Chapter 31 Cal
The cool metal heated quickly when I pressed my head against it.
Voices and laughter surrounded me but bled together in a single hum of noise, isolating me as much as suffocating me.
Too many people. This year could not be over fast enough.
I wanted out. I wanted away from everything hanging around me, weighing on me, dragging me to my knees.
The weekend had been long as fuck. And miserable. I wanted to see Jack, to apologize. This heavy ache in my gut sucked. He had to know he was still worth fighting for, and I wanted to believe I was too, but that was a little harder to put faith in.
“Someone looks like they missed their chance at getting sucked off by their boyfriend over the long weekend.”
I snickered, then turned my head, leaving it against my locker, and peeked at Jack beside me. How did he do that? How did he effortlessly pull me out of the pits when I was the one who put me there? When I should be reaching for him, not the other way around?
One corner of his lips twitched, as close to a smile as he’d make here at school. “What?”
“Nothin’.”
“Bullshit.”
“I swear.”
“Don’t make me kick your ass, Winters.”
I stared pointedly at his lips and licked my own.
Jack snorted. “By the look on your face, you’d like that too much.” He leaned closer and hissed, “Is that what you need right now? Need someone to rough up that sexy ass of yours?”
“Not someone.”
“Exactly. Your ass is mine and only mine.”
“Still? You didn’t give up on me?”
Jack sighed. “Thought you were smarter than that.” Keeping his voice low, he said, “I was pissed, okay?”
“I’m sorry,” I blurted.
Jack lifted one brow. “I didn’t ask you to apologize.”
“Well, I am. I’m sorry for upsettin’ you and letting you walk away. I’m sorry for letting shit get to me so much that I couldn’t fight for us.”
He nodded once. “An acceptable start.”
“I’ll do this,” I said. “I want to do it, to stand up for myself. I gotta figure out how, but I want to.”
One corner of Jack’s mouth quirked, and with it, my heart tugged. “You know how. Same way you caught me.”
I huffed. “What? Glue all my daddy’s clothes together until he rages so hard he has a heart attack?”
Jack sighed. “There you go again, taking it too far. No, I just meant stop taking their shit. You never took mine.”
“You’re different.”
“How so?”
“I …” love you.
Jack raised both brows this time, as if he heard me, but said, “You?”
“You’re right. That’s all.”
He flicked his eyes to the ceiling and sighed. “I like the sound of that. Almost as much as you slurping on my dick.”
I blinked wide, then checked one way and another to see if anyone heard him. My cheeks burned, and Jack snickered.
“Damn, you’re cute.”
With those three words, the weakness of my convictions melted into a heavy lump low in my stomach. My balls tingled, and my dick kicked hard behind my zipper.
“Cute? No, that soft, pink treasure between your cheeks is cute. And so fuckin’ filthy when it’s gettin’ wrecked by my cock.”
Jack worked his jaw back and forth as a dark pink stain settled into his cheeks, then slammed a hand against the locker behind me, but I didn’t flinch. “Watch it, Winters. Or everyone will see me put you in your place.”
“And what place is that, Jackass?” I taunted, giving in to this game we played to throw everyone off the truth.
Arousal hung like thick steam between us, and I grinned, wanting him to lose it on me right here. The muscle in his jaw ticked wildly, and I hoped he was thinking the same as me: my place was on my knees.
A few students gasped and turned their attention fully on us, not even trying to watch covertly any longer.
I didn’t care. They could stare and still never see.
The fire in his glare wasn’t a rival renewed.
It wasn’t a misunderstanding to launch another battle.
That fire burned away the pretense, our surroundings, all the shit that didn’t belong with us.
That fire ignited my soul and electrified my nerve endings.
I curled my fingers into tight fists to keep them from grabbing his hips and pulling them against mine. He did that. He could get me hot and desperate like a dog in heat, rutting against any part of him he’d let me touch.
He leaned in, closer, closer, our chests touching as we breathed each other in, and then his mouth was next to my ear. “It’s your ass that’s getting wrecked next, Princess.”
I gritted my teeth, willing my instant erection to calm down. It didn’t work, ever. Not with his spicy cologne filling my lungs or his body heat making sweat pop across my skin.
I shoved him away, using that distraction to adjust myself. “All fuckin’ talk.”
He stumbled, tossing me that evil grin that would’ve infuriated me at the beginning of the year. “We’ll see,” he said as he righted himself and turned to leave.
His swagger was all confidence and sensuality. I licked my lips, wishing I could’ve done the same to his instead. Desire cooled in my cheeks but not in my veins. Fuck, how I wanted him. In all ways. If Jack was the only good thing this life would give, then I’d still come out with a win.
“You have some nerve, Calvin Winters.”
I shook out of my blissful daydreams and turned.
Sasha. Jesus, she was fucking short. I towered over her but did my best to grow taller and broader to back her down from whatever had her pissed now.
Jack had been right. I didn’t deserve to take her shit, and I wouldn’t any longer.
She wouldn’t do anything stupid with so many students around anyway.
“What’re you talkin’ about?” I asked.
“You should know.”
Sheesh, she was crazy. “I don’t have time for your bullshit, Sasha. Just tell me.” I pulled my phone out of my jeans, showing her I had better things to do than figure her out. It flashed with a notification from Jack as I flipped the screen toward me.
“Don’t ignore me.” Sasha slapped my hand, causing me to drop my phone.
“Jesus,” I hissed and bent to snatch it off the floor before she tried to stomp on it or kick it away. The case protected the screen, thank fuck, and I stuffed it in my hoodie pocket.
The students in the hallway were just as interested in this as they had been with Jack and me. They craned their necks even as they backed away.
Sasha held books with one arm and put her free hand on her hip as she leaned closer with a sneer curling her lips.
This on Jack would get my dick twitching.
With her, it only made my scalp tingle with dread.
I hated her. I wasn’t sure when I went from not caring to dealing to hating, but I had.
This pint-sized demon shouldn’t be underestimated, and anyone who did was fucked.
“You went bowling with friends and didn’t take me. You didn’t let me celebrate with you on Thanksgiving.”
Huh? “Oh my fuckin’ God. What’re you talkin’ about?” I asked again, clawing at my hair, because the fuck?
“Don’t deny it, and don’t play dumb.”
“I ain’t denyin’ shit, but why would I invite you to any of that? We. Broke. Up,” I shouted, owning it right here in the fucking hallway because she’d pushed me there.
Sasha gasped, darted her eyes at the onlookers, then welled up as if she’d cry. “I can’t believe you.” Her voice wavered. Good grief. “You’re so mean to me, Cal. I give you everything, and you treat me like garbage.”
This was not going in the right direction, loudly. The eyes on us turned sympathetic for her. Guys hugged their girlfriends closer. Others whispered behind their hands and glared at me.
I hoisted my bag higher on my shoulder and kept my hands securely on the strap. “Sasha, as I said several times already, we aren’t together. We broke up over a month ago. Will you stop doin’ this?”
“Doin’ what? Lovin’ you while you string me along?”
“I’m not—”
“Cal?” Jack interrupted, stepping to my side, almost in front of me, protecting me from my ex-girlfriend. “Everything okay?” he asked me but faced Sasha.
Ty and Asher stood a few paces away, effectively blocking students from getting any closer. One of them must’ve told Jack something was going on.
And he’d come charging back to my side.
My white knight.
Warm flutters filled my lungs until I had to take a deep breath, soaking in his cologne. I dropped a hand from my backpack strap and rubbed my fingers over his hip. He stood so close no one could see. Probably.
Jack’s heart was in the right place, and I’d do the same for him, but the four of us glaring at Sasha’s tiny frame had to look even worse than before.
“Yeah,” I mumbled, pushing him slightly so I was the one in between them, which was obviously not the right response.
“How dare you act like this is nothin’,” Sasha cried.
“I think you should get to class,” Jack told her.
“And I think you should mind your own business.”
“Sasha, don’t bark at him when you’re mad at me,” I said. “We all have shit to do right now, and it ain’t this.”
Sasha blinked her watery eyes at me. For one second, the sorrow in them had me fooled. Even if she was absolutely delusional, she believed all the twisted lies in her head.
She searched me head to toe, then Jack, then me again, before her glare narrowed, heating as the light bulb came on. A hot wind dried the moisture from her face and evaporated the air between us. Her splotchy red skin darkened further as her nostrils flared.
“Him?” she whispered. “You and him?”
“Sasha—”
“You broke us for him?” she shrieked. Had I not already known she was prone to theatrics for attention, I’d be sure of it now. She didn’t want anyone thinking I’d broken up with her, but to do so because of a guy? Crazy practically multiplied in her eyes like cells in a petri dish.
“Leave him alone,” Jack growled.
And then Sasha finally lost it.