Chapter 8
Emerson~
R amsey whirled me around until my back slammed up against the brick building of the café.
This motherfucker.
“Are you out of your mind?!” I raged. “I need this job, Ramsey!”
He stepped closer to me, then caged me in with his palms flat against the wall on either side of my face. “You do not need this fucking job, Emerson,” he argued.
I straightened my back until I was as tall as I possibly could be. “Yes. I. Do.”
Then, because he thought that he could, Ramsey went and moved another chess piece in a direction that it wasn’t allowed to go. “I’ll give you whatever you need if you really can’t stand the idea of living off your aunt,” he said, shocking the ever-lovin’ hell out of me. Shocked that he was insightful enough to guess where my need to work stemmed from, and shocked that he offered to help me.
“W...what… what?” I sputtered. I even shook my head because I had to have heard him wrong.
I had to have.
His deep chocolate eyes bore into mine. “You heard me, Emerson.”
“No,” I retorted. “Clearly, I didn’t. Because it sounded like you were offering to support me financially.”
“That’s exactly what I’m offering,” he replied evenly, sounding serious.
Now, I’d be the first to admit that I didn’t know Ramsey Reed all that well, but his bipolar mood swings were giving me whiplash. How could this psycho talk to me so horribly one minute, but then want to help me out the next?
“Are you high?” I blurted out. I mean, I was genuinely curious. “Do you take pills? Is that why you act like a goddamn lunatic?”
I’d expected him to laugh, growl, or cuss me out, but he did none of those things. Instead, Ramsey stepped up closer until his body was flushed with mine. I stopped breathing, then thought I would expire from a grade-A heart attack when one arm came down, planting his hand on my hip, the other hand wrapping around the back of my neck.
“What are you doing?” I whispered because his expression looked like he was seconds away from kissing me.
“What I’ve been wanting to do since you walked into that party Friday night,” he answered as his head leaned in, his lips finally landing on mine. Right or wrong, good or bad, I didn’t care. Ramsey Reed’s lips were the best thing to ever touch my body, and he fueled me like no one else ever had.
My hands slithered up his chest until they wrapped around his neck, and I kissed him back with all the hate that I felt for him; I just couldn’t help myself.
Actually, that wasn’t true.
I could help myself.
I just didn’t want to.
He groaned as his hands tightened on my body, and in that moment, I knew that Ramsey Reed was just the boy to help get me out of my head. He could help me forget the shitstorm that was my life right now, even though he was a part of it.
A big part.
Still, I didn’t care.
I wanted his fire. I wanted his anger. As long as this attraction between us was forged in hate and bad choices, then there’d be no problem when we walked away from each other after graduation or sooner.
His hands left my neck and hip, then began roaming my body like he was discovering the female form for the first time. Regardless, the way that he was touching me made it clear that he knew the female form very well.
We were both wearing jeans and simple cotton t-shirts, the only difference being the apron that I was still wearing. It felt like a barrier and protection all at the same time, but it didn’t stop Ramsey from running his hand over my chest to cup my right breast as his lips started making their way down my neck. Though it felt like Heaven, it also felt like every bad decision that I’d ever made. In fact, he felt like the worst choice that I could ever make.
Still, I didn’t tell him to stop, and I didn’t push him away.
“Ramsey…”
“Fuck yeah,” he hissed. “Say my name like that again, baby.”
I did.
Eagerly.
With his name on my lips, I felt Ramsey trying to gather as much of my breast as he could in his hand. “I can’t wait to taste your tits, Emerson,” he growled. “And fuck if I can’t wait to taste your pussy.”
My knees buckled, and I tightened my hold around his neck to keep myself upright.
Hell yeah.
I started returning the favor, running my hands up and over his broad shoulders, relishing how big and strong he felt. I bet Ramsey Reed was the epitome of the perfect Greek god underneath all his clothes, and I could feel myself weakening every single damn time that we came across each other. I was ready to let him do whatever he wanted to me when I suddenly felt his teeth break the delicate skin on my neck.
The sonofabitch was actually biting me .
Ramsey sucked my skin through his lips and teeth, and that’s when I realized that he was giving me a hickey, and not just your random got-carried-away variety. Ramsey was marking me in a way that wouldn’t heal for weeks. This crazy, enigmatic, gorgeous psychopath was seriously drinking my goddamn blood.
I pushed at his shoulders and chest, but he wouldn’t budge. “Ramsey,” I cried out, trying to get him to stop. However, instead of acknowledging me, he just held on tighter at my cry, sucking harder, and it hurt.
It. Fucking. Hurt.
With no choice, I started punching and kicking at him when he released my skin, then bit down onto a new spot to repeat his madness. “Ramsey! Get off me!” I pushed and pushed against his hard chest. “Get the fuck off me!”
He finally ceased his attack, then stepped away from me, but not before he’d completed his second marking. Ramsey dropped his hands from my body, but his chest was heaving as he stared down at me, and he had an insane look in his eye that should worry me.
I was taken aback by the lack of guilt or regret in his face. His bottom lip was decorated in streaks of my blood, and he looked like he wanted to kill me. Ramsey looked out of control and in control all at the same time, and he looked so fucking magnificent that it was…astounding.
Honestly, he looked like a goddamn psychopath.
My neck started throbbing, and the pain snapped me out of my trance. “What the fuck, Ramsey?” I reached up, then winced as my fingers brushed across his bite marks. It felt as if a rabid dog had mauled me.
Ramsey cocked his head to get a good look at his handy work, and then the motherfucker smirked. “What?”
I could feel my eyes widen. I slapped both my palms against his chest, then pushed him away from me. “You fucking bit me!”
He scowled down at me. “Yeah, I did,” he snapped. “And you better get used to it because you’re going to have those marks all over your fucking body by the time that I’m done with you.” Then his tongue snaked out to lick his lower lip, cleaning it of the remaining blood.
I felt like I was in a fucking zombie apocalypse movie where the undead were going around just feasting on body parts of the living. Who in their right mind bit another human being and got a stiff dick from the taste of their blood??
“How in the hell am I supposed to go back in there with this shit on my neck?!” I yelled. Jesus, I felt like I was losing my mind. I couldn’t believe that I had let him do this to me. I also couldn’t believe that I wanted him to fucking do it again.
Ramsey didn’t answer me. Instead, he grabbed my hand, then dragged me back into the building. He was taking me back into the café, even knowing that I looked like I’d just been attacked, and he didn’t care. Granted, I would probably be fired for leaving my tables without telling anyone, but it was still going to be embarrassing to go back in there.
He opened the door, then hauled me through the café behind him. I immediately saw my shift manager standing next to the table where Ramsey had been sitting. Theirs was the only occupied table left in the café, and I knew that I was screwed. All my other tables must have left because I’d walked out on them.
“Emerson-”
“She was with me,” Ramsey said with no remorse, standing in front of Jarod, and being a couple of inches taller, stared down at him. “She was with me. You got a problem with that, Richards?”
“N…no, Ramsey,” Jarod stuttered. He glanced around Ramsey to address me, and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when they landed on my bloody neck. “It’s…it’s almost closing, Emerson. You can go ahead and clock out,” he rushed out.
Fucking coward.
However, I took mercy on him because I knew that he was just another pawn on the chessboard. “Thank you, Jarod.”
“Yeah…okay,” he muttered, then practically ran out of the dining area.
Before I could say anything more, Liam’s voice boomed throughout the café. “Holy shit, Ramsey. What the fuck did you do to her?”
“Jesus Christ,” uttered the fourth boy.
“Dude. Ram,” Deke whispered.
Ramsey turned around, then yanked on my hand until my body was pressed up against his again. He was looking into my eyes when he answered Liam. “Nothing close to what I plan on doing to her.”