Page 101 of Make Me Mean It

Theo’s jaw clenches. “I’m not running. I’m saving myself.”

“From what?”

I pull him closer, and Theo stumbles into me until our bodies knock together. He goes still, green eyes moving over my face before his mouth presses into a hard line and his gaze drops again.

Fuck that. I catch his face between my hands and kiss him, dragging him back into me before he can put that distance between us again. I have no fucking clue what happens when we leave this alley, and right now I don’t care. He’s here, I want him here, and I’m not ready for him to be the one who walks away.

My fingers dig deeper into his cheeks as I kiss him, pouring every bit of frustration I can’t put into words straight into his mouth. Theo gasps against me, and I swallow the sound, tongue slipping between his lips as I pull him closer.

He gives in, mouth moving against mine, only to start pulling back again before I’m ready to let him.

“At least let me take you home,” I murmur. “We just-”

The rest sticks in my throat because I have no idea what to call what just happened without making it real in a way I’m nowhere near ready for. My forehead drops against his with a frustrated sigh.

“You couldn’t even walk a minute ago. Let me take you home.”

I catch my bottom lip between my teeth while Theo studies me, waiting for whatever argument he’s inevitably going to throw back. Instead, he leans into my hands, his thumb catching my lip and pulling it gently free before smoothing over the sting.

“This is so fucked,” he mutters.

A breath escapes me that’s almost a laugh because, yeah. It really is.

Theo kisses me again before I can say it, slower this time, and the last of the fight seems to leave him as his mouth sinks into mine.

“Come on. I’ll text Marcus,” I breathe, putting enough space between us that I can actually think and turn towards the car before Theo can pull me back into whatever keeps happening every time we touch. Walking gives me something to do, somewhere to look that isn’t his swollen mouth or the marks I left across his skin.

It doesn’t stop me feeling him everywhere.

***

By the time we get back to Theo’s, the drive has done absolutely nothing to help.

I’ve had twenty minutes with my hands to myself, my eyes fixed on the road and enough silence to get my head straight, and somehow I’m still walking into his bedroom with the taste of him in my mouth and no idea what happens now.

The door clicks shut behind me, my shoulders drawing up at the sound. I don’t know why the closed door matters when I was alone with Theo in an alley twenty minutes ago, but it does.

My boxers are damp beneath my jeans, fabric clinging uncomfortably to my skin, and I can’t ignore the evidence of what we just did with Theo standing right there. I hook a finger beneath the collar of my shirt and tug it away from my neck, eyes slipping to the bathroom door.

A shower.

I need a shower.

“You mind if I, uh-” I nod towards the bathroom, but the word refuses to come out, which is ridiculous. I’ve walked into his room without knocking, stolen his shit, argued with him while he’s half-dressed.

Now I can’t even ask to use his bathroom.

I rub the back of my neck. “Shower.”

“Go ahead.”

Theo’s already working open the buttons of his shirt, and my hand stills at the back of my neck as the fabric gradually parts beneath his fingers. My gaze follows despite every reason it shouldn’t, catching on flushed skin and the marks scattered across his chest before settling on the darker one near his collarbone.

Mine.

Heat rushes up my neck, and I drag my eyes away, turning towards the bathroom before I can stand here staring at the evidence of what we just did like an idiot.

“Theo?”