Those Heartless Boys

by E. M. Moore

  He releases me, and I fall back to my feet. I blink. Stone’s already ten strides away, heading toward the exit of the cafeteria. Meghan looks like she wants to murder me, and the cafeteria is about as quiet as a church. I grab my new tray from Lucille while she’s still shocked and turn away from all of them. Wyatt’s laughter cackles through the room.

  I don’t fight Lucas on wanting to eat outside now. In fact, I lead the way. We head toward a circular table that’s away from everyone else, and I sit, setting my tray down, but ignoring the food all together. Fuck me. I wanted Stone to kiss me. Me—my body—practically everything down to the cellular level, wanted him to do it. To just kiss me right there in front of the whole cafeteria.

  My face burns. I’m sure what I looked like to everyone else. A dazed sex toy puppet, perhaps?

  Lucas sits, which catapults me back to reality. He ignores his food, too. Instead, he runs his hands through his disheveled hair and levels me with a stare.

  “What?” I ask, my voice coming out hollow. I’m astonished, turned on, and confused. It’s an interesting mix.

  “I don’t think you understand how fucking sexy that just was.”

  “What?” I ask again, though this time my voice is pitched much higher because he’s fucking crazy. No one has ever put me and sexy in the same sentence.

  “You,” he says. “That pink in your cheeks. That stare.” He stands briefly, lips pressing together, and if I’m not mistaken, I’m pretty sure he rearranges himself. “Fuck,” he groans, breathing in deeply. “Do you know how much longer you might hate me for? Because I certainly don’t hate you.”

  I sigh. “Lucas, don’t.”

  “No, I’m serious,” he says. He pushes his tray aside and slides over to my small bench. He straddles it, and it’s impossible not to see the pitch in his shorts. My body reacts to his in turn. Suddenly, I’m all too aware of him. Shallow breaths make my breathing falter. He reaches his hand up to cup my cheek. “Jesus, Dakota. You’re—”

  “Am I interrupting anything?” Wyatt drops his tray to the table, and it clatters.

  I jump, breaking the connection between Lucas and me. “Yes,” Lucas says, eyeing his friend like he’d love to stab him with the cafeteria-issued butter knife.

  “Oh.” Wyatt shrugs with a huge grin. “Well, I actually don’t care. I was just trying to be nice.”

  He plops his ass on the seat across from us. Sighing, Lucas pulls his tray over, and we all bite into our food like it’s the only thing we want to be doing right now. For me, it’s only a distraction about what’s just happened in the past ten minutes.

  It isn’t until I’ve polished off both slices of pizza that I understand the buzzing coursing through me is just the high of finally sticking up for myself. I’m living every dorky girl’s dream right now. The bitches actually got what was coming to them.

  I smile as I sip my Lucille-bought chocolate milk. Can I get an amen for dorks everywhere?

  18

  The last class of the day, I share with Lucas. I get to the room first, but when he comes in, he sits next to me, pulling his desk close to mine, ignoring when the teacher tells him to move it back into his row. Miraculously, the professor doesn’t push it. She rolls her eyes like she has more important things to do than tell a twenty-something year old where to put his desk. Which, let’s face it, she probably does.

  However, despite her airs, she plays a video during class. It’s a mythology class, so I guess that makes sense. Five minutes into it, though, it’s apparent that Lucas is either bored or has no apparent interest in a three-headed beast.

  Slyly, he moves his desk even closer to mine. “Don’t ignore me, Dakota,” he whispers.

  I glance over at him as if I’m bored when I’m far from it. Ever since he cupped my face earlier, staring into me with those deep brown eyes, I haven’t been able to get him out of my head. Actually, I haven’t been able to get Stone out of my head either. The two of them have taken up space in my brain and won’t leave.

  I tell myself it’s an easy fix. I’m just fucking horny, so a little alone time with myself with the blinds drawn in my room tonight is definitely in order. In high school, I started to have feelings that just wouldn’t go away. I refused to relieve them, but then one day in the computer lab, I looked up a scientific article about self-stimulation. It turns out it’s perfectly normal and healthy to masturbate, and I’ve been doing it ever since. That particular research incident, however, did earn me an embarrassing conversation with the librarian who told me that there was school-appropriate research and there was home-appropriate research. Yeah, like we had the internet. No way. If Dad needed to look something up, he went to the public library, and even then, he’d tell me it was the slowest connection he’d ever had the displeasure to wait for. I never minded when he went, though, because he would bring me home books. So. Many. Books.

  “You’re doing it again,” Lucas teases.

  I point toward the screen. “I’m watching this.”

  “No one’s watching this,” he scoffs.

  I take a quick look around. Literally no one was actually watching it. A few students were blatantly on their phones while others were doing assignments from other courses.

  Jesus hell.

  He leans closer to me, and I swear I can smell mint on his breath. “We thought we might talk treasure tonight.” He watches for my reaction, waiting.

  Talking treasure with them is something I’ve been putting off, but I also know it needs to happen. It’s not just about the treasure for me though. It’s about finding my dad, too, and we won’t be able to do that unless we go up into the mountains.

  The note said, “Find the treasure and find your dad.” If these people aren’t fucking with me, then that’s exactly what I need to do. It’s Stone who’s holding me back. I still have a mental barrier the size of the Titanic when it comes to him, and it certainly doesn’t help when he’s a gigantic asshole.

  “I promise Stone will be on his best behavior.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” I tell him with a sigh. “Because he wants to know everything I know, and if he thinks I’m going to give it to him, he’ll be a stand-up guy for point seven seconds.”

  “Meh. Maybe point five.”

  I smirk at Lucas. “How’d you get mixed up with him anyway? All of you,” I tack on. I’ve always wondered how their friendship started. First, it was just Lance and Stone all over the news. Then, we started to see Lucas next, followed shortly after by Wyatt. I never dared pose the question to my father. If I seemed at all interested in the Jacobs, I would’ve had to endure an hours long lecture about how evil they were.

  Lucas’s brown eyes darken over like storm clouds rolling across the desert. He runs his hands through his unkempt hair that manages to look sexy as hell. If only my curls could pull off that look, I’d be one happy girl.

  “That kind of information will cost you,” he teases.

  “Cost me?”

  “A date.”

  “A date?” I say it so loud that the professor shushes me and glares at Lucas again. Lucas and I school our features, pretending to watch the movie until the curious onlookers turn back around.

  When they do, Lucas grins at me. “Ever been on one of those?” he whispers.

  His tone, even now, sets my skin afire, leaving a burning in its wake. “Maybe I have,” pretending to be coy, even though I’m sure I’m not fooling anyone. Least of all him.

  I think back to the guy who took my V-card that summer. We kind of dated. If sneaking off to fool around means dating, then we definitely did that. But I don’t think that’s exactly what Lucas has in mind.

  “That pretty blush is back in your cheeks, Dakota,” Lucas says, pitching his voice low, making me swoon all over. “Care to tell me what you’re thinking about?”

  My face burns hotter as I try to regain control over myself. This guy just does something to me.

  He chuckles, moving his desk closer until they touch. Our shoulders bru
sh. I refuse to look at how close he is, my face burning up as I try to listen to the dull narrator’s voice talk about some animal that has a head of a lion but a body of a— Honestly, I don’t fucking know. Unless that TV starts showing giant pictures of dicks, I’ve totally lost interest.

  Lucas’s breath hits my skin, and I freeze right where I am. My muscles tense. All those things that boy and I did that summer, turn to Lucas and I doing them. My mind is a wonderful place to be. I’ve always thought so. The things my brain can conjure up to take me out of my everyday surroundings makes it my most precious commodity. When life was hard, my imagination kept me sane.

  Lucas trails his fingertips over my thigh. My leg jumps in response. I’m barely breathing at all as he moves his hand higher and higher until his wrist brushes my stomach. My muscles tense underneath. My core ignites like an inferno just begging to be released. I haven’t been this strung up in a while.

  “Dakota, you...” He licks his lips and trails off as his fingers move over the seam of my shorts until he’s cupping me. His breath comes out in a whoosh. “Jesus fuck, girl. You must be on fire.”

  He traces a trail up the inseam of my linen shorts until I squirm in the seat. The desk creaks, and he stops. The muscles in his arm flex. With his other hand, he pushes my notebook onto my lap until it rests against the desk and my thighs, completely blocking anyone’s view of what he’s doing. I’ve never been more thankful to be sitting in the back corner of a classroom.

  His fingers start exploring, and I grip the edge of my desk. Much surer now, he works his finger up and down my inseam, pressing the doubled fabric to the side so it feels as if he’s sliding right over my panties.

  I know this is wrong, but I can’t help myself. Lucas is eye candy on a whole other level. My brain also tries to tell me that he stood next to me earlier in the cafeteria, sticking up for me. But let’s get real. That’s not what this is. This is about release, plain and simple.

  “How far will you go?” he whispers, more to himself than to me.

  I buck into his fingers, and he grips the desk now, pressing his lips together to keep whatever sound he was about to invest in back.

  “You think because it’s dark in here, they won’t hear you scream?”

  I swallow, trying to tame the beating of my erratic heart. I lift my eyebrow. “I’d like to see you try.”

  Lust confiscates Lucas’s features. “Now, you really shouldn’t have said that.” He snakes his hand up, moving underneath the waistband of my shorts, slipping past my panties, and cups my sex. His fingers deftly find my clit, and I bite my lip, moving my legs wider for him.

  He starts in slow swirls. For a moment, I dart my eyes frantically around the room, making sure no one is paying any attention to us. The professor is no longer pretending to watch the movie either. She’s dozing off in the corner of the room, and—

  Lucas quickens the pace. My fingers are white knuckling the desk at this point as I try to rein everything in. He leans toward me, keeping his next words just from his lips to my ear. “You’re so fucking wet. I want to drop to my knees right now, in front of everyone, until you’re screaming my name. Do you think they’d mind?” When I don’t answer him, he stops. I let out a breath and glare at him. He starts in lazy circles again, my body practically begging for it. “Answer me,” he demands. “Do you think they’d mind?”

  I nod because I don’t trust my voice.

  “There you go,” he urges. He watches my profile, lips pouting. “I wonder what an unrestrained Dakota sounds like. Maybe I should wait.”

  He starts to pull his fingers away from me, but I let go of the desk and grab his wrist. I slide my hand down his, moving him along with it until I’m pushing his fingers back on me. He swirls his fingers again, rhythmic strokes that are threatening to make me explode right here, right now.

  “Look at me,” he purrs.

  I close my eyes, press my lips together, and turn my head toward him. Removing all stimuli but Lucas and his fingers has me biting down on my lip. My eyelids flutter open. His eyes are everything. They’re like dark spheres in the shadowy room. He’s highlighted by shade-drawn windows, but it may as well only be the two of us in here.

  He eyefucks me. They say everything his body wants to do as he rubs my clit into submission. Teasing it. Giving her everything she’s been without lately. His nimble fingers work as he watches my every move. He sees every tightening of my shoulders, every noise of pleasure I want to make.

  My body doesn’t care that we’re in a classroom. It doesn’t care that there are witnesses right next to us who only have to turn their heads to see what’s happening. She’s greedy, and she wants him.

  “You’re beautiful,” he whispers.

  He tightens the circle around my clit, flicking the nub faster and faster. I plunge into the moment where there’s no turning back. Whatever reckless decisions led to this, I’m about to orgasm in the middle of our mythology class.

  The moment hits, and my eyes close. I throw my head back, practically biting the inside of my cheek raw, so I don’t cry out. I’m suspended for a moment. The pleasure licking at me again and again in ruthless waves. Lucas touches my hand, and I open my eyes to find him staring, face softening as he watches me come down from the restrained high he forced me into.

  My heart beats a dangerous rhythm as we stare at each other. Our eyes connect in disbelief and something much more carnal. If he’s like me, he’s wondering how we got this far. Each one of us pushing the other until I couldn’t have made him stop even if I’d wanted to. I chased that orgasm down. I wanted it. In its aftermath is a lucid sort of confusion.

  I’m supposed to hate him.

  Lucas swallows. “Mine,” he growls, squeezing my forearm. I tilt my head at him, but he just moves back into our private bubble. “Next time that happens, I’m balls deep inside you, Wild Girl.”

  He pulls his hand out but doesn’t move away. He stays where he is, his shoulder brushing mine. I peek over at his lap, and he’s hard again. He doesn’t touch it. He doesn’t acknowledge it. He doesn’t throw me over his shoulder and run for the nearest bathroom. It takes the rest of class and what looks like some supreme willpower, but eventually, Lucas is fit to see other people without them knowing how turned on he is when class ends.

  The overhead lights flicker on like harsh spotlights, yet the spell hasn’t broken. It’s nowhere near disintegrating. We stay in our seats, the class emptying out. The teacher dawdles, picking up her things and waiting. When Lucas just gives her a blank stare, she shakes her head and exits the room.

  In a nanosecond, he’s leaning over me, kneeling on his chair with one hand on my desk and the other on the back of my seat. He lowers himself, and I watch as he descends, half fear and half lurid curiosity eating at me. I don’t move. I can’t move. He hovers his lips over mine. “You surprised me. No one surprises me.” And then he kisses me. His hungry lips part my own. He thrusts his tongue inside, taking over. He moves his hand to the back of my head where he holds me to him, fingers keeping me firmly in place as he obliterates my precious mind.

  I may never be able to fantasize again.

  I kiss him back with the same fervor. It’s raw and demanding, yet still practiced perfection. He kisses me and kisses me. Minutes pass. Eons. His lips collide with mine over and over until his phone vibrates in his pocket. He groans into my mouth, pulling away like it pains him.

  I stare at him in shock, waiting for him to say something nasty. To tell me that this is all a joke. I half-expect the door to open and for Wyatt and Stone to pop through it, Stone with his haughty air and Wyatt with his laughter, telling me that they played me. They played me so good.

  Instead, Lucas stays in his present position, his hand dropping down my neck to land on the back of my chair again. He sits back down, keeping his eyes on me until he takes his phone out and presses it to his ear. “Yeah.” He lets out a breath as someone on the other side answers. “We’re coming.” He hangs up then, pulling
his desk away from mine, so I can get up. The only thing is, I’m not sure I trust my legs to work right now. They might be Jell-O. Or pudding. Just waiting to wobble around and embarrass the shit out of me.

  Lucas pulls his bag up his shoulder and then moves around to me. “I can see you freaking out,” he says.

  “I-I’m not,” I protest even though I am. I so fucking am. My lips feel ten times their normal size, and all I can think about is that I want to be this obliterated every second of every day.

  He pulls me against him. “Instead of freaking out, why don’t we just see where this goes, Dakota Wilder? When I called you Wild Girl, I thought I was teasing, but now I’m wondering what else I can get you to do.”

  I want to say nothing, but in my head, I’m wondering the same thing. He put me in a trance. A sexed-up alternate reality.

  He slides his hand down to tangle in mine. “I think this school just got a thousand percent better.”

  I huff out a laugh. I love this school, and even I think he’s right.

  When we meet Wyatt and Stone in the hallway, Lucas doesn’t let go of my hand. In fact, he holds it tighter when I try to pull it away. Stone glares at it like he wants to set it on fire, but then he turns without a word and shoves the main doors open.

  “Well, this oughtta be fun,” Wyatt coos, a wicked grin on his face.

  I can’t help but watch Stone retreat with taut shoulders and a look like he could kill. I guess if I have to put up with his ornery ass, at least I have Lucas.

  19

  We walk through the parking lot toward Wyatt’s truck. When Lucas takes the truck keys out of his pocket, I snake them and run past him to the driver’s side door. I don’t know what’s come over me, but I’m feeling positively giddy.