Chapter 7 #3
“It is mine, isn’t it?” He nails me with his eyes, pins me down like he did back at the bar, as if I’m a bird.
“I remember throwing it away or something a long time ago. But maybe I didn’t throw it far enough.
Far enough away from your sticky fingers.
So, is that your thing? Stealing? T-shirts.
Money. I wonder, what else have you stolen?
Not that I mind. I mean, it’s an old t-shirt and some chump change.
But I’m just trying to get to know you. We lived in the same house for years and I was busy with other things.
Which is a shame, really, because I should’ve been paying attention to you.
The little sister. You grew up kinda nice. ”
He said so many things just now.
So many, many things that I don’t know which one to focus on. I don’t know which deserves my attention the most: the fact that he basically called me a thief or the fact that he said I grew up nice, and now he’s looking me up and down.
Because he is.
His gorgeous lips are turned up in a cold smirk and he’s taking me in like… like I’m a doll or something. An object. That he’s eyeing and I so want to get away from him.
But I’m frozen.
My feet are glued because despite the cold, calculating way that he’s looking at me, my witchy heart is still beating like a drum.
My stupid belly is still fluttering and when he finally looks up to my face and licks his lips in that new way of his, I clench my thighs.
I curl my toes.
“So I have a proposition for you,” he whispers with hooded eyes.
“What proposition?”
“I’ll help you with your soccer, if you help me with mine.”
“Help you how?”
“Be my distraction.”
“Distraction.”
He nods and somehow his scent has become thicker and the space around me has grown darker.
It’s like he’s blocking all the light with his big chest and dousing me in his musky, delicious scent.
He’s dousing me in himself like he’s gasoline and I have no choice but to drip, drip, drip with his scent.
“Yeah, distraction. My rebound girl. You know everything about me. You know I’m angry and I’m hurt and I’m upset.
You know I can’t play when I’m like this.
So why not? Besides, you ruined it for me, the other night.
It’s only fair that you make it up to me now.
What d’you say? Want to be my rebound girl, Salem? ”
My belly clenches when he says my name on a whisper.
On a thick, rough whisper that rolls down my spine like the beads of sweat his heat is causing.
“I need to…”
Think. Leave. Get away. Throw myself at you.
My brain is short-circuiting right now.
All the wires, all the nerves in my body are coming loose and getting tangled up with each other, firing off like crazy.
And his next words do not help at all. “Come on, you looked pretty jealous back on the soccer field. You didn’t think I’d notice?
I saw the way you were all outraged. It was pretty funny actually.
I’m not into schoolgirls but they’re fun to play with.
You are fun to play with. Plus as I said, girls have always found me irresistible and I know you’re not immune.
So if you have a little crush on me, no one would blame you.
Especially not now. I’m not with your sister anymore.
This could be your turn. Your golden fucking chance. ”
My turn.
This could be my turn.
He’s right.
I was jealous. And now I know that he was flirting with those girls to provoke me.
I do have a crush on him, only my crush feels like love, big and doomed. All consuming.
It is love.
It has been love for years. For eight miserable years when I’ve cried in my pillow, written him secret letters, pined for him, longed for him, watched him.
Because he was in love with someone else. He was in love with my sister.
But he’s not with her anymore, is he?
I know I promised myself that I’d stay away from him and keep him safe from my advances.
But he’s the one suggesting it and he’s in pain and…
And then, I’m not thinking anything at all because he’s touching me again.
The thumb that he was moving back and forth on my belly is now on the corner of my mouth.
Arrow uses that rough thumb to trace the curve of my lower lip that’s started to tremble. My whole body starts to tremble when he tugs my lip, making me part my mouth.
Making me arch my back and get pulled toward his body.
“Not to mention, this could be your revenge.” He tugs harder at my lip and I go up on my tiptoes. “I know your relationship with your sister is complicated. Has been for years. Maybe you could get even with her. We both could. All you have to do is say yes.”
He’s still swiping his thumb back and forth, still looking down at me with blazing eyes, and my body is still straining toward him like a lovesick fool.
Maybe that’s why it takes me a second to understand his meaning.
Revenge on my sister. For having a complicated relationship with her.
Being a distraction for Arrow could be my revenge on my own sister.
As soon as I understand that, something flips inside of me.
Something that gives me so much strength that I raise my arm and knock his thumb away. Not only that, I use that palm to smack him, his harsh cheek.
And I don’t do it just once. I do it twice. I do it so harshly that my palm burns with the impact.
But on him, there’s hardly any effect.
Except for the flare of his nostrils and the tic of his jaw, he looks unaffected.
“You’re a pig,” I tell him with a vibrating voice.
“You know that? You’re an asshole. I can’t believe you said that to me.
I can’t believe you would… I’ll never do that to my sister, you understand?
Ever. It hurt me, it actually hurt me that you guys broke up.
Because you guys are being stupid and stubborn and I wanted you to get back together.
I wanted to help you guys get back together.
God, I’m an idiot, aren’t I?” I shake my head.
“Stay away from me. And stay away from my sister. She is better off without you.”