“Hold on a minute,” I said, pulling away. “Let me catch my breath a little.” I leaned my forehead against hers, and we both started laughing.
“I think every time I kiss you it’s better than the last time. I don’t know how that’s possible since our first kiss was near perfection.” She briefly pecked me again. “It’s so intense.”
“I agree—it’s pretty incredible—but I’m thinking it might be wise not to be alone with you in dark places anymore.” I lifted my hand to stroke my thumb over her beautiful cheek.
“Why?” She looked disappointed with my remark.
“Because the rest of my body isn’t going to be satisfied with my mouth getting to have all the fun much longer.”
She blushed, and I thought it was adorable. “Would that be such a bad thing?” she asked shyly.
Seventeen, that damned warning voice reminded in my head.
“Actually, yeah, seeing that I’m a legal adult and you’re not yet.” I placed a tender kiss against her lips to soften my words. “Not that I think of you as a child in any way, shape, or form.”
She lifted her chin slightly. “I’ll be eighteen soon.”
I know, I thought. I’ve got it marked on my calendar and have been counting down the days. “True,” I said aloud. “But unless you want to visit me in prison after your dad throws me in there, we better work on cooling things down a bit.”
She brushed her lips against the side of my face before whispering in my ear. “What my dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Dear Heaven above, have mercy on my soul. I’m going to end up in Hell.
I smiled, continuing to rub my thumb in little circles on her skin. “While I’d like nothing better, I’d know, and never forgive myself.”
She looked hurt and disappointed, and I thought it would crush me. “Were you so noble with the other girls you’ve been with?”
I sighed, hating that she felt like I was rejecting her. I tenderly kissed her forehead. “No, I wasn’t, but none of them were you, Cami. You’re special.”
She looked like she doubted my words. I took her face in my hands.
“Listen to me carefully. I mean this. When and if the time is right for us to be together, I want it to be perfect for you. You deserve it all—the candlelight, roses, and romance. There’s no need for you to rush. The right guy will always wait for you to truly be ready. He should honor you, worship you, and make it a moment for you to remember forever.”
She leaned her head against my chest and sighed heavily. “Stop. You talk about that guy like it’s not you. I want it to be you.”
I should be so lucky. I pressed a kiss on the top of her head, holding her tightly in my embrace. “I want that too. More than you know.” For the millionth time, I silently cursed everything going on in my life right now. I wished I were free to run away with her like she wanted. I knew I still had to tell her the truth, and I knew I might lose her when I did. If she wanted me to let go, then that’s what I’d do. I would always put her needs first. Always.
She was strong, though. If that did happen, I was sure she’d survive to find love again. The thought of her wrapped up intimately in another man’s embrace made every nerve in my body stand on edge. It made me want to beat something, over and over again until it ceased to exist.
I didn’t have the right to claim her, but I wanted to more than I wanted anything in my life. I’d never been so desperate for another person. I just hoped she’d forgive me when the truth finally came to light.
“Please don’t ever leave me,” I whispered softly against her hair.
She looked up, her eyes wide and innocent. “I won’t.” She paused, looking hesitant. “I love you.”
Her words spun through my head like flashing, colored lights, and I was sure there were fireworks exploding somewhere. She loves me. Yes! No! Damn it!
She was staring at me expectantly. I didn’t need to search my heart for the answer. I’d known incredibly early on what my feelings were.
“I love you too—so very much.” I wished I could bottle this moment so I could enjoy it again later. “I’ve known it for a while, actually.”
She gave me a surprised smile. “You have? Why didn’t you tell me?”
I shrugged and grinned. “I don’t know. It seemed a little odd to walk up to you and say, “Hi, I’m Hunter, and I’m in love with you,” I guess.”
She shoved me playfully. “Oh, stop it. You’re such a tease. Be serious!”
“I am being serious. You stepped out the door that day and I was . . . I don’t know . . . lost. I’ve never believed in love at first sight before, but then it happened. Something about you called to me. I didn’t know what to do about it, so I tried to ignore it. We can see now how well that turned out.”
“You must have had girls falling at your feet your whole life with that kind of sweet talk.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, leaning back against the wall.
“I’ve never talked like this to a girl in my life. I’ve never been in love before.” That was the honest to goodness truth. It had blindsided me when it happened and had taken me a while to admit it.
“You haven’t?” She seemed kind of incredulous.
“No. Why . . . have you?” Instantly, jealously reared it’s ugly head inside me, and I was ready to start beating people again.
“Well . . . there was this one guy,” she let her sentence trail off.
So help me if she said Clay’s name I thought my head might actually explode.
“Really?” I tried to say casually, though it was difficult since I was grinding my teeth. I forced my body to relax, mentally demanding each individual muscle unclench itself. “Who was he?”
I wished I could pour concrete in my ears. I didn’t want to hear her answer.
“His name was Gullible—or was it Naïve? I forget.” She laughed.
My stress melted away like butter, and I shook my head, stepping forward to pin her back against the wall. “You’ve been a bad, bad, girl. You know that, don’t you?”
She nodded. “Yes, a very bad girl,” she agreed. “I think you may need to punish me . . . a lot.”
I groaned as my mouth descended to hers. I was so going to jail.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hunter-
“You out here, Hunter? Oh—hey, yeah, sorry to interrupt! I can catch you later—uh—as you were.”
Russ’s voice broke slowly into my hormone-driven mind, and it took me a second to pull away from Cami, both of us panting. I glanced in his direction before looking at her. If my hair resembled hers at all then everyone was going to know exactly what we’d been doing. I briefly wondered how many employees lost their job on the first day for fraternizing.
“Hey, man. Hold up!” I called before the back door closed all the way.
His hand came out to catch it, but the rest of him didn’t reappear. “Are you sure it’s safe?” he asked.
I chuckled at Cami who was frantically running her hands over herself as she tried to straighten her clothes and hair. I couldn’t help my widening grin as I ran my fingers through my own, trying to fix it too. I should be shot for attacking her like this in a friggin’ alleyway.
“Yeah, it’s cool, bro. What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing important.” He gradually peeked his head around before deeming it safe enough to set out apparently. “I just stopped by to give you crap at work, and Clay told me you and Cami were on your break. He said you’d gone outside.”
Good ole Clay. I felt my happy demeanor ice up a bit. “How nice of him to keep tabs on us,” I replied. “Whatever would we do without him?” I glanced at Cami, feeling irritated.
She pushed past me. “We still have seven minutes left on our break. Let’s go in and get drinks. Russ, we’ll get you one on the house.”
“Sweet!” Russ grinned and followed after her.
I tagged along behind them, figuring the best thing I could do right now was appear without being attached to
her hip. I couldn’t help the small smile, which continued to grace my mouth. She was gorgeous, and she was mine. My stubborn inner child wanted to walk right up to Clay and tell him, “Cami loves me.” Heck with Clay, I wanted to tell everyone! It wasn’t going to happen though, so I would have to content myself with casting secretive glances of admiration in her direction.
She went to Clay, who was working the counter, and ordered her soda. I stopped at Mandy’s register. I’d never talked to her before, but she was in some of my classes at school. She seemed nice enough. When Russ saw I wasn’t going to follow Cami, he came over with me.
“What you having?” I asked.
“Dr. Pepper,” he replied.
“Mandy, give us two Dr. Peppers, and why don’t you let my buddy, Russ, here have my free popcorn. I’m feeling a little generous today.”
Mandy smiled, pushing her plastic rimmed glasses farther up her nose. “You seem awfully happy tonight. Are you enjoying your new job?”
“I am happy.” I grinned and looked over at Cami who was staring at me while she waited for her soda. I winked and she smiled. “As far as the job . . . well, I’m enjoying some of the extracurricular benefits that come with it.”
Cami snorted, and Mandy gave us both a funny look.
“Check this out, Russ,” I said, pulling him away to stare at some of the Coming Soon movie posters before she could ask me any more questions.
“What?” Russ asked as I glanced to where Clay looked like a volcano ready to explode.
“Nothing. That chick was getting nosy. If people knew Cami and I were kissing outside we both could get fired. While it doesn’t hurt my feelings any, I don’t want Cami to lose her job.”
Russ chuckled quietly. “You better work a little harder at keeping it in your pants then, bro. You two looked like you were ready to go at it right there against the wall.”
“Don’t remind me.” I groaned, trying to shove the tempting images back down. “I don’t know what it is. Whenever we’re together things get . . .” I paused.
“Combustible?” Russ offered. “Heated? Enflamed? Frenzied? Intense? Explosive?”
I punched him in the shoulder. “Okay, okay. You get it. I see that. And what’s with all the words? Remind me to call you if I’m ever in need of a thesaurus.”
He grinned. “Just telling it like I see it. I think even inanimate objects were getting turned on by the intensity rolling off you two. There are cars in the parking lot that are probably pregnant now.”
I laughed. “You’re such a dork.”
“But you love me.” He batted his eyelashes, and I punched him again.
“I don’t know . . . maybe,” I replied.
“Okay, now that was just harsh.”
“Can’t let peeps think we’re having a bromance over here in the corner now, can I? My girlfriend might start getting a little worried.”
Russ snorted. “I highly doubt she has any concerns after the performance I witnessed.”
“I certainly hope not. That would definitely destroy my reputation.”
“Sorry, but it’s already destroyed. You took care of that when you made it clear how hard you’ve fallen for Cami. People are talking about how the good girl caught the bad boy. In fact, the guys are taking bets.”
“Bets on what?” I hadn’t heard any of this.
“On who will corrupt who first. Will she turn you into a geek, or will you turn her into a smash queen?” He grinned. “I threw a little money into the pot myself. I’m anxious to see how it turns out.”
“Really? Did you bet for or against me?” I folded my arms while I studied him. I wasn’t sure how I felt about what he was saying.
“I’ll never tell.” He chuckled, and the two of us turned to look at Cami talking to Clay.
“What if neither happens?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” He arched his eyebrow.
“What if I don’t become a geek, and I don’t smash her.”
He looked stupefied for a moment. “Hmmm, never thought of that. I guess I never considered it in the realm of possibilities, given your reputation with the ladies and all.”
I grunted. “I’m beginning to think I know which way you bet.”
He grinned and shrugged, not offering an answer.
“I like this girl, Russ. Don’t tell her about the bet. I don’t want it to bother her. Her feelings are important to me.”
We both noticed Cami trying to gather our sodas and popcorn together. I hurried over to help, grabbing the popcorn.
“These two are the Dr. Peppers,” she said, gesturing to the cups. “Mine’s the Sprite.”
“Got it.” I handed one of the sodas and the bag of popcorn to Russ, and took the other for myself.
“Let’s go sit in the breakroom,” Cami suggested. “We need to get our carts anyway. We don’t have much time left.”
“Is it okay if I go in there with you?” Russ asked, taking a long sip of his drink.
“Ask the boss,” I said, gesturing to Cami.
She elbowed me. “I’m not the boss, but sure, you can come with us.”
Russ sat at the table when we entered, and I leaned against the wall, giving a quick glance to my phone. Cami and I needed to get back to work, so I punched both of our time cards in.
“You wanna hang out in here?” I asked Russ. “We need to clean a theater.”
“Can I tag along?”
“Sure,” Cami replied, grabbing her cart. “These are the last shows for the evening, so people won’t be coming in behind us. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Well, then, I better come along to chaperone. I wouldn’t want your future child to say he or she was conceived in a movie theater.”
Cami blushed a bright red and quickly turned back to her cart.
“Russ, you’re gonna have to go a little easier on her dude. She’s not used to that kind of talk.”
She was still blushing when I placed my hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face me.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she mumbled, not looking at me.
I lifted her chin until she glanced up. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. You better get used to the teasing, though. There’s bound to be more if it.”
She was biting her lip again. “I’ll be all right. Worse things could happen.”
I pecked her once on those adorable lips of hers. “Let’s go.” I put my drink on my cart and gestured for her to go first.
“The next movie should be over any minute,” she said. “Let’s clean the hallway down here while we wait for everyone to get out.”
We grabbed our brooms and dustpans and began quickly sweeping. I tried desperately to ignore Russ’s snide comments about watching me become domesticated, and managed to successfully resist the urge to smack him over the head with my broom. The doors opened as we were finishing and the crowd began to pour out. We waited until the last of them were gone before going in. Cami and I had set up a system earlier. I started at the top, and she started at the bottom, and we worked our way toward each other.
“See you in the middle,” I teased, slapping her on her cute rear end before I turned and ran up the stairs.
She gave a little squeal and swung her broom at me.
“Ha, ha! You missed!” I laughed.
“Hunter!” Russ’s choked voice caught my attention and I turned. He was staring at me with a funny expression.
“What?”
He dropped his drink, spilling the little that was left on the carpet, and he slouched against the wall.
I ran down to his side. “What is it, man? What’s wrong?” I grabbed him by the shoulders, noticing he was trembling and sweating profusely.
“I feel funny. My heart is racing.”
I slid my hand down his arm, searching for the pulse at his wrist. It was beating wildly.
“When did this start?” I questioned. “Have you felt sick today?”
“No.” He looked like he was going to vom
it.
I searched his eyes, noticing his pupils were wide and dilated.
“Russ, be honest with me. Did you take something? Drugs?” He seemed to zone out for a bit and I shook him. “Answer me, dammit! Did you take something?”
“No, nothing,” he whispered. He slipped further down the wall, and I tried desperately to hold him up. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he started twitching.
“Cami, call an ambulance!” I shouted over to where she seemed frozen in shock. “Get help!” I carefully eased him the rest of the way to the floor.
She quickly dug her phone from her pocket and dialed 911 as she ran out of the room. “Somebody help!” I heard her shout.
“Russ!” I yelled, trying to rouse him again. “Russ, can you hear me?” I briskly rubbed my knuckles against his sternum.
There was nothing. I leaned my ear next to his mouth, listening. A faint breath stirred at my cheek, and I could feel his pulse still racing along. He started foaming at the mouth, and I rolled him to the side to try and keep his airway clear.
“They’re on their way!” Cami said as she ran up to my side. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, but it acts like a drug overdose. I’ve seen something similar before. Go wait for the ambulance, and show them where to come.”
“Will you be okay?” she asked, concern laced through her voice.
I nodded and she hurried away.
Mandy, Clay, and Shane ran inside the room, all pausing with a horrified look at Russ’s body.
“Jen ran to get some things at the store before they closed. I’ll go call her and wait in the lobby until she gets here,” Shane said.
“What can we do to help?” Mandy asked, and I could see tears in her eyes.
“Bring me some wet paper towels or something. The guy is burning up. Let’s try to cool him down.”
She grabbed some hand towels from the cleaning cart and ran out of the theater, leaving Clay and me alone with Russ.
“I hope you’re getting a good look at this,” Clay said, advancing closer. “This is what happens to stupid kids like you who won’t lay off the dope.”
[Crush 01.0] Crush Page 18