Chapter 19 #2
"I know a lot has happened but I can't stand this shit anymore. We need to talk.” Desperation strained his voice and reflected in his eyes.
Ebony scowled but she didn’t move from his hand. "So now you want to talk after I begged you to do that weeks ago?"
Gavin's jaw tensed and his icy blue eyes flashed with irritation. "I know that," his voice vibrated with frustration, but his grip on her chin never tightened. Leaning in closer, he let his forehead rest against hers. "But I feel like I'm losing you, and I won't let that happen."
Each word was like a punctuated strike of a hammer. Ebony didn’t say anything. She couldn't. She just sat there absorbing the nearness of him, drinking in the warm scent of his cologne. Taking a deep breath, she nodded.
Satisfied, Gavin smiled, letting her go as he did. Sitting back in his seat he looked out the window and she followed his gaze. Standing in front of the Bronco staring into the car was Cameron.
Later that day, walking toward the student government room, Ebony couldn’t shake the memory of Cameron’s expression. He hadn’t looked confused or curious. No, that was anger on his face—tight and controlled.
She was coming around the corner when she heard glass shattering from a classroom to her left.
Ebony stopped, her eyes narrowing at the dark room through the class door's narrow window. School was out, it had been for about thirty minutes now. Some classrooms still had people in them, but this one shouldn’t.
She knew its last class usually wrapped up before lunch, which meant it should’ve been empty for hours.
Opening the door, she stepped halfway in and stopped.
Her eyes scanned the room looking for shapes in the dark.
Maybe some students hiding, or something fallen to the ground?
But there was nothing. The room was drenched in gray shadows from the window screens pulled down.
The opaque screens allowed just enough light inside to plunge the room in dark dreary shadows.
Hearing nothing and barely seeing anything, Ebony stepped inside prepared to look further.
As soon as the door shut behind her a hand covered her mouth.
Panic surged through her, sharp and immediate.
She kicked back hard, but he sidestepped the attack, pivoting his body to the side while still maintaining his hold.
She twisted, elbowed, fought with everything she had, but he only growled in her ear, the sound rough and low as his hand disappeared from her mouth and reappeared around her waist. He lifted her like she weighed nothing and set her on top of a desk.
Ebony didn’t even have time to react to the change in position, within an instant his body was caging hers, all solid heat and unrelenting force.
"I told you about these fucking skirts." His voice was a dark scrape against her skin. A low unrecognizable whisper.
One of her hands was still free. Ebony raised it, fast and deliberate, until her fingers pressed against the side of his smooth face. "I could scratch you," she threatened, pulse racing, "and then I'd know who you are in the light."
"Do it then." His lips brushed against her neck, sending a violent tremor through her. "Let's stop the charade right here and now."
His mouth dragged along her skin before he bit her. Sharp. Possessive.
Ebony cried out at the contact. But her fingertips never moved. They stayed there, ghosting against his warm skin as his tongue laved at the spot he bit.
Ebony let out a shuddering breath and her fingers trembled as they slid into his hair, threading through the soft strands. He exhaled against her as if her touch was something he needed, something he craved. He leaned heavily into her palm.
Her eyes fluttered shut. Her heart pounded, but it wasn’t fear anymore.
"Little coward," he whispered against her lips.
Then his lips met hers. Hard. Breath-stealing and certain.
Ebony moaned into the kiss. Her body relaxed into him as if she had been wanting—no, needing—this moment.
Her mouth opened to his. He tasted of mint and heat.
His tongue danced slow with hers, pulling her into him with each stroke until she was wonderfully crushed against his powerful chest. Her mind raced yet went nowhere.
Only a whisper of fear echoed in the back of her mind. What if it wasn't him?
Before she could thread her fingers through his silken hair again for some pitiful assurance, he was already pulling away.
His hands trailed down her waist, gliding over her stocking-clad thighs—and then, just like that, he was gone.
A second later she heard the classroom door open and shut. Ebony kept her eyes closed, breathing hard, feeling the lingering echo of him against her.
His hair. She didn’t move from the desk, she just sat there in the dark recalling the feel of his hair against her fingers. Long and silky. Not the soft tightly wound curls that Cameron had. Not the short buzz cut Garrett had. Ebony opened her eyes and let out a deep sigh.
When Cameron texted and offered her a ride, Ebony didn’t hesitate before replying back with a yes.
She climbed into his car, grateful for the out.
Guiltily she barely looked at her phone as she sent off a rushed text to Gavin letting him know she had caught a different ride.
She immediately put her phone on silent.
The silence in the car was an easy kind of silence that allowed her to relax in her seat.
Ebony caught Cameron's gaze and smiled. This she could handle.
She needed a moment to decompress but needed a distraction away from her spiraling thoughts and that kiss.
"Little coward."
Ebony nearly groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. The sound of his low voice haunted her thoughts.
When Cameron pulled up to his house, Ebony didn’t really question it.
It wasn't the first time she’d been to his house.
She had visited with their other friends a couple of summers ago although she only ever made it as far as the living room.
Today, however, she didn’t care. As long as she wasn’t at home and she was distracted from her thoughts.
Walking through the front door, they paused as Cameron called out. There was no answer.
"Wait here," he said, swiping through his phone, presumably checking his family's texts as he went to the garage. "Okay, I guess everyone is at the theatres. The traitors went without me."
Ebony laughed. "What movie did they go see?"
"Mmm, knowing my sister, they probably went to see the dog superhero movie."
"Ah," Ebony nodded in agreement. She had seen the trailer for the movie and it looked exactly like something his ten-year-old sister would love to watch.
"You want to watch some TV? I'm not sure I can find that naked Neanderthal dating show, but I swear to God I saw a show about some strippers stating that their pole dancing was a praise and worship dance for God."
"Baring it for the Lord?" she supplied, already knowing the show he was talking about. "Yeah, I saw a commercial for that." When she had seen it, she had thought of Gavin. She had thought about going to his room and asking him if he would want to watch it but her pride wouldn’t let her.
Cameron let out a laugh. "Good God, I should've known you would know about that. You want to watch it?"
No. She wanted to watch it with Gavin. Ebony wanted to slap herself. No thinking about Gavin. No thoughts. Just do, she commanded herself. Annoyed and a little antsy, she shook her head and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. "I want to see your room,” she blurted.
Cameron's eyes widened and for a split second he just stared at her in shock.
A second later he lifted a brow and tilted his head with an easy smile.
"My room? I mean I have no problem showing you but it's nothing fancy.
Nothing like your room or his." He let that statement hang there almost like a silent warning.
Ebony folded her arms and returned a look right back at him.
"I'm not an idiot." His house was a lovely but small split-level house done in a midcentury design.
Unless the second floor had the power of the Tardis, she was well aware of the approximate size of the bedrooms in the house.
Besides, she was pretty sure the square footage of her parents' bedroom alone was more than his entire house. "Are you going to show me or not?"
He didn’t argue. "Follow me."
As she followed him, Ebony racked her brain as to why she would request something so bold.
Going to his bedroom hadn't been her plan. Hell, coming to his house was a spur of the moment idea. But sitting down there in his quiet living room watching TV would not stop her racing mind. It wouldn’t stop the memories of that moment. That kiss.
"Little coward."
Again, his words replayed in her mind.
She needed a full-on distraction and right now that had to be Cameron.
Inside his room, she paused.
"If you say it's small I'm going to hit you with a pillow." Cameron pointed at a pillow and then to her.
Ebony shook her head with a smile, still unable to keep her eyes from popping all over the room.
It was such a boy's room. There were posters of athletes on the walls, mid action pose, determination and sweat defining their faces.
By the window was a wooden desk and chair, next to that a closet stuffed with clothes.
His bed, which took up most of the room, was neat and tidy with only a stack of folded towels sitting on the corner.
Ebony's heart softened. It was no doubt something his mom had done.
"I like it," she said softly, walking further in to examine the swimming medals hanging on the wall.
"Really?" he could hear the genuine shock in his voice and turned back to him.
"Yeah, of course. Why? Did you think I wouldn't?" she gave him a questioning look.
Cameron shrugged. "Maybe a small part of me."
"You jerk. You think I'm a snob, don't you?" Ebony swatted his arm, completely offended.
Cameron didn’t laugh, he just smiled and shook his head. "Never. Never in all my life knowing you did I ever once think you were a snob."
He was close now, standing just a few inches from her. Ebony could feel the back of the bed against her knees. "Then what did you think?" she whispered, the joking mood evaporating as something heavier descended in its place.
His voice lowered as he stepped closer, erasing the distance between them. "I think you're the most beautiful thing on this planet."
He kissed her. A slow and certain kiss. He eased her back onto the bed, his touch reverent as the soft sheets curled around her.
She lost herself in the sensation of him, his warmth, his weight, the press of his mouth.
She ignored the promise in his eyes and the warning in her head. Just this once, she let herself feel.