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Kyland moved in close to my body until his face was right above mine. I looked up at him, blood whooshing through my body. “I’m going to leave here, Tenleigh. Nothing is going to stop me. Not you, not anything. Not anyone. Do you hear me?” His voice sounded strained, and his eyes were heated and yes… angry.
My breath quickened as I attempted to get hold of my racing heart, and scattered thoughts. I didn’t need him to stay here. I didn’t need him to feel indebted to me for any reason. But I did need him to kiss me. Right that very second. I moved my eyes to his lips and Kyland made a strangled, groaning sound in his throat and moved his face close to mine. “I’m leaving this place behind when I go. Everything about it. Even you.”
Well, why wouldn’t he? I was nothing to him.
“Okay,” I gasped. He paused for one brief second, his eyes flaring, and then his lips met mine. He took my face in his hands, his fingers weaving through my hair and his tongue pushing into my mouth. My whole body felt like it would combust as I brought my arms around his neck and pressed myself into his hard form, melting into him. He groaned, a tortured sound, and tilted my head with his hands as his tongue plunged more deeply into my mouth. I moaned back, my tongue dancing with his, playing, tasting. I broke from his mouth, gasping in air as he nipped and kissed up my throat. “Yes, oh God, Kyland, don’t stop,” I begged. And if he would have laid me down on the floor right there and made love to me, I would have let him. I was very close to begging him to do just that. Blood pumped furiously between my legs causing a pounding drumbeat of need. My breasts felt heavy and achy.
His lips returned to mine and he plunged his tongue in and out of my mouth as if he were starving for me. And I loved it. I wanted the kiss to go on and on. I never ever wanted it to end.
Suddenly, Kyland pulled away from me and stepped back, breathing harshly, looking dazed and somehow still angry, the evidence of his own arousal tenting his jeans. “Holy fuck, Tenleigh. What are you doing?”
My blood ran cold as suddenly as it had heated only moments ago, my eyes widening as I stared incredulously at him. “What…what am I doing?”
And just like that, Kyland turned and walked out of the Dennville Public Library, leaving me alone and confused, my lips and my heart bruised.
I had let him do it to me again! What was wrong with me? I leaned against the bookshelf behind me and vowed never again to let Kyland Barrett humiliate me. He wasn’t the only one with plans to leave here. Why did he even have to register on my radar? God, I hated him.
I had a sneaking suspicion you probably weren’t supposed to think about someone you hated all day and all night.
Damn.
But I did make it a point to avoid Kyland Barrett the entire next week. Once I saw him at the end of a hallway in school and I made a sudden turn so I didn’t have to pass him, and another time I glanced out the window of one of my classrooms and saw him outside walking with Shelly Galvin. I quickly looked away, jealousy filling my chest, making me feel angry and brittle. He hadn’t seemed to have a problem kissing her.
Again, this was why it was my plan to avoid men around these parts—they were either entitled users or backwoods losers. For a brief moment, I had thought Kyland was different, but he wasn’t. He had purposely humiliated me, knowing I was attracted to him. Well, never again. There were plenty of other girls happy to have him play with them around here. He wouldn’t die of loneliness anytime soon. I had seen proof of that.
I sat chewing on my pencil, unable to get him off my mind, though. I had liked him. I had allowed myself to think about him as I lay on the small couch in our trailer, drifting off to sleep. I had dreamed of him staring into my eyes with the same wondrous expression he’d worn as he looked at the sunset. I had dreamed of him touching me, kissing me, even loving me. I had dreamed of seeing him with his shirt off, my fingers trailing down his warm, suntanned skin… Even though my mind had warned me to stop dreaming, the very thought of it had sent a current of electricity straight to my heart. Stop, Tenleigh. Just stop.
Plan Swear Off Men: officially reinstated.
After school, I went to the library so I wouldn’t encounter Kyland walking up the hill to his home. I knew he wouldn’t be checking out any more books. I was safe—and I liked it there. It was like my own personal office. I could sit at the small table in the back, spread my homework out, and have all the privacy I needed. No one in this town was too interested in reading except for me. And it was a lot more comfortable than the small pullout table in our trailer, the one that squeaked every time I pressed down on it to write.
