He gave a nod, watching me closely. Suddenly, his hand shot out and grabbed my jaw tightly, pulling my face to his. He kissed me hard, biting at my lips urgently while his hands grabbed and pushed at my clothes. I ran my hands through his hair softly as he practically inhaled me, trying to calm him down, but as soon as he grabbed the backs of my legs and lifted me until they were wrapped around his waist—I lost my calm.

We were frantic. One of his hands fisted the back of my shirt while the other went up the front, ripping the cups of my bra down so he could pinch at my nipples. I fisted his hair in response, causing him to groan, and reached the other hand down the back of his hoodie so I could dig my nails into the only skin I could reach. It didn’t matter that we were standing in front of the apartment complex where anyone could see us—we were desperate.

He started back toward the stairs while we kissed, but he hadn’t made it to the first step when his phone started ringing and vibrating in his pocket.

“Shit,” he mumbled into my mouth, sliding his hand out of my shirt to pull the phone out of his pocket.

I moved my mouth to his neck as he answered.

“Grease,” he barked, tilting his head to the side and squeezing my ass with his free hand.

“Dragon, don’t do anything stupid.” He paused for a few moments while I continued to grope him. “Brother, I fuckin’ warned you who she was.”

He was quiet for a moment, and in the silence I bit down hard on the skin where his shoulder met his neck. He inhaled sharply and started rocking me against him, stumbling backward until his back met the wall, and then groaned deeply as I started to suck.

“I’m on my way. Don’t do anything fuckin’ stupid before I get there,” he snapped before closing his phone and stuffing it back into his pocket.

“Fuck me,” he groaned, pulling me harder against him as I used my teeth again.

He grabbed the back of my hair and pulled me away from his neck, tipping my head back so far that I had to look down to see his face.

“You’re fuckin’ trouble, you know that?” he rasped, squeezing his fist so my hair pulled sharply again.

“Let’s go back upstairs,” I whimpered, pulling against his hand so I could get my mouth on him. “I’ll ride you so hard.”

I wasn’t even sure what I was saying, but I didn’t care. I’d say or do anything at that point, I was so turned on. My hips were frantic against him, sliding and rubbing but never hitting the right spot to get me over the edge.

“Sweetheart,” he groaned, stilling the movement of my hips with his hand, “I gotta fuckin’ go. Shit’s about to hit the fan in Oregon.”

My mouth dropped open and my eyes popped wide as he pushed at my legs. When I dropped them down, I almost tripped as I tried to move away from him.

“Seriously?” I griped at him, slapping at his hands as he tried to catch me.

“Fuck, Callie!” he roared, grabbing one of my hands and pressing it against his very hard cock. “It’s not like I want to ride my goddamn bike like this!”

“Well, then don’t!” I snapped back, trying to pull my hand away.

He let go of me, but quickly wrapped his arms around my waist before I could storm off.

“Sugar, I’ve got a friend that fucked up. His shit is so fucked up, he’s lucky if he sees daylight again,” he told me seriously, the tone of his voice causing me to pause in my struggle. “I gotta get up there and help him figure his shit out.”

Dammit. He wasn’t going to stay.

I slumped against him dejectedly and hit my head against his chest repeatedly as he rubbed my back, calming down my overheated body. Once both of our heartbeats had slowed, I tilted my face up to him, still pouting. He immediately swooped in for a kiss with a small smile on his face.

The kiss was sweeter and deeper than it had been before. It wasn’t full of lust and desperation.

It was a kiss goodbye.

“It’s you and me against the world, yeah?” he whispered, smoothing my hair away from my face. “We won’t be doing this shit forever. Just gotta be patient.”

He let me go, and it took all of my willpower not to beg him to stay just one more day. One more day wouldn’t have helped anything, and I knew that we would have to go through the exact same thing all over again. So I gave him a trembling smile and got in my car, unable to say a word past the lump in my throat.

This time when I drove away, he didn’t follow me to school. His mind was already focused on whatever was happening to his friend, and I was thankful for it.

I cried the whole way to school, but as soon as I got there, I wiped off my face, pulled up my big girl panties, and acted like I was fine.

Eventually, I was.

Chapter 39

Callie

Asa was true to his word and called whenever he had the chance. He never brought up the problem with his friend and I assumed that he had gotten it all straightened out. I was the queen of burying my head in the sand, refusing to deal with anything outside of my own little world.

Thankfully, there had been a little left over in my parents’ bank account when it was transferred to Gram, so she’d been able to pay for me to get my braces off. She drove up to visit me when I had my appointment even though she didn’t agree with what I was doing. It was silly, I didn’t mind going by myself, but I think she was afraid that I’d feel bad that my mom wasn’t with me. Even though I hadn’t kept them on as long as I should have, we still celebrated with caramel apples and popcorn—two things that had been forbidden—once they came off.