Falling Under (14 page)
Gabe she wanted.
Gabe’s jaw ticked and the veins on his temples became visible. A glance to the balcony showed Haden with a similar rigidity in posture. The naked fury in his gaze flushed my veins with ice water. He was suddenly much more like the dangerous scoundrel from my dreams than the easygoing boy with the truck.
When Donny turned in her dance partner’s arms and slid provocatively against him like he was a stripper pole, I knew things were about to get very out of control.
I grabbed Gabe’s chin, forcing his eyes to mine.
“If you lose it right now, you’ll lose her,” I yelled.
He nodded, closing his eyes briefly to put himself back in place. “Why does she have to be like that? I’ve tried to show her … I care. It’s more than just a hookup. I don’t want to be a hookup.”
“Gabe, go cut in.”
He shook his head. “I just want to go home.”
As Gabe deflated in front of me, I realized I’d lost track of Haden. He’d left his perch, making me nervous. Taking care of all the testosterone in the club was getting exhausting.
“Go cut in.” I stepped back, giving Gabe the out he needed to stop dancing with me and claim what he really wanted.
Gabe took one look at her, smiling at him, daring him. He stalked over to Donny, physically snatching her away from the other guy and molded her to his body. She didn’t object and wound her arms around his neck, forgetting about the boy she’d been relieved of. And most likely me for the night as well.
I eyed the balcony. Next on my agenda was finding Haden.
He hadn’t returned to the rail, but he could still be upstairs. I shouldn’t have played the game. I didn’t understand the rules. At first I’d felt that momentary flicker of power, but now I felt at odds. Distraught, unfinished.
Flashes of skin and the occasional random touch of strangers as I passed eased me into what felt like another world. The dancing bodies slowed my pace as I swam through the crowd. The smell of sweat and perfume, the disorienting lights, and the thrum of the music felt primal. Waves of sexual energy washed over me, seeping into my own skin.
And I hungered for something elusive, yet the air was thick with the promise of it.
It surprised me, this new potent feeling. And it was the surprise that frightened me more than the actual rush of hormones. I couldn’t control feelings that came out of nowhere.
The stairs were treacherous in the unfeasible heels Donny had put me into, and by the time I made it to the vista where I’d last seen Haden, I knew he was gone.
A long sigh escaped my lungs. What was I even doing here? I shouldn’t have let Donny talk me into coming. Though my father might be too severe at times, this experience wasn’t worth the cost of rebellion.
I leaned against the rail and my heart stopped.
Haden watched me from below as he led a nimble blonde onto the floor of gyrating teenagers. She stared at him, awestruck like he was some kind of rock star. God, I thought she might be right. He murmured something into her ear, but he smiled at me—the kind of smile that signals the demise of the canary to the whims of the cat.
He hooked one arm around her waist and raised a brow to me. I wanted to hate him; the burn seared my heart. When he turned her to face me, my breath caught in my throat. She had no idea he was using her as a pawn to assert his control over me, but I’m not sure she would have minded even if she had known. I doubt, had the tables been turned, I would have cared. To be enveloped in his arms, surrounded by his scent, guided through a dance by his steady hands … No, I would gladly have played marionette to his puppet master too.
She ground against him, not unlike Donny but without Donny’s finesse. Or charm, for that matter. But I suppose charm wasn’t what that kind of dancing was really about. I tightened my grip on the rail if not my emotions, but nothing could make me look away. He’d trapped me in his sinful gaze designed to weaken my will, to raise the stakes in the battle for my heart. Maybe my soul. He wanted me to know what I was missing even as he made it clear I couldn’t have it. And I was depraved enough to let him.
The music changed tempo and they cut all the lights but the strobes. The effect heightened the feeling of displacement and made their dancing look like slow motion and out of sync with my perception. Haden gripped the blonde’s hips, holding her firmly against his pelvis. She let her head fall to the side, exposing the long white column of her neck. He sent me one more evil grin and kissed her neck.
My knees buckled. I felt the sensation of his lips on my skin. The kiss felt like a shock that started on my neck and traveled on my nerve endings all the way down to my toes. His hand skimmed slowly from her hip to her stomach … my stomach. As the sensation crept slowly towards my breasts, my breath hitched. I wanted to drop my head back, but I couldn’t. I was standing in the middle of a crowd by myself. He wasn’t touching me—I knew that logically, but not physically. The fangs of lust were sharp and without pity.
Finally I was able to break the spell and look away. I glanced once more, met his eyes, and pushed off the rail and back through the swarm of bodies. He’d hollowed me completely. All I could think of was getting out of there. I needed fresh air and silence.
CHAPTER NINE
T
he girl in his arms writhed against him becomingly. Pity that she couldn’t satisfy the dark need inside him. The ache that grew and licked at him like flames. There was only one who could fill that void. And Theia would want nothing to do with him now; he’d made sure of that.
he girl in his arms writhed against him becomingly. Pity that she couldn’t satisfy the dark need inside him. The ache that grew and licked at him like flames. There was only one who could fill that void. And Theia would want nothing to do with him now; he’d made sure of that.
It was better this way. Better for her that she hated him. Safer for them both.
He’d barely begun the familiar argument with himself when he found himself following her to the door. He knew all the reasons he should leave her be—he knew it would end badly. If he touched her … God help them all if he touched her.
There wasn’t enough room in my heart for all the feelings Haden was trying to put into it. The longing warred with the anger in a violent battle for supremacy. How much easier it would have been if I could have just hated him.
I burst through the doors and the cold shock of air spurred a crop of goose bumps across my bare skin instantly. Curse Donny and her makeover that left me in a dark parking lot looking like a hooker while she seduced the only nice boy I’d ever spent any time with. Curse Gabe for not being the one who interested me. Curse Haden for being the one who did.
“This is a new look for you.”
I whipped around, a mistake on ridiculous heels. Attempting to regain my balance and dignity, I dropped my purse.
Haden strolled towards me, stooping to retrieve the purse. Straightening, he offered the strap, dangling it from his finger while his eyes roamed my body dangerously. I wondered which Haden I was dealing with—the one from my dreams or the one from school. His gaze suggested sinful things wherever it landed on my skin and I wondered if maybe there was a third Haden after all.
I snatched the purse and shrugged, trying to remember I was angry with him. “Don’t get used to it. I turn back into a mouse at midnight.”
“You’re no mouse, Theia.” He paused. “I also didn’t say I liked your new look. I don’t care for it much at all.”
I shrugged once again. How kind of him to grind me into the ground before he scraped me off his shoe.
“What are you doing out here alone?” he asked. “It’s really not safe.”
Unable to come up with a coherent answer to that, I stared at him like he was out of his mind. Why on earth did he even pretend to care?
“There is a lot of drug activity here,” he explained, as if the scariest thing in my world was drug dealers.
“I don’t feel especially safe anywhere lately. Not even my own bed,” I taunted. I wasn’t trying to be sexual, though I’m sure it sounded that way. I was hoping he’d say something to prove he was aware of the dreams.
He didn’t take the bait, but did arch a brow. “Perhaps you need a better security system.”
“Shouldn’t you be getting back to your date?”
“I didn’t bring a date.” That didn’t mean he wasn’t leaving with one.
The wind picked up and I shivered. I was going to have to go back into the club and I really, really didn’t want to. Haden was right, though, I wasn’t safe alone in the parking lot, even if there weren’t roaming drug dealers and other “purveyors of dark” around. I’d let my frustration push me into irrational behavior.
“I should go.” I made an effort to step around him on his right, but he moved the same way and blocked me. Thinking it was a mistake, I went the other way and he blocked me again.
“Sorry,” he said, with no trace of regret.
“Are you going to pull my pigtails next?”
He laughed, the good kind. “Probably. I don’t know what it is about you, Theia. It seems to bring out the bad boy in me.”
“Is there another kind of boy in you, Haden?”
He stared into my eyes while he shook his head no. The scrutiny made me self-conscious. I tried to swallow, but my mouth was so dry. Without thinking, I licked my lower lip.
It was as if the action pushed a button and opened a gate. He took a heavy step towards me, wild and unbound. I shivered with equal parts fear and excitement. And then he stopped short of putting his hands on me.
Someone had started a car, and the headlights shone on us like a spotlight. I saw the same battle in his eyes that I fought within myself. He didn’t want to want me—but he did. Without thinking, I reached for a lock of his jet-black hair. I thought only to brush it away from his eyes, but he backed away quickly. “Don’t touch me,” he growled. “Never touch me.”
My hand was still suspended in a futile pose where his face had been a moment before. I snatched it back, and the familiar burning near my heart signaled that another crushing blow to my esteem had been delivered. I willed the stinging tears to wait. Just wait. Not now, not in front of him.
“Why do you hate me so much?” I couldn’t keep the words in, though I wished I could. All I was doing was providing him more ammunition.
“I don’t hate you.”
“I just don’t understand why you find it so amusing to be nice to me one minute and mock me the next. The way you stared at me from the balcony … Why were you so angry? What could I possibly have done to you to make you so mad?”
Haden’s hands pressed against his temples like he was trying to hold back a headache. “Truthfully, I didn’t like the way you were flaunting yourself in front of everyone. Your dress … the way you look tonight—it’s shameless.”
I exhaled a very unladylike snort that would have forced my father’s temple to throb with displeasure. But that was fine. For once, my own displeasure was more important to me. “What I wear is none of your business, Haden.”
“No, I don’t suppose it is.”
“I was dressed no differently than any other girl in that club,” I argued, even though he’d just agreed with me.
“But you are different from all those other girls.” His pupils enlarged, darkening his eyes eerily.
“Yes, I know. You don’t need to keep reminding me.” I crossed my arms instinctively. “If you’ll excuse me, I can remove my distasteful person from your sight.”
“Distasteful?” he scoffed. “You still don’t get it.” He took a step away from me. “Is that what you think? That I’m not tempted? That I don’t find you more delectable than the sweetest fruit?”
“Is that what the blonde was on the dance floor? The sweetest fruit? What kind of teenager talks like that, Haden? What are you?”
He didn’t answer. Of course.
“Does she know you touched her for my benefit?”
Haden looked away. “No. I don’t think she does.”
I was inhaling in gasps too big to consume. “You’re a user. You play games with people for fun. Me, the girl in the club, Brittany, Noelle—all of us are like pawns to you. I don’t know who you really are, Haden, or where you really come from, but I think you’re the devil.”
“You’re absolutely right.” I hadn’t imagined it—his eyes were changing. There was very little white left in them at all. “I’ve tried to stay away from you, Theia. I don’t think I can, but God knows I’ve tried.”
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