The last thing I wanted was to sound like a consumed-with-worry girl. Especially to Tessa. So, I hid that worry. “I guess I don’t know,” I finally answered. “Maybe he was hoping to get Brax into trouble with the coach? That sounds something like he’d do.” And, that was true. And something completely like Kelsy Evans.
“Douchebag,” Tessa muttered. “’Night, Liv.”
I heartily agreed as I returned to my studying. “’Night.” But I fell asleep wondering about the possibility of a dare. Dare for what?
Surprisingly, Kelsy left me alone after that. Every once in a while I’d catch him tearing a glance away from me in humanities, but there were no further shocker visits, no sudden need to have a word with me, and I was glad. Thoughts of Brax’s violent past plagued me at times, though, but not in a fearful way; at least, not fearful toward me. More for what he might do to Kelsy if my secret was fully exposed; if he knew what Kelsy had really done to me that night. The one thing I’d decided to do was make sure that didn’t happen. As long as Kelsy just … got on with his life and stopped hounding me, it’d be okay. We could both just … get on with our lives. I mean, if I could get past it, certainly Kelsy should be able to. And just when I thought Kelsy was our only obstacle, I discovered another one.
Our astronomy lab class had just concluded the first of two night observations, of which we’d gathered with our lab partners and logged our findings on the platform of the observatory. Eight of us had signed up, and Noah had led the observation. We had to complete two for the semester, and combined, along with our log, was worth twenty-five percent of our final grade. Steven and I had both brought our telescopes and were just packing them up. I heard a giggle and noticed Noah speaking to a pair of girls who’d remained behind the other lab partners.