I leaned in, and tucked an errand piece of hair behind her ear. “You’re definitely not a fuck buddy.”
“No,” she snapped, slapping my hand away. “Because I was only good enough for one fuck right?” Her chest moved up and down as her breathing accelerated. “Well congratulations, Dane. You did it. You got the girl, whose life you made miserable, into bed. That’s what you wanted wasn’t it? To prove that not even I would be able to resist? Your friends must be so fucking proud, because once again, I’m the idiot they’re laughing at.”
“That’s what you think?” My stomach hollowed out as I realized it was my fault she thought of herself as nothing more than some conquest to me.
“It’s what I know.”
She turned around and the sight of her walking away from me made me snap. I should’ve let her walk away. It was the best option for both of us. But I no longer cared about that.
I grabbed her elbow, and spun her around. “You’re wrong, Kennedy. You don’t know anything.”
“Then why else would you spend the night with me, and then treat me like I don’t exist afterwards? I know you probably regret it, but that’s no reason to make me feel like shit.” She yanked her arm, but I held on tighter. “Now, let me go. I’m done with this conversation, and I’m done with you!”
My mind tripped over the word ‘regret’. She was right, but not for the reasons she thought. I wasn’t a mind reader, but I’d been with enough girls to recognize that Kennedy probably felt like I’d used her. Maybe I had, but the only reason I regretted being with her is because I knew when it was over that I’d want more.
“You’re right,” I said, stepping closer to her until the warmth of her body washed over me. “I do regret it, but - ”
She cut me off by placing her hands against my chest and shoving me back. “I don’t want to hear this. So let’s pretend it never happened, okay?”
“Damnit, woman!” I yelled. “Let me fucking finish!”
I’d expected her to flinch at the sound of my voice, but she surprised me by standing her ground, her face twisted into a grimace.
“Just drop it! There’s nothing left to say.”
She turned her back again, and I threw my hands in the air. “You drive my fucking crazy, do you know that? Half the time I don’t know whether I want to fuck you, or wring your damn neck!”
She spun around quickly, and replied, “I drive you crazy? Try being in my shoes, dickhead. You screwed me, left me, and then I had to find out you had a girlfriend! So forgive me for wishing you never laid a hand on me.”
My brows furrowed. “Girlfriend?”
Those green eyes rolled. “Don’t play dumb. It’s all anyone is talking about, you and that Amy bimbo.”
I’d heard a few rumors in the last few days, but paid them no mind because they were all lies. I didn’t date, and I rarely slept with the same girl twice, a fact I was quite proud of until one night with Kennedy. The jealousy-ridden tone in her voice made my lips twitch, and I repressed the smile threatening to appear. “Are you jealous?”
She scoffed, but looked up at the sky instead of at me. “Fucking unreal,” she murmured.
I closed the small space between us, and she jerked her head forward when I brushed my finger down her cheek.
“It’s okay to be jealous, Kennedy. But I can assure you I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Good for you,” she replied haughtily. “Not that I cared to begin with.”
“Then why bring it up?”
“You know, for such a smart guy you really are a fucking idiot. I felt bad enough thinking I’d become one of your bed flies, but to think you had a girlfriend at the time made me sick to my stomach. I’m not a whore!”
God, she infuriated me to no end.
“No one said you’re a whore, damnit! If you’d let me finish what I was saying earlier then maybe you’d see it differently. But no, you’re too stubborn for your own damn good!”
“I give up!” She stomped her bare foot on the asphalt, and scrunched her nose in anger. If I weren’t so ticked off myself then I would have thought she looked cute.
“It was a one-time thing,” she continued, “and we both regret it, clearly, so let’s just drop all this crap and move on already! We’ll agree to stay out of each other’s way from now on, if that’s what it will take to make this go away. Do we have a deal?”
This was my out. I could agree, and walk away like it had never happened. But who was I kidding? I’d spent most of my teen years thinking about what it would have been like to physically be with Kennedy, and after it finally happened I had no clue which way was up. I’d tried to exorcise the memory of us from my head in every way possible, and when I’d tried to sleep with someone else I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want anyone else damnit. I wanted the stubborn, full of shit girl staring at me outside in the middle of a semi empty parking lot, the one who turned my anger into lust and still saw more in me with one look, than I’d ever seen in myself.
So I made a choice, and stopped giving a fuck about how it would end.
“No. We don’t have a deal.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s the only deal I’m offering. I’m not going to be one of many.”
How many times was I going to have to point out that she wasn’t one of many before she fucking listened?
Then it hit me. I hadn’t actually said it to her. My actions only proved that she was right about me, that all I’d wanted was to get her into bed for a night, and move on.
I needed to show her how wrong she was.
“You aren’t one of many,” I said, my voice low, and hard. It reflected the fury I felt towards myself. “In fact, you’re quite the opposite. I have been going out of my fucking mind trying to avoid you because I knew, Goddamnit, I knew one night with you wouldn’t be enough. All I could fucking see was you, all I wanted was you, Kennedy.”
Her eyes had widened at some point while I was talking, but then they narrowed, and she pursed her lips.
“You’re just saying that because you want to get into my panties again. I hate to break it to you but that shit doesn’t work on me, and our brief romp was a never-to-be-repeated performance.”
I held my gaze steady, but leaned into her and wrapped my hands around her biceps. “You sure about that?”
“Don’t touch me,” she said through gritted teeth. I looked at her mouth, and instinctively licked my bottom lip. She tried like hell to break free from my hold, but I only pulled her closer. Her mouth parted with a soft gasp when our chests collided, and I took that small opening to press my lips to hers. She remained stiff, and her pigheaded behavior stoked the fire inside me.
I pulled away, and glared. “You’re being difficult, Kennedy. And you know how much I like a challenge.”
“Just because I refuse to kiss you back, and spread my legs doesn’t mean I’m challenging you. Maybe I just don’t want to? Maybe you sucked so badly the first time that I don’t want it to happen again? Have you ever thought of that?”
This was what we did – she pushed, and I pulled, and then we did it all over again in reverse.