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He gave a sigh and released my arm, his brows tugging together. “This is about Saturday, right?”
I twisted away and resumed my speed walk down the hall. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“What happened with Riley and Reno has nothing to do with us, Lissa,” Leon said, trailing behind.
“Us?” I halted, spinning to him with a derisive smirk and a mocking brow arched. “One kiss and suddenly there’s an us?” I shook my head. “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself there, Bradshaw. You should really check that ego.”
He brushed a hand over his styled hair and tipped his chin up, eyes on my face. “You know what I mean.”
I raised a hand. “Look, let me stop you right there. We made out. It wasn’t half bad, but I’m not looking for a repeat. If I found you mildly interesting for five minutes, I’m already over it. Let’s leave it at that.”
Leon’s eyes narrowed. “So, we’re back to that?”
I fidgeted with the sleeve of my sweater and attempted to look uninterested. “And what is that exactly?”
His jaw tightened. “Back to you acting like a class A bitch.”
The comment, coming from him, hit me harder than I’d care to admit. The knowledge had irritation lining my stomach because I didn’t want or need his approval or acceptance.
Not from the guy who lusted after his friend’s girlfriend, then pretended to feel something for her best friend.
Except he didn’t, did he? My brain chose that moment to sink the knife in, and my eyes skittered away when I realized this was actually all on me. I’d kissed him. Practically jumped him, in fact.
I swallowed over the humiliation blocking my throat and muttered, “We never left that. It was just harder to point out all your flaws when your tongue was in my mouth.”
A light smirk pulled at his lips before he dragged his teeth mercilessly slowly over his pouty bottom lip.
My body immediately jumped to attention, but my brain wanted to lasso my hormones and demand they have some goddamn self-respect. I locked my limbs in place when he advanced a step closer.
“If I’d known how easy it was to shut you up…” he said quietly, lifting the back of his hand and brushing his knuckles over my cheekbone, “I’d have done it a long time ago.”
His blue eyes softened as they swept down over my features, and a simple look shouldn’t have had the ability to paralyze me.
My throat thickened, his touch releasing a flurry of tingles, and I realized exactly what I was up against. No wonder the guy had brainless bimbos swallowing his dick left, right and center, half in love with him. And now I was acting just like them.
A bout of fury rocked me at my core. I welcomed it with open arms and knocked his hand aside. I wasn’t down for this. For the lies, the act—whatever the hell this was that coaxed girls out of their pants and onto his dick. If I hadn’t overheard him this morning, I might have fallen for it, and that little insight was sobering as all hell.
I’d thought I was more discerning than that; thought I knew better than to fall for some pickup line. Apparently not. But I knew when something wasn’t worth my time or effort. And I was nobody’s second best. Not his, and not my asshole dad’s.
It had been hovering there, on the precipice of my mind, since I’d stood with my back pressed to the wall this morning, my hand clenched around my backpack… I wasn’t the person Leon wanted; I was the person he could have.
It hurt.
It hurt because my dad had walked away without a backward glance once, and I’d promised myself I’d never allow an undeserving asshole to be the reason for my pain again. It hurt because I’d sworn to never fall for the same bull my dad fed my mom for all those years, drip-feeding her scraps of his affection and attention, keeping her around until something better came along. My loving father ditched the family he’d created for a newer, shinier one. He had a wife over ten years his junior now, and a son I’d never met. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d spoken to my father.
He sent a card on my birthday and Christmas, paid his way financially, but he was otherwise absent from my life. An arrangement he was obviously happy to accept since he’d never tried to rectify it. But then I was part of the unwanted family he left behind. Easily discarded and eagerly forgotten.
So, I did the same to him.
He hurt my mother, left us behind, so I cut him out of my life, and then acted like he’d never been a part of it. Eventually, I numbed myself to the hurt he inflicted.
But here I was kissing Claremont’s most notorious playboy.
My mom’s mistakes had taught me nothing, but I would learn from my own, and I wouldn’t make the same one twice.
Slicing slitted eyes to his, I muttered, “Don’t take rejection very well, do you, Pretty Boy? Surprising really, thought you’d be used to it after last year. Didn’t Riley kick your ass to the curb and jump into bed with your best friend?”
He reacted exactly how I expected him to. Of course, he did. It took less than a second for his face to harden, for darkness to descend over it like a shadow. His head dipped in a curt nod and he slid both hands in his pockets, fastening his steely gaze on me.
