I tilt my head, leaning down so my whisper will carry easily to her.
“Wanna know what I’ve been thinking about all this time you’ve been gone, Haven? All those times in the woods when you cried for me. Remember? When you begged me to stop, but we both knew you wanted more?”
Her eyes widen in horror, and fuck, that look goes straight to my cock.
“I’ve been wondering if you still cry the same way. If you still make those perfect little sounds when you’re breaking apart.”
“What’s it going to take, Kai?” she asks, voice husky from the weight on her throat. “What do I have to do so you’ll leave me alone?”
“Leave.”
Her lip curls. “Suck a dick.”
“That how you solve everything these days? Or are you just sick of being on your back all the time?” I move my foot from her throat, angling the tip of my black Balenciaga sneaker so it digs between her thighs instead.
She stares up at me with morbid curiosity as I urge her legs apart, her fingers digging into the grass beside her.
“This is what you were doing over in Ashwood, right?” My voice is so thick, it’s hard to get the words out.
Fuck, how I wish it wasn’t so easy to imagine her getting railed in the back of a car. Draped over someone’s kitchen counter. The back of a sofa.
It’s an image that refuses to leave my mind. The epitome of ‘what was seen, cannot be unseen.’
But what rips me up inside is how furious I get at the thought of someone else touching what’s mine. Which is so massively fucked up, because Heavenly was never mine. Will never be. And yet…somehow…always was.
Haven’s mouth opens, but the only thing dawning on that pretty face is anger.
“Spreading your legs,” I stage-whisper.
I’m already stepping over her, dismissing her just like she dismissed me.
Haven lets out an angry, snarling roar. “Asshole!”
She grabs my ankle andpulls.
Haven
I didn’t expect him to go down the first time. I sure as shit don’t expect him to the second time either.
But I’m running on instinct now. Fueled by a primal rage I didn’t even realize was percolating under the surface until I stared into the eyes of my best friend and saw how much hedespisedme.
And that fucking pisses me off, because he makes out like I killed his firstborn child or something.
I was sixteen when my dad left town. It happened a few days after my birthday, a few days after I saw Kai. If I’d known it would be the last time I’d see him, things would have been so much different.
I would never have sent that letter, the one I submitted for Professor Rooke’s assignment.
I WISH I NEVER MET U
I FUCKING HATE U
BURN IN HELL
I didn’t have a say in the move. God, I didn’t even get topack my shit. My dad shoved me in the car and drove us out of Agony Hollow like the fucking devil was on our heels.
It took me a few months to realize how true that was.
My meth-head dad had racked up an awful amount of debt with his dealer. If we’d had anything left to sell, he’d probably have pawned it. But there was never money to replace anything, like ever, so his only option was fleeing.