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ARIA
“And he took me for pizza and then we walked and talked for hours. I swear to god, Aria, it was perfect. Just…perfect.” Hope sighed and leaned against the locker next to mine. Her arms wrapped around the books she held to her chest as she stared upward, in a world of her own. She’d been telling me bits and pieces about her date throughout the day at every opportunity she had. “I think I’m in lust.”
I raised my brows and shut my locker. “In lust?” I asked, sure she was making the statement up.
“Yep.” She nodded repeatedly as she stared at me. “It’s not quite love yet, but it could turn into it, and it’s more than just liking someone. I’m in lust, dammit, Aria. Just be happy for me.” The grin on her face was a complete contradiction to the words she was saying.
I held my hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. You’re in lust.”
“Damn straight, I am.” She pushed off the locker as the first bell rang for our last class of the day. “We’re going out again this Saturday, but in a group. Want to come?”
I winced, thinking about what I had to do this weekend. “Can’t. Family cookout.”
Hope’s eyes widened. “As in…” She lowered her voice and moved closer to me. “Cade’s family?”
“Yep.” I glanced over at his classroom door in time to see him pull it open and stand to the side as pupils filed in. “I gotta get to class. I’ll message you after school.”
I hurried away from her a
nd tried to keep my gaze off Cade as she shouted, “You better, ho!”
I groaned and rolled my eyes at her words, waving at her in acknowledgment, and then entered the classroom. Cade’s cologne wrapped around me, warming me in the same way a hug from him would, and I couldn’t stop my lips from lifting. I may have been keeping my distance and trying to successfully put a front on for everyone I could, but I couldn’t deny the way I felt when I was around him.
Slipping into my seat, I pulled out my notepad and stared at the front of the classroom. Since everything had happened, this was my favorite class. Not track where I had to concentrate on my running, and not PE where we were surrounded by so many students, but my world history class.
Here, I could stare at him and have an excuse. Here, I could remember the way he’d crouched down in front of me and kissed me. Here, I could live in a fantasy land where everything was perfect. The hour class was my own slice of heaven, and no one could take it away from me.
I watched as Cade strolled up the aisles between the desks. I didn’t look away when he turned to write something on the board attached to the wall near his desk, and I kept staring as he paced in front of the class and talked nonstop about the subject we were learning.
I made extensive notes, wanting to soak in each of his words, knowing this would soon be over. I’d be back to what my life now was, diving into the darkness with only a small light to keep it illuminated. Cade was that light, one I drifted toward but didn’t get too close, afraid it would burn me.
In the space of such a small amount of time, we had been through so much, and yet, it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.
As if he could hear my thoughts, his stare met mine. At first, he moved his gaze past me but then swung it back, almost as if he was surprised I was staring at him. I hadn’t allowed myself to really look into his eyes, not since we’d been caught, but weeks had passed, and things were getting worse without him in my life.
I needed his salvation, even if it was only his eyes focused on me.
From here, I could see the green specks sparking inside his dark-blue orbs. I could tell from the way they widened that he was shocked I didn’t look away, and when he stumbled on his words a little, I couldn’t help but smile. I was affecting him, just like he did to me.
“Open up your books to page two hundred and two,” his gruff voice demanded, and murmurs spread around the room as everyone did. I had to look away to open up my book, and when I looked at the title, I realized we were about to have to read. “Josh?” I heard him say, but I was now focused on his voice instead of his face. “Read those two pages.”
Josh was two seats in front of me, and cleared his throat then started to talk. I looked up, expecting to see Cade standing where he was before I’d looked down, but he wasn’t there. I frowned but didn’t have to look far. He was leaning against his desk, his arms crossed over his chest, and his attention fully focused on me.
My breath caught in my throat at the intensity showcased in his eyes, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to breathe if he kept staring at me like that. But I couldn’t turn away. I couldn’t bring myself to look anywhere but at him, and when his lips pulled up into the smile I’d only ever seen given to me, butterflies swarmed in my stomach.
He was making me feel things again—things I had no right to feel—but I didn’t have any control. I never had control when it came to Cade, and I was slowly starting to realize that.
I shuffled in my seat, but it wasn’t like the last time I’d done it in here. I wasn’t trying to feel the sharpness from another one of my cuts. I was turned on. Turned on and needing his touch like I needed my next breath.
My lips parted, a small gasp leaving them. His nostrils flared, a muscle ticking in his jaw, but it was his hooded eyes that told me he was turned on too. He was feeling the air swirling between us as well. My body begged me to stand and saunter toward him. It craved his touch more than anything else it ever had, but there was nothing I could do. Nothing I could say. Unless…
I pulled my hand across my chest, my palms connecting with my erect nipples, but I didn’t take my gaze off his, not even when he looked down and saw the outline through my T-shirt. He stood suddenly, but I didn’t stop.
“Read the next two pages, Josh,” Cade demanded as he strolled around to his desk and sat on his chair. He pushed it under so I could only see his chest and one of his hands. His other arm disappeared under his desk, and I bit down on my bottom lip at the thoughts running through my head. Was he touching himself while staring at me? Was he thinking about the only night we’d had together? Did he remember the way his cock felt inside me?
I was turning myself on even more with each one of my thoughts, and before I knew it, my hand was between my legs over my jeans. I needed some relief from the tension building between us, and when he mouthed, “Touch yourself,” I couldn’t deny him.
