CRUSH (25 page)

She lifted her head, a small smile playing at
her lips. “Is that so? What?”

I laughed internally. She’d probably run
screaming if she knew exactly what I wanted to do to her. I couldn’t help the
heated stare the thought caused. She swallowed thickly, and to my surprise
returned a smoky stare of her own.

Grabbing her by the arm, I towed her up to the
back row of the theater. “See those seats over in the far corner there?”

She nodded.

“If I could, I’d bring you to a movie I thought
no one would attend, and we would sit right there—in that corner, in the
dark—and make out like two crazy teenagers.”

She laughed. “We
are
two crazy teenagers.” She stared at me, her eyes sparkling. “Or
we could go somewhere we knew no one would be and do the same thing.”

The girl was going to set my temperature
flaming. I wanted to press her against the wall right now and devour her.
“Being alone with you is a dangerous, dangerous game. I think we’ve discovered
that already on a few occasions.”

She lifted one shoulder slightly. “Sometimes a
girl likes a little danger.”

I groaned. “How much of this shift is left?”

She took her phone from her pocket. “Two hours,
but we haven’t taken our break yet.” She grinned.

“Do you have any closets—other than your
haunted one—that are good for making out?”

“We could just go to your car. Did you park in
back?”

“Yes.” I smiled.

“A car with tinted windows in a nice dark
alley. I wonder what we could do there?” She bit her lip, an innocent
expression plastered on her face.

“Why are we still standing here talking about
it?” I asked, my mouth watering in anticipation of kissing her.

“I don’t know. Why are we?” She turned and
headed down the steps, and I watched her every movement with appreciation as I
followed.

We put our supplies in the breakroom and
clocked out before exiting through the rear door. She grabbed my hand, pulling
me toward my car.

“Hey, Goody?”

She stopped, sighing as she leaned against the
wall. “Why do you still insist on calling me that?”

 
I
grinned, looking down, as I pressed my body up against hers. “Because it serves
to remind me of the kind of girl you are.”

She frowned. “I’m not sure I like that. You
really think I’m a goody-two-shoes?”

I shook my head. “No, I
need
you to be a goody-two-shoes.”

“Why?” She looked so beautifully confused.

“Because I want to do unspeakable things to
you.”

Her eyes widened. “Like what?”

I laughed. “I believe I just said they were
unspeakable.” My gaze traveled over her features. “If you use your imagination,
I’m sure you could figure it out.”

She pondered this for a moment. “Well, if you
can’t
tell
me, how about you just
show
me instead?”

I let a strangled chuckle escape. “That would
be worse than the telling, I’m afraid.” It was all I could do to restrain
myself. Thank heavens we were only on a twenty minute break, or I’d be in a lot
of hot water.

Cami flattened her palms against my chest
before running them over my shoulders and linking them behind my neck. She
forcefully pulled me toward her—not that I was really resisting too hard.

“Let’s make out like crazy teenagers, as you
suggested earlier.”

I eyed her carefully and moved in closer. “That
might not be a good thing.”

“Why not?” She looked perplexed, her tongue
darting to lick her lips.

“Because we are now down to eighteen minutes in
our twenty minute break. That’s not a whole lot of time, you know.”

“So quit wasting it.” She popped up on her
tiptoes and pressed her mouth to mine.

I gave in, slipping my arms around her waist
and pulling her the rest of the way against me. The familiar contact exploded
between us as we sank into one another, tangling together with our tongues,
limbs, fingers, hair, and whatever else would mix together. I didn’t want to
stop, I just wanted to keep her here pressed against this wall beneath
me—she felt so good. We kissed each other as if we were drowning, like it
was the only time we were ever going to be allowed to do it—wrapped up in
one another until we were both panting.

“Hold on a minute,” I said, pulling away. “Let
me catch my breath a little.” I leaned my forehead against hers, and we both
started laughing.

“I think every time I kiss you it’s better than
the last time. I don’t know how that’s possible since our first kiss was near
perfection.” She briefly pecked me again. “It’s so intense.”

“I agree—it’s pretty incredible—but
I’m thinking it might be wise not to be alone with you in dark places anymore.”
I lifted my hand to stroke my thumb over her beautiful cheek.

“Why?” She looked disappointed with my remark.

“Because the rest of my body isn’t going to be
satisfied with my mouth getting to have all the fun much longer.”

She blushed, and I thought it was adorable.
“Would that be such a bad thing?” she asked shyly.

 
Seventeen
, that damned warning voice
reminded in my head.

“Actually, yeah, seeing that I’m a legal adult
and you’re not yet.” I placed a tender kiss against her lips to soften my
words. “Not that I think of you as a child in any way, shape, or form.”

She lifted her chin slightly. “I’ll be eighteen
soon.”

I know,
I thought.
I’ve
got it marked on my calendar and have been counting down the days
. “True,”
I said aloud. “But unless you want to visit me in prison after your dad throws
me in there, we better work on cooling things down a bit.”

She brushed her lips against the side of my
face before whispering in my ear. “What my dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Dear
Heaven above, have mercy on my soul. I’m going to end up in Hell.

I smiled, continuing to rub my thumb in little
circles on her skin. “While I’d like nothing better, I’d know, and never
forgive myself.”

She looked hurt and disappointed, and I thought
it would crush me. “Were you so noble with the other girls you’ve been with?”

I sighed, hating that she felt like I was
rejecting her. I tenderly kissed her forehead. “No, I wasn’t, but none of them
were you, Cami. You’re special.”

She looked like she doubted my words. I took
her face in my hands.

“Listen to me carefully. I mean this. When and
if the time is right for us to be together, I want it to be perfect for you.
You deserve it all—the candlelight, roses, and romance. There’s no need
for you to rush. The right guy will always wait for you to truly be ready. He should
honor you, worship you, and make it a moment for you to remember forever.”

She leaned her head against my chest and sighed
heavily. “Stop. You talk about that guy like it’s not you. I want it to be
you.”

I should
be so lucky
. I pressed a kiss on the top
of her head, holding her tightly in my embrace. “I want that too. More than you
know.” For the millionth time, I silently cursed everything going on in my life
right now. I wished I were free to run away with her like she wanted. I knew I
still had to tell her the truth, and I knew I might lose her when I did. If she
wanted me to let go, then that’s what I’d do. I would always put her needs
first. Always.

She was strong, though. If that did happen, I
was sure she’d survive to find love again. The thought of her wrapped up
intimately in another man’s embrace made every nerve in my body stand on edge.
It made me want to beat something, over and over again until it ceased to
exist.

I didn’t have the right to claim her, but I
wanted to more than I wanted anything in my life. I’d never been so desperate
for another person. I just hoped she’d forgive me when the truth finally came
to light.

“Please don’t ever leave me,” I whispered
softly against her hair.

She looked up, her eyes wide and innocent. “I
won’t.” She paused, looking hesitant. “I love you.”

Her words spun through my head like flashing,
colored lights, and I was sure there were fireworks exploding somewhere.
She loves me.
Yes! No! Damn it!

She was staring at me expectantly. I didn’t
need to search my heart for the answer. I’d known incredibly early on what my
feelings were.

“I love you too—so very much.” I wished I
could bottle this moment so I could enjoy it again later. “I’ve known it for a
while, actually.”

She gave me a surprised smile. “You have? Why
didn’t you tell me?”

I shrugged and grinned. “I don’t know. It
seemed a little odd to walk up to you and say, “Hi, I’m Hunter, and I’m in love
with you,” I guess.”

She shoved me playfully. “Oh, stop it. You’re
such a tease. Be serious!”

“I
am
being serious. You stepped out the door that day and I was . . .
I don’t know . . . lost. I’ve never believed in love at first
sight before, but then it happened. Something about you called to me. I didn’t
know what to do about it, so I tried to ignore it. We can see now how well that
turned out.”

“You must have had girls falling at your feet
your whole life with that kind of sweet talk.” She rolled her eyes and crossed
her arms, leaning back against the wall.

“I’ve never talked like this to a girl in my
life. I’ve never been in love before.” That was the honest to goodness truth.
It had blindsided me when it happened and had taken me a while to admit it.

“You haven’t?” She seemed kind of incredulous.

“No. Why . . . have you?”
Instantly, jealously reared it’s ugly head inside me, and I was ready to start
beating people again.

“Well . . . there was this one
guy,” she let her sentence trail off.

So help me if she said Clay’s name I thought my
head might actually explode.

“Really?” I tried to say casually, though it
was difficult since I was grinding my teeth. I forced my body to relax,
mentally demanding each individual muscle unclench itself. “Who was he?”

I wished I could pour concrete in my ears. I
didn’t want to hear her answer.

“His name was Gullible—or was it Naïve? I
forget.” She laughed.

My stress melted away like butter, and I shook
my head, stepping forward to pin her back against the wall. “You’ve been a bad,
bad, girl. You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded. “Yes, a very bad girl,” she agreed.
“I think you may need to punish me . . . a lot.”

I groaned as my mouth descended to hers. I was
so going to jail.

Hunter-

“You out here, Hunter? Oh—hey, yeah,
sorry to interrupt! I can catch you later—uh—as you were.”

Russ’s voice broke slowly into my hormone-driven
mind, and it took me a second to pull away from Cami, both of us panting. I
glanced in his direction before looking at her. If my hair resembled hers at
all then everyone was going to know exactly what we’d been doing. I briefly
wondered how many employees lost their job on the first day for fraternizing.

“Hey, man. Hold up!” I called before the back
door closed all the way.

His hand came out to catch it, but the rest of
him didn’t reappear. “Are you sure it’s safe?” he asked.

I chuckled at Cami who was frantically running
her hands over herself as she tried to straighten her clothes and hair. I
couldn’t help my widening grin as I ran my fingers through my own, trying to
fix it too. I should be shot for attacking her like this in a
friggin
’ alleyway.

“Yeah, it’s cool, bro. What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing important.” He gradually peeked
his head around before deeming it safe enough to set out apparently. “I just
stopped by to give you crap at work, and Clay told me you and Cami were on your
break. He said you’d gone outside.”

Good ole Clay. I felt my happy demeanor ice up
a bit. “How nice of him to keep tabs on us,” I replied. “Whatever would we do
without him?” I glanced at Cami, feeling irritated.

She pushed past me. “We still have seven
minutes left on our break. Let’s go in and get drinks. Russ, we’ll get you one
on the house.”

“Sweet!” Russ grinned and followed after her.

I tagged along behind them, figuring the best
thing I could do right now was appear without being attached to her hip. I
couldn’t help the small smile, which continued to grace my mouth. She was
gorgeous, and she was mine. My stubborn inner child wanted to walk right up to
Clay and tell him, “Cami loves me.” Heck with Clay, I wanted to tell everyone!
It wasn’t going to happen though, so I would have to content myself with
casting secretive glances of admiration in her direction.