Toxic Bad Boy (29 page)

My words didn’t help to
calm him down. “I’m glad she dumped him. I know for a fact she was
a virgin before she met him and he couldn’t even protect her from
getting knocked up.”

“
Everyone knew she was,” I
reminded him. “Her boyfriend before Dante complained enough about
it.”

“
She should have waited
until after high school.”

“
Because you did?” I
teased him, knowing exactly when he’d started having sex with an
ex-girlfriend a couple years ago.

He gave me a dirty look.
“Are you and Caleb back together?”

I shrugged. “Sort
of.”

He started his car. “You
and Cece should both think about waiting until marriage from now
on.”

“
Whatever you say, Jared,” I said, rolling my
eyes at him.

“
Sad things happen. They
do. But we don’t need to live sad forever.”

-Mattie
Stepanek

GIANNA

“
Where are we going?” I
asked as we left Cece’s house and Caleb didn’t head toward the mall
like I’d expected.

“
It’s a surprise,” he
said. He didn’t seem in the least bit excited. In fact, he appeared
tense and slightly nervous.

“
A good surprise?” I
asked, not in the mood for anything less.

“
Hopefully,” he answered
vaguely.

Cece was still devastated
about losing her baby and her parents worried she’d become
depressed. Jared had taken me aside, asking for the name of my
therapist. I’d supplied it, embarrassed but wanting to help
Cece.

When Caleb had come over
this morning, he’d filled me in on how Dante was taking things.
Basically, not good. He blamed himself, felt like his not wanting
the baby had caused the miscarriage. He loved Cece, but Caleb
wasn’t sure he’d fight for her because of his guilt.

I wasn’t positive Cece
wanted him to bother trying.

When Caleb drove into the
parking garage by his mom’s apartment, it was easy to guess our
destination. “Is your mom home?”

It was Tuesday afternoon
and she worked full time as an interior designer. He turned off the
engine and I got out before he could open my door. I brushed off
his disapproving look.

“
She’s working on some
rich guy’s house in Boulder.”

As we went up to the
apartment, he leaned in to whisper in my ear, “Remember the first
time I brought you here?”

I scowled at him
playfully. “You were a jerk.”

He laughed, hooking an arm
around the back of my neck. “Yeah, but you loved it.”

“
You’re dreaming,” I
teased. It was less than a year ago, but it seemed like forever
ago. I’d had no idea how hard I’d fall for my annoying
stepbrother.

He unlocked the apartment
and held the door open for me. “The first time I met you, I thought
you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.”

“
And now?”

His face went soft along
with is voice. “Now, you’re even more beautiful.”

I walked farther into the
apartment and dropped my bag onto the couch. “I won’t be beautiful
forever, Caleb.”

His arms went around me
from behind and he pulled me against him. “Yes, you
will.”

“
What about when I’m a
wrinkled old woman?” I asked, placing my hands over his.

“
Beautiful.”

“
What if I get fat when
I’m pregnant and have stretch marks?” Leaning back into him, I
relaxed my body.

His arms around me felt
right. “Even more beautiful.”

“
Where’s my surprise,
Caleb?”

“
In my mom’s art studio,”
he said, guiding me by the hand back there.

I expected a new painting,
one of me or both of us together. When he led me to two canvases
wrapped in paper, I tried to back up. “Is that what I think it
is?”

He finally let go of my
hand and leaned down to place the paintings on a nearby table.
“Yes.”

“
What are you doing,
Caleb? I don’t want to see them!” I was ready to bolt and take a
taxi back to Cece’s house or anywhere but here.

“
They sold at the show,”
he said. “But I insisted my mom get them back from Jim before they
were delivered to the buyer.” He began tearing off the paper and I
wrapped my arms around myself. “I couldn’t stand the thought of
them out in the world and my mom understood.”

“
What are you going to do
with them?” Avoiding where they lay on the table, now unwrapped, I
stared at the space to the right of them.

Caleb’s hand cupped my
jaw. “Jim was pissed, but I’m going to destroy them.”

My eyes met his piercing
ones. “You are?”

“
Gianna, I’d destroy the
world if it came between us.”

I bit my bottom lip when
it began to tremble. “Thank you.”

He kissed me, his lips
firm against mine. “You’re welcome. You’re going to help
me.”

“
What? No!” An arm around
my waist kept me from escaping.

“
You’re not healed yet and
I need my girl whole so we can move into our future together. You
need to learn that Josh can’t hurt you anymore. He didn’t
win.”

“
I’m not strong enough,” I
admitted.

“
Yes, you are.” He led me
to stand in front of the table, grabbing my wrist to place a pair
of scissors into my hand. “Look at it.”

Reluctantly, I forced my
eyes to look at the image of Josh in his football uniform. Those
clenched fists had punched at me. Those strong hands had broken
me.

“
Do it,” Caleb
urged.

Raising a shaky arm, I
began to cry as my arm lowered in a swift motion and the scissors
struck Josh’s face, stabbing through his angry expression. In a
frenzy, I sliced at the canvas, shredding it.

“
That’s my girl,” Caleb
crooned in my ear. “Now the other one.”

My wild gaze moved to the
painting of me at my most pathetic. Without further prompting from
Caleb, I destroyed the other painting. While I worked, Caleb kept
speaking. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you like that again, baby. I
love you so much, Gianna.”

I believed him. Dropping
the scissors, I spun around, throwing myself at him as I cried. “I
love you so much, Caleb.”

He rubbed my back, holding
me for a long time while I released the pain and ugliness of that
night. When my sobbing quieted down, he rubbed my back. “Feel
better?”

I nodded against his
chest. “Yes, thank you.” I reared back to look at him. “How did you
know?”

“
Painting them helped me
work through my rage, so I hoped destroying them would help you
through your pain.”

“
What now?” I asked,
glancing at the mess.

“
I plan on burning
them.”

“
Are you in trouble with
Jim?”

“
He made enough money off
the rest of the show.”

“
What about the
buyer?”

“
Jim will tell them they
were destroyed and that’ll have to be good enough.”

Caleb and I left the
studio. Instead of going into the living room with him, I tugged on
his hand and guided him into his bedroom.

“
There’s something else
coming between us,” I told him.

“
What’s that?”

“
My ridiculous fears,” I
said, pulling my cotton dress over my head.

He stood in place, not
moving toward me or taking off his own clothes. “You know I won’t
hurt you?”

“
I know,” I told him,
unclasping my strapless bra.

“
You know I love you more
than anything in this world?”

“
Yeah,” I said, slipping
off my panties. There was no hiding from him in the brightly lit
bedroom as the sun shone through the open blinds.

He groaned, rubbing a hand
over his mouth. I stepped forward, helping him pull his shirt off
and unbutton his jeans. He tugged them off, revealing black boxer
briefs.

“
I don’t have any
condoms,” Caleb said, looking crestfallen.

I giggled at his
expression. “I’m still on birth control.”

“
Thank fuck,” he breathed,
moving us onto the bed.

He went slowly with me,
even more gently than the first time. Not once did my fears
surface. This was Caleb, the guy who loved me enough to take on the
world for me.

He made love to me like he
was worshiping me and I somehow knew it’d always be this intense
for us. I returned his passion while he moved inside me, filling me
in the best way.

When we were done, Caleb
started all over again. This time harder, rougher, holding nothing
back of his fierce desires.

Afterward, I lay in his
arms, staring at the sunbeams.

“
Caleb?” I asked softly
just in case he was asleep.

His eyes opened.
“Yeah?”

“
I want you to pick where
we go to college.”

He stroked my cheek with a
thumb. “It doesn’t matter to me. I just don’t want us to be apart
again.”

“
I don’t care where we go
and I don’t want us to be apart either.”

His laughter made his
chest shake under my head. “Then it’s decided. We won’t be apart
and we’ll go wherever we both get into.”

“
If you don’t go to an art
school, I at least want you to get into a really good art program
at a university.”

“
You really don’t know
what you want to do for a career?”

I had no clue. “No. I may
not know for another few years. So, we’ll concentrate on you
first.”

“
What if I don’t want to
be an artist?” he asked.

“
Then we’ll figure out
what we want to do together.”

“
Should we stay in
Colorado?”

“
If you want,” I said,
hugging my arm tighter around his torso.

“
Chance would miss you if
we left,” he pointed out.

“
You’re right, and I don’t
want to miss him growing up. Can we stay in Colorado?”

“
Whatever you want.
Boulder would only be a fifteen minute drive to your mom’s
house.”

“
Maybe she’d let us live
with her while we’re in school?” I teased him.

“
No way,” he said, pulling
me up higher on his chest. “I want my girl to myself. When we move
in together, I’ll be able to fuck you whenever I want.”

Giggling, I slapped his
chest lightly. “You’re so romantic.”

“
I try,” he joked,
slapping my bottom through the sheet. “Now get dressed, I need to
feed my girl.”

“
Can we go to the diner?”
I asked, hungry for a big hamburger and fries.

“
That’s what I had in
mind,” he replied, stepping into his underwear. I was a lucky girl.
My guy was hot, his abs toned along with the rest of him. “Quit
perving on me, Gianna.”

I pulled my dress back on.
“Oh, I’m the pervert now?”

“
When you look at me like
I’m a piece of meat, yes.”

“
I
am
hungry for a piece of meat, but I want a
milkshake with it.”

“
Forever is composed of
nows.”

-Emily
Dickinson

CALEB

“
I don’t see why we have
to buy all this crap for Ian,” I complained as I pushed the red
shopping cart through Target.

“
You said why yourself,
Caleb. He’s lonely and his dad doesn’t ever visit him. We’re not
family, so we can’t get in to see him. This will let him know we
care.”

I pulled the
Thinking About You
greeting card out of the basket. “I’m not signing
this.”

“
That’s okay,” Gianna said
smugly. “I’ll sign it for you, even include a note.”

I threw the card back into
the cart. “No, you won’t.”

Gianna gave me a pouty
face. “He probably misses you.”

“
What he misses is tits
and ass, told me so himself.”

“
Caleb!” Gianna said,
glancing around to see if anyone heard me. “Could you not talk like
that when we’re in public?”

“
Nope,” I answered,
ignoring her scandalized expression. “Love me, love my dirty mouth.
And, baby, I know you love my mouth.”

“
I can’t believe you,” she
muttered, blushing.

As she marched ahead of
me, I stared unashamedly at her heart-shaped ass. When we got back
to her house I was taking her from behind. She turned down an
aisle, causing me to swerve right to follow. “What’s Ian’s favorite
candy?”

“
How the hell should I
know?”

“
You’re no help,” she
huffed. “I’ll just get him a little bit of everything.”

“
Starburst,” I told
her.