Finding Olivia (Trace + Olivia #1) (13 page)

“There’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I met you,” his voice grew softer, but every word was like a shout to me, as he lowered his head and his mouth came closer to mine.

“What?” I asked, like an idiot, just before his lips pressed against mine.

A fire erupted inside me, a fire only Trace created, and I found myself wrapping my arms around his neck, reaching up on my tiptoes to kiss him thoroughly.

His lips were soft, a direct contrast to the stubble
on his cheeks rasping against my sensitive skin, and I was tempted to beg him to never stop kissing me. It felt so good.

I knew that this is what kisses were supposed to be like, magical.

I pressed my body firmly against his. Even through the thick sweatshirt I was wearing, I felt the hard ridges of his body, and I trembled.

His tongue skated against my bottom lip and my mouth opened in response.

One of his hands cupped the back of my neck while the other ventured over my shoulder, down my arm, and over my back, before settling at my waist and pressing me firmly against him.

Holy Hell.

I gasped against his mouth and he groaned in response.

My body moved against his like it was programmed to respond to everything he did to me.

He lightly nipped my bottom lip and I cried out in surprise.

That seemed to shock him
, and his hands dropped from my body, his lips leaving mine.

I suddenly felt very cold.

My fingers touched my lips, finding them to be surprisingly tender.

Then again, I had never been kissed like that, so maybe they were supposed to be sore.

Trace’s eyes had darkened with lust, but he looked tormented, his jaw was clenched once more and his hands were fisted at his sides.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” he groaned. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, before turning around and walking a
way, as fast as humanly possible.

What. The. Hell?

I had just been given the most amazing kiss of my life, of
anyone’s
life, and he was apologizing and walking away?

Had I done something wrong?

Was I a bad kisser?

A million thoughts tumbled through my mind as I began to cry, standing there, willing him to come back and tell me this was a joke.

But it wasn’t.

Trace had kissed me and now he was gone. 

c h a p t e r

Ten

I wiped my tears away as hastily as they fell. I had never been so hurt or humiliated in my entire life. I felt like Trace had ripped my heart right out of my chest and stomped on it.

How could he do that to me?

I spotted his car, still parked in front of my dorm, but he wasn’t in it.

The sight of his car made caused even more tears.

I walked up the steps, heading for my dorm room, blinded by my tears.

I opened the door and was greeted with a cheery, “How did it go?” from Avery, and then, “Oh my God! Are you crying? What did he do to you? Do I need to chase his ass down and cut his dick off, then force feed it to him?”

Not even Avery’s sick sense of humor could get me to crack a smile.

“Olivia,” she whispered softly as the door clicked closed.

I couldn’t see her through my blurry tears.

I felt her arms wrap around me, in a tight hug, as she pulled me over to my bed.

“I’m sorry, Livie,” she whispered, cradling me against her
, like a mom would with her small child. I must have looked
really
pathetic.

I sniffled, taking deep breaths.

“What happened?” She asked, running her fingers through my long hair.

I sniffled in response and she rubbed my back.

“Shhh,” she whispered, “it’s okay. Cry. You can tell me later, because you
will
tell me,” she rubbed my back. “I need to know if I have to castrate him,” she muttered the last part under her breath.

When I composed myself to the point where I could talk, I told her about the kiss and Trace running away from me.

Avery giggled. Giggled! She plucked at the sweatshirt I was wearing.
Trace’s sweatshirt.
“I told you a sweatshirt was like wearing a chastity belt. It scares guys off every time.”

“It’s his sweatshirt,” I whined, yanking it off as quickly as I could, making sure to wipe my snotty nose on it so that if I ever had the guts to return it, it would be covered in nastiness. It would serve him right for what he did. What’s a little snot compared to a broken heart?

“Sorry,” Avery smoothed her fingers through my hair again, “I was trying to make you laugh.”

“I know,” I mumbled. “But I don’t really feel like laughing right now.”

“Fair enough,” she shrugged, wrapping her arm around me again. I leaned my head on her shoulder and she rested hers atop mine.

Avery was a lot of thing
s, but there was no best friend as great as her, I was sure of that.

“I still think you should let
me hunt him down and cut his balls off. Serves him right for doing that,” she muttered, wiping tears from my cheeks. I couldn’t seem to stop crying, no matter how hard I tried.

I knew it was silly.

It was
one
kiss and it wasn’t like Trace and I were dating. We were…friends…I guess.

But it seemed that in the past month, I’d started falling for him, and when he kissed me…it felt…perfect.

Obviously, it didn’t seem perfect to him.

I started crying
again, harder, and Avery got up and returned with a box of tissues.

“Thank you,” I forced a smile a few minutes later for Avery’s benefit.

The tears seemed to be over for now.

“No problem. That’s what best friends are for,” she hugged me, before hopping off of my
bed and climbing into hers. “Get a shower and go to sleep. You’ll feel a lot better in the morning.”

“I’m afraid I’ll
never
feel better,” I mumbled.

Avery frowned. “You will,” she promised.

I stood, gathering my pajamas, and bath products.

A knock at our dorm door sent the items falling to the ground with a loud bang.

Avery sat up. “What the fuck?”

“I’ll get it,” I waved for her to lie back down.

I opened the door, expecting to see the R.A., coming to investigate all the crying.

But no.

I didn’t have normal people luck.

I had Olivia Owens luck.

And it wasn’t the R.A.’s pale brown eyes that I was looking at it.

I
t was emerald ones.

I opened my mouth, to say I don’t know what, but Trace didn’t give me a chance.

His hands closed around my arms like steel bands, as he stepped inside the dorm, pushing me against the empty expanse of wall beside the door. His mouth descended on mine, his lips moving against mine like they were dancing.

The
rational part of my mind, told me to slap, kick, or bite him.

But I couldn’t react; all I could do was feel.

And God, did I feel
everything
.

My hands roamed across his chest, they couldn’t go any further since he held my arms prisoner, and my lips responded to every movement of his.

“Oh my God!” Avery shrieked. “You look like you’re about to make babies with your tongues!”

Her words were like a bucket of ice water being poured over
me.

I hastily turned my face away, so Trace’s lips connected with my cheek.

He groaned as he let me go.

“You have about ten seconds to explain yourself before I dredge up my long buried karate skills and kick your ass,” Avery fumed, from behind Trace. I peeked over his shoulder to see Avery standing there, hands on her hips, and her hair flaming around her shoulders.

Trace groaned and I resisted the urge to kick him for leaving me, making me cry, and then storming into my dorm room like a maniac and kissing me senseless.

He pulled away and I would have fallen if it weren’t for the wall holding me up.

Ignoring Avery, he said to me, “I’m sorry, Olivia.”

Those words were like a slap.

He’d said the same thing when he kissed me the first time.

Was I
really
that bad?

“No! No!” He exclaimed at my pained expression.

“Tracey, you better hurry up and explain what that sorry is about,” Avery tapped her foot against the floor, giving him the evil eye.

He licked his lips and looked from Avery to me.

“Can we talk in private?” He pleaded with me.

“No,” Avery answered him, but his eyes never wavered from mine.

“Avery,” I pleaded.

“Fine!” She threw her hands in the air. “But I will be right outside that door,” she told me. “And if
you
,” she thrust a finger roughly into Trace’s chest, “try
anything
, I will come in here and forcibly remove your balls from your body, and stuff them down your throat,” she seethed, storming outside, and slamming the door closed.

“Whoa,” Trace looked from the closed door to me. “I take it you told her?”

I crossed my arms protectively over my chest and nodded.

He rubbed his jaw, nodding.

“I really am sorry,” he whispered.

“I know,” I snapped, looking at the ground. “You’ve said that a bunch of times now. I’m sorry you kissed me too, now get out.”

Score 1 for Olivia.

His face fell. “That’s not what I meant.”

I ground my teeth together.

I steeled my shoulders, the words tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop them, “Kissing me, apologizing, and then running away kind of speaks for itself Trace.”

“I’m sorry-”

“Stop saying that!” I shrieked, stomping my foot in the process.

I hadn’t been this mad or hurt in all my twenty years of life.

“Olivia-” His hand came up to cup my cheek and I flinched.

My body felt hot and cold all at the same time and I hated him for it.

How dare he do what he did, then come into my dorm room
, and
kiss
me
again
! And then my traitorous body had to go and
enjoy
it!

“I want you to leave,” I spoke softly, the fight draining out of my body. I felt exhausted.

“
Please
,” he begged, “let me explain. I thought you kicked Avery out so I-”

“I asked her to leave so you didn’t lose your man parts, I was doing you a favor, now get-”

His lips crashed against mine and I was pushed against the wall once more.

I pushed against his chest but it did no good, he was too heavy.

When he didn’t appear to have any intentions of stopping anytime soon, I bit down on his lip.

“Ow!” He pulled away. “I guess I deserved that, but it was the only way I could think to shut you up
, so I could talk to you.”

“You can’t really talk when your lips are otherwise occupied!” I snapped.

“Everything okay in there,” the door opened a crack and Avery stuck her head in.

“It’s
great
,” I replied sarcastically.

“Watch yourself,” Avery warned Trace. “You hurt my best friend and I’ll hurt you.”

“Believe me, I know,” Trace sighed. “I can see my chances of fatherhood dwindling away by the second,” he looked between Avery and me.

“I’ve got my…
” she paused, “ear on you,” Avery pointed from her ear to the door. With one last warning glare at Trace she closed the door.

“Can I
please
explain myself
now
without you trying to kick me out?” He asked.

I crossed my arms protectively over my chest
, and skated around him, making sure I didn’t brush against him.

I sat on my bed and advised, “You can talk, as long as you stay far away
, over there,” I motioned to wall across from my bed, which really wasn’t
that
far away in the small dorm room.

“Deal,” he moved back two steps and I breathed a sigh of relief. “I should’ve known this was your side,” he commented, nodding at my bed.

I guessed it wasn’t that hard to figure out which side was mine. My side was neatly organized while Avery’s side of the room was an explosion of junk. Makeup, clothes, and textbooks, everything spilled forth onto her bed, floor, and desk.

While
I kept everything carefully hidden, and while my side was far from bland, it wasn’t like Avery’s side.

My bedspread was yellow
, my favorite color, with a white flowery design on it. On the wall, I had hung framed glass words for a bit of decoration.
Love. Laugh. Dream.
I looked at the words everyday, wishing I had more of all three in my life.

My side
was simple, but I liked it.

Simple, wasn’t a word in Avery’s vocabulary though.

Her bedspread was pink and orange cheetah print and the wall on her side of the room was covered in a huge poster of the rapper Drake.

The poster kind of freaked me out, it always looked like he was watching you, but Avery refused to remove it no matter how much I pleaded.

Above her bed, Avery had put peel and stick letters, spelling out her name.

I shook my head, looking across my bed at the very tall man currently standing in my room, studying me like I was the most interesting thing he’d ever laid eyes on.

“You can talk, but if you say you’re sorry again, I’ll let Avery have at you,” I narrowed my eyes.

He chuckled, but I was being serious.

When I didn’t crack a smile, he sobered.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he whispered.

“Kissed me? I know, you said that already,” I muttered, drawing my knees up to my chest, willing him to leave and end this torture. I felt like I was dying on the inside.

He flinched. “I’m-” He swallowed. “That’s not what I meant. I mean…I shouldn’t have
walked away. It was wrong.”

“You snuck into my dorm to tell me
that
?”

“No,” he shook his head, rubbing his jaw, “I snuck into your dorm to kiss you again and
apologize for leaving you there,” his lips threatened to turn up in that cocky grin.

“That makes no sense whatsoever!” I cried.

His eyes darkened as he looked at the door.

Good, leave.

His lips had narrowed into a thin line when he turned back to face me. “I’m saying this all wrong,” his eyes pleaded with me to believe him.

I opened my mouth to interject some smartass comment, but he continued.

“What I said earlier is true, Olivia. You’re a forever girl and fuck if I don’t want you to be
my
forever girl. But I don’t deserve you. But I had to kiss you, I had to know what your lips tasted like, and one taste isn’t enough. I never want to stop kissing you.” I swallowed thickly at his words. I hadn’t seen him move, but he was now on my bed. “When I kissed you…” He paused. “
No
kiss has ever felt like that before but I know you deserve better than me.”