Page 161 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

“Kiss me, Eli. Please just kiss me.” I brushed my lips across his and his hand slipped to my lower back, pressing me closer.

This.

This is what I needed.

He fixed his mouth over mine, flicking his tongue against my lips and they parted, granting him access.

I pushed up against him, giving myself over to the feel of his tongue lapping at mine. Slow, insistent licks that made heat swell in my stomach.

“He’s an idiot,” he murmured.

“More.” I whispered. “I want more.”

My hands dropped to the waistband of Eli’s pants and I pulled his shirt out, allowing my hands to dip inside, sliding them up his smoothed muscular back.

“Poppy… fuck,” he hissed, kissing me harder.

We stumbled backward as I pulled him closer and bumped into the wall.

“This is a bad idea,” he said.

“The worst. But I want you. I want this.”

I wanted to get rid of my stupid V-card. I wanted it gone. And maybe part of me wanted to hurt Aaron the way he’d hurt me.

“Don’t say that… don’t—”

I smothered his words with kisses, teeth and tongue and desperate licks. “Touch me,” I rasped. “Touch me, Eli.”

He froze. “Poppy, stop.”

“No… no. Don’t say that. I like you, Eli. It was never about not liking you. Please, I need this. I need—” I reached for him again but he snagged my wrist and stepped back, putting some space between us.

The fire between us instantly winked out.

“Eli?” I blinked, reality crashing over me.

Oh God.

What had I done?

A fresh wave of emotion slammed into me as I looked down at the floor, shame crashing over me in unrelenting waves.

“Poppy, it’s okay.”

“No, it isn’t. Nothing about this is okay.”

“Look, if it makes you feel any better I haven’t been entirely honest with you either.”

“What?” I glanced up, sniffling.

He ran a hand through his hair and down the back of his neck and a strange sensation snaked through me.

“Eli?”

“So… you know how Leo is my best friend…”

“Yeah.”

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