Chapter 34
My vision blurred as I ran down the hallway. I didn’t have the first clue where I was going. All I knew was that I had to get away.
Trace might as well have stripped me bare in front of the entire student body. Another surge of fury blasted through me. How dare he? What right did he have to tell someone else my darkest secrets?
I rounded corner after corner, ignoring the bell as it rang. The crowds of students disappeared, and my footsteps slowed until I stopped altogether. Lowering myself to the steps in a back hallway, I wrapped my arms around my legs and pressed myself against the wall.
Everything in me felt raw and exposed. The scars on my back flamed hotter as if my flesh were on fire all over again.
Footsteps sounded on the tile, but I didn’t look up. Maybe if I kept my head down, whoever was coming would just pass me by.
The footsteps slowed, but I still didn’t look up.
A figure crouched in front of me, but I didn’t want to look. Didn’t want to see whoever it was.
Declan’s face filled my vision. Pure agony was etched into his features.
Icy claws dug into my chest. I didn’t want him to hurt. Not for any reason but especially not because of me.
“I’m so sorry.”
I swallowed against the burn in my throat as shame swamped me.
I never should’ve let it happen. The first time my mother backhanded me, I should’ve gone straight to the school counselor and told her everything.
Hell, I should’ve walked to the police station and filed a report myself.
I’d let fear keep me from doing it, and now all anyone would look at me with was pity.
“Leighton,” Declan crooned, his voice hoarse. “Please look at me.”
“I don’t want to see it,” I whispered.
“See what?”
“The pity,” I croaked. “I don’t want to know that all you’ll see me as now is this weak, broken girl.”
Large, rough hands came up to frame my face, forcing my gaze to Declan’s. “I will never see you as weak. Never broken. The only thing I see when I look at you is steel forged in fire. You’re stronger than most people will ever understand. And only more beautiful because of it.”
My breath hitched as Declan’s eyes went silver yet again. There was something beneath that silver, an understanding.
“Why do you care so much?” The question slipped out before I had a chance to stop it. But it was the one thing I was dying to know.
Declan stared down at me, not moving his hands from my cheeks. Instead of answering, he asked me another question. “If you knew someone was hurting me, how would you feel?”
A rage that stole my breath blasted through me. “I’d want to kill them.”
A smile stretched across his face. “Pretty much how I feel, too.”
Declan’s thumbs stroked over my cheeks in a calming rhythm, easing the worst of my anger. His smile slipped away. “I can’t stand the thought of someone hurting you.”
“It doesn’t make sense. We barely know each other.” I tried to figure out how the depth of protectiveness I felt over Declan and the guys made sense. How I could feel this pull toward all of them.
“Intense emotions aren’t always logical. Sometimes, you’re simply meant to be in certain people’s lives. It doesn’t take long to realize that.”
That might be true, but there was more here, and my brain was battling to understand it.
Declan pressed his forehead against mine. “I know it might be scary. I can give you all the time in the world. Just don’t ask me to stay away from you while you take that time.”
Everything in me revolted at the thought of Declan staying away.
But that didn’t make sense either. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, trying to ease my panic.
That was a mistake. The scent of fresh rain and mint filled my nose.
It wasn’t a combination I ever would’ve considered, but I wanted to roll around in it.
“Declan…” I breathed.
His hold on me tightened. “Tell me to go.”
“What if I don’t want you to go?” A pull low in my belly grew stronger.
“So brave,” he whispered, his thumb skating across my lower lip. “So beautiful.”
It was me who closed the distance, my lips finding his in desperate need.
Declan’s tongue slid inside, stroking mine.
It was an explosion of sensation. The bite of mint.
The spark of fire. It all swirled around me as I lost myself in everything that was Declan.
It didn’t matter that what I felt for him wasn’t logical.
All that mattered was that this feeling never left.
I pressed myself into Declan, seeking more, seeking everything.
He growled low, his hands fisting in my hair.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Chloe’s shrill voice cut through the air.
And just like that, a bucket of ice water might as well have been dumped over my head.