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Raine smirks, and I know she won’t be offended if I leave. “I have to study,” I tell her. “Next time I’m in the library, come over and say hi.” I back Wren up while giving Wren a nod.
“I will, Charlotte,” she smiles as we walk off, “And nice to meet you, Wren.”
Chapter 28
Hudson
I sit behind Charlotte in our English lecture class, and Asher sits beside her, but she ignores him. Tracey and Wren have learned to ignore them. Wren glances behind her shoulder and smiles at me. I wink back. The stuck-up girls in the dorm have been paying attention to me since Alpha has shown a serious interest in me. I delivered Wren and Prisha’s invite to the Halloween Party in person. But there’s only one co-ed I want.
Charlotte has pinned her hair up off her neck, and something about those wispy hairs makes me want to lean over and take a bite. I can’t want her the way I do. Not if I plan to destroy her later. What am I going to do with her after I’ve used her? Take her home and introduce her to my mother? Expect my mother to be hospitable to the daughter of the man that killed her husband? My plan is to ruin her and then her father. The plan isn’t to want her as mine.
Prof Tyler is boring the shit out of us, and I watch Charlotte’s eyes slowly close. The man ought to be arrested for torture, but it gives me a chance to do unnoticed what I need to do. I pretend to be rummaging for something in my bag. And then I slip my hand into Charlotte’s open bag, which is tossed under her seat. My hand is deep in the bag, feeling around until my fingers touch something hard metal. Her dorm room keys. Slowly, I slip them out and into my bag.
Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for our classes to end for the day. As expected, I walk up the stairs and find her outside of her single, digging through her bag.
I grin. “Hey, Charlotte. Locked out?”
She scowls at me and then looks worried again. “I can’t find my keys.”
“Come on. We’ll go look for Jake. You probably locked them in your room.”
She shakes her head. “I used them to lock my door this morning. I hope I didn’t drop them.”
“Come on, I’ll help you out.”
She glares at me as if the only good thing I can do for her is drop dead. “Really?” She scoffs. “The guy who’s waiting to watch me crash and burn wants to be my Boy Scout.” She walks past me up the hall. “Don’t bother. I can find him myself.”
I jog up behind her. “Look, I’m sorry for being a douche. I thought about what you said, and I wasn’t thinking straight. I was angry and took it out on you because I can’t take it out on your dad. I was wrong to be that way with you, and I’m sorry.”
She stops short. A few more steps, and we would be in the lounge. I can hear voices, but I want to speak to her in private. I lift my arm and press my hand against the wall, boxing her in. I stare into those blue eyes, and desire tugs in my gut. The same feeling I used to get when we were kids, and she’d turn around in class and smile at me. I step closer until I can feel the vibrations coming off her sexy body.
“It’s not you, is it?” she whispers. She glances toward the lounge, also wanting not to be heard. “You aren’t sending me those messages. Are you?”
I frown, noticing the dark circles under her eyes. The deeper I look, the more I see the fear. She’s sharing something serious with me. Something secret. Something that could hurt her. “No, I’m not sending you messages. Why are you asking?”
“Nothing.” Her openness snaps shut.
“Is someone bothering you?” I ask.
Charlotte looks up in surprise, which transforms into self-reproach. I guess at what she’s thinking.
“I don’t hide behind anonymous messages,” I tell her. “You know that. I put it out there. How I feel...” My voice trails off as her gaze softens. “No one better hurt you.”
My words carry fierceness. I’m the only one who has a right to hurt her. But I don’t want to hurt her right now. I take her chin in my hand and pull her mouth toward mine. I never had the chance to kiss her when we were kids, and nothing compares to this. My lips press into hers as I lean my body into hers, pushing her up against the wall. My hand lifts and touches her chest, slowly moving upward until my fingers start to wrap around her neck. I push my mouth against her bottom lip, catching it in my teeth, as she moans into my mouth. I crush her into the wall, grinding my hips into her. Her hands brace against my chest, her nails trying to dig in, but my thick sweater weakens the pain. Panting, I step back, letting her go.
Charlotte watches me, slowly wiping her mouth on her hand. I was too rough, exposing how bad I wanted her. She moves slowly as she catches her breath. Charlotte moves away from the wall and heads into the lounge. She pauses and looks back. Her eyes sweep over my body before she walks away.
I trail behind her like I’ve been trained. And we reach Jake’s door before I can dissuade her, but he’s not there. “He’s probably at Alpha,” I tell her. “He only sleeps here. But, in case of emergencies, you could call him.”
She shakes her head. “No, I don’t want to bother him. I’ll send him a text to find me when he comes back.”
“Hey, why don’t I take you into town and we have dinner out?”
She frowns a little, probably wondering what the fuck is wrong with me. One day, I’m threatening her, and now, I’m asking her out. “Like a date?” she asks.
“Whatever you want to call it.” I lean in and kiss her cheek so gently I barely touch her skin. Charlotte looks at me with her wide blue gaze, and I wait, confident that she’ll say yes.
“I guess you’re a better choice than finding a place to hang for an hour.”
