Page 131 of Darkest Obsession

He still won’t let go of me. I don’t want to overreact and kick him in the nuts, but every cell in my body’s telling me to get the fuck away from Jamal and get the fuck out of here.

“Yes,” he says. “Now shut up. Look at yourself, Kola. Men aren’t exactly lining up for girls like you.”

He shoves his hand forcefully into my sweatpants, taking me by surprise. I scream and try to fight back but he carries me across the courts and shoves me against the wall, his hands forcing my thighs apart. I scream. I scream so fucking loudly and try kicking him, but I can’t do much because he’s hurting me. I just had surgery down there and danced and he’s taken me by complete surprise.

I shriek in pain and try to fight him off. The pain is so fucking blinding that I don’t hear the door to the courts open.

“GET OFF HER!” I hear someone scream. Then I hear footsteps running across the basketball courts. Jamal shoves me against the wall and all the air evacuates my lungs. He lets me drop to the ground and I see a flash of blond as a fist heads straight towards Jamal’s face and I fall completely unconscious.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Clover

“Why is it so fucking hard to believe that I care about you?” Thomas’ voice rumbles throughout my bedroom. I hate how he makes me want to answer him instead of pushing him away.

I can’t even stop myself from fighting him — even totally aware that I’m just pushing him away because I’m scared.

“Because, it’s never happened before!” I yell at him. I hate that my voice shakes. “You don’t know what my life has been like but it’s been one dickhead after another. Even my parents want to use me. I can have sex. I’m not fucking broken. I just can’t do the other part.”

His voice softens and I hate him getting all soft with me like I’m a little lamb. I’m not weak. I don’t need Thomas to handle me with kid gloves.

He nods and murmurs, “You’re scared.”

I hate that he can see through me. My body trembles despite my efforts to stay calm.

“I’m not scared of anything,” I snarl, gritting my teeth and restraining myself as much as possible. Which is just barely.

“Then let me give you one kiss. Prove it.”

I can feel my lips shaking. I hate the raw emotion spilling out of me and I especially hate that Thomas is the one forcing these emotions out of me. I hate how he keeps trying to make me weak with all these kisses, those flowers and that gift. I can’t deny I love the bracelet. It’s perfect and he knows my style enough that I can wear it with everything.

He’s a Bainbridge. Those diamonds are probably real. I want to put it on right now and there’s even a part of me that wants to say “yes” to Thomas.

That fucking bastard.

“Okay,” I whisper. “You can kiss me.”

He inches towards me carefully. He never rushes me, never pushes me… I can almost forgive him for calling me a slut because he’s so fucking gentle with the way he teases my senses. His hand rushes to my cheek and I smell his cologne and deodorant intermingling with the delicious smell of Thomas.

He leans down, his body forming a protective wall over me as his lips ease towards mine. The first touch of Thomas’ lips drives me wild. I feel free when I’m kissing him. It’s when our lips are apart that I think of all the reasons we shouldn’t be together and kissing his perfect lips becomes a problem. He doesn’t force me to kiss him for too long. He pulls away and grins.

“I like you,” he whispers. “That’s it.”

“You called me a slut. You were such an asshole. You did creepy shit, Thomas. How can we move past that?”

He touches me softly and plants a warm kiss on my cheek. Give in to him, Clover. Just let it happen, just for tonight.

“Same way I moved past those bruises. We let time heal it all.”

“If we date… what about Spicy Freak? What about… everything?”

The person who hurt Kola is still out there. It could be someone who goes to our school, even.

“You don’t know how far I’ll go to keep you safe,” Thomas whispers. “You don’t.”

It sounds ominous and my mind immediately rushes to the news of Molly’s suicide. I never suspected Thomas had anything to do with that. There wasn’t any reason to believe she didn’t commit suicide based on the reports, but the look in Thomas’ eyes right now tells me that he really would kill for me, even if he didn’t then.

“What about the holiday?”