Page 127 of Darkest Obsession

I grab the papers from her hand and toss them aside. She’s crazy. I hate how much I want to be with her, no matter how much she scares me. But I just stand there and let her fight me until she’s out of breath.

“What the bloody hell is wrong with you?” I ask her with a low voice, waiting for Clover to explain why she walked in here with so much bloody anger.

“You’re what’s wrong!” Clover screams.

Fuck’s sake. Seriously?

“What did I do?”

“You snuck into my room for one thing,” Clover says, throwing a punch at my stomach. I grunt, but her punch doesn’t even hurt.

“That’s like… totally our thing though.”

Clover puts her hands on her hips and her cute little nostrils flare out.

“I hate you.”

“Join the club. Why are you all pissed? I was just waiting to talk. I know you went out with your mum.”

“Yeah, I did. It was great.”

Clearly, it wasn’t. Her penchant for violence appears to have increased significantly. I take the stack of papers up and Clover lunges at me.

“Give me those!”

“I’m reading them.”

“I can see that, you dick!” she yells while lunging for the stack. No luck. I’m tall enough that I can keep anything out of Clover’s hands if I want to. She ought to recognize that.

It’s a contract. On the night of her dance recital, Clover’s mum gave her a contract.

“This is awful.”

Clover folds her arms as I set the contracts on her desk.

“You don’t have to sign those,” I tell her.

She rolls her eyes at me like I couldn’t possibly understand her life.

“If I want a damn place to rest my head I do.”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” I tell her honestly. Yes, there’s a time to talk to Clover about her parents and her family, but it isn’t now. I’m waiting in her bedroom for a reason. I couldn’t help myself after watching her tonight. I can’t let myself hurt her anymore, but I can’t keep away from her either. I can’t let Clover keep running. I have to show her how I feel and show her that she doesn’t have to fear anything. I’m not going to leave her.

“Good. Neither do I.”

“You were beautiful tonight,” I tell her honestly, because that’s what I’d much rather prefer talking about.

Her face softens for one rare moment and she unfolds her arms. Still, Clover can’t look at me, or she won’t. I can’t tell which.

“Thanks,” she whispers.

“Not just beautiful, you’re really talented. I can tell you love it.”

Her body moves in this fucking perfect way. I’ve never met a girl who can move like that. I dunno much about dance, but I’ll tell you, this was nothing like ballet. She was… sexy. She lost herself in the movements and it was like for a moment, she wasn’t all self-conscious and angry. She was just… herself. I like when she’s herself..

“I do,” she says. “Dance was always my freedom.”

I can’t stop blathering on like the awkward teenage boy I was before the muscles. I know she thinks I’m handsome and fuck’s sake, I like her, but she’s the sort of pretty that’s a little bit scary.