Shattered by You

by Nashoda Rose

  Roman reached for his phone. Shit. I saw him type something back scowling. Well, he had already been scowling. Roman was like Luke, a permanent scowler, probably a prerequisite for the job.

  Then twenty minutes later, the door opened and my heart stopped.

  Crisis.

  Professor Eric stopped talking and raised his brows. “Can I help you?”

  Crisis looked around the room until his eyes spotted me, then he smiled at the professor. “Nope. I’m good.” He was wearing a baseball cap low over his face and had on a long sleeve shirt, probably to hide his tats that were a dead giveaway as to who he was to any diehard fan.

  “Are you in this class?” the Professor asked.

  “Nope. But my girl is and she forgot to kiss me when she left this morning.”

  My mouth dropped open. I never kissed him.

  There were a few giggles and whispers as Crisis bounded up the stairs. My heart pattered a tribal dance as I sat in my seat, all eyes on me. Crisis stopped to say hey to Dillon and Kevin, who were taking the class for an easy elective, then strode over to me. I glanced at the Professor, who looked a little uncertain what to do. So, instead of making a production out of it, he went back to the chalkboard and continued his lesson, although, most of the students were twisted around in their seats and looking at Crisis, who was now standing beside me.

  “Hey, you mind, buddy?” He nodded to the guy beside me.

  “Umm, yeah, sure.”

  I didn’t know how he got away with it, maybe his disarming smile, but the guy got up and moved to another seat. Before Crisis sat, he leaned over and kissed me on the lips. It was a quick and light, but my belly still whirled along with everything else.

  It was the first time he kissed me on the mouth and my entire body reacted to it. It was different from the light kisses on the head, although it was still a peck. I had imagined Crisis kissing me—really kissing me—many times, and as I stared at him, my cheeks heated because this was the barrier I’d had trouble breaking for the past few weeks, and with his light kiss on the lips, he gave me the confidence I needed.

  “Don’t leave our bed again without waking me. I didn’t like waking up and you were gone.”

  He called it our bed. “You kissed me.”

  He slipped into the seat, looking too tall and overwhelming for the chair. He pushed his legs out to the side, crossing his ankles. “You’ve been wanting me to all week. You’re tough as nails, Haven. But the affection shit . . . babe, you suck at it. Luckily for you, I’m good at it.”

  “Are you here to learn or chat with your boyfriend, Haven?” Professor Eric asked. “Exams are next week, in case you’ve forgotten, and I seem to recall you being absent a few classes this semester.”

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  Crisis chuckled and leaned back in his seat.

  It was the longest class ever. I felt Kevin’s eyes on me and looked over; he quickly looked away. Crisis listened and appeared to be enjoying the class. I didn’t hear a single word the Professor said because all I could think about was him sitting next to me.

  “Okay,” Eric said. “The exam is next Tuesday. See you then.” I leaned over and slipped my books back into my bag.

  Crisis hopped up, took my hand and pulled me to my feet. “Let’s go grab breakfast at that café down the street. Roman looks starved.” He pulled me down the steps toward the door.

  I glanced at Roman, who was coming down the auditorium stairs toward us. “He’s not starving.” The guy could live off his muscles for a year. “And I have classes.”

  He put his arm around me to get me walking again. Dillon was behind us, and from the tilt of his head, he was listening.

  “I can’t skip anymore. Exams are next week.”

  Crisis opened the door and let a few people pass; a couple of girls eyed him up and down and I waited for his smirk, but instead, he kept his eyes on me. “Your confusion gone?”

  “What?”

  “That confusion, Ice. Is it cleared up?”

  There was no question it was. “Yeah.”

  “And what do you want?”

  Jesus, he wasn’t making this easy. Roman approached and Crisis slapped him on the back. “Give me five?”

  Roman nodded and stepped past us, walked down the hall and leaned against the brick wall, arms crossed. Kevin walked by him, then was going out the door when a girl joined him and they left together.

  “Need to hear you say it.” Crisis pinned me against the doorframe, the door perched open.

  My heart did a jiggly dance and my stomach somersaulted. I had the urge to blurt out that I was in love with him. God, I was. I was in love with him. I didn’t know when it happened and maybe it had been buried along with everything else, but it was soaring through me like the wind. A strong encompassing wind that swept me up and carried me in its protective arms.

  There was no fear. No need to sing to fade out the cries of the wind as it whistled through windows threatening to take me away. Because it was safe.

  Crisis moved in so I was pressed against his chest, his hands resting on my hips. “Whenever you’re ready, Haven. I’m not going anywhere.” He tightened his hold and I met his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere,” he repeated.

  “Yes, you are. You’re leaving my class,” Professor Eric said as he walked toward us. “And next time I see you, it better be on stage and not interrupting my class.”

  My eyes widened, gaze darting to my professor. Professor Eric knew Tear Asunder?

  Crisis laughed. “Yeah. Sure. Sorry, sir.” He held out his hand and my Professor shook it. “Won’t happen again . . . unless, of course, my girl leaves without a kiss.”

  “Nice to see you’ve settled down, young man.”

  “Pretty fuckin’ easy to do when it’s a chick like Haven. She’s my forever girl.”

  My breath hitched and the professor smiled at me, then walked back into his classroom and started writing on the blackboard.

  Crisis half grinned and cupped the back of my neck. “How long are you going to make me wait? Just give a time frame here so I can tell my cock?”

  I laughed then licked my lips and he groaned, looking away. “Not long.”

  “Like an hour?” I laughed again and his fingers tightened on my neck. “Fuck, I love to see you laugh.”

  I smiled. “How is five seconds?”

  He leaned in closer and I felt his warm minty breath on my cheek. “Five.” He drawled in my ear.

  I shivered, knees weak and my heart thumped against my ribcage. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the lawnmower.”

  “Babe, not before that?”

  I shook my head.

  “Three.” His fingers weaved into the back of my hair. “There’s no going back after my mouth is on yours.”

  “Don’t want to go back, Vincent. I want to go forward, always. With you.”

  “One,” he said.

  His mouth came down on mine and I expected soft and gentle, Crisis being careful with me, but he was just the opposite. It was hard and unrelenting. Our lips taking, claiming, tasting what we both craved.

  The need.

  The urgency.

  The ache building inside catapulted me into a whirling pool of heat. The taste of him was minty like his breath. As his tongue danced with mine, it guided me as our mouths linked in a frenzy of passion. There was no give in him and I didn’t want him to. I loved that he was taking and I was giving. He groaned into my mouth and my heart raced faster. God, this wasn’t enough. I wanted his hands all over me, touching me. I never thought I’d want that. But what I’d escaped from had nothing to do with this.

  This was about beauty and desire, and the giving of one another.

  “We going to have an issue here, Mr. Wesson.”

  I pulled away and saw my Professor looking at us. He didn’t look exactly mad, but rather annoyed that we were making out next to his door.

  “Damn, you know my last name?” Crisis said, not even for a second uncomfortabl
e that he’d been caught locking his mouth with mine.

  “I’m a fan of Tear Asunder, not a fan of students making out in my hallway.”

  “But look at her, sir, she’ fuckin’ gorgeous and irresistible.”

  “Mmm,” he mumbled, frowning.

  “Tickets help? Next concert in T.O.?”

  Professor Eric rolled his eyes. “Get out of here.” Crisis grinned and pulled me behind him heading down the hall. “Leave them in my box,” he called after us.

  Crisis laughed. He pushed open the doors and strode outside, me in tow. “Fuck, I have to kiss you again.”

  He headed in the opposite direction of my next class. I glanced over my shoulder and Roman was following us, but keeping his distance. I was close enough to notice the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. “I’m going to be late.”

  “Hmm.” He stopped in the middle of the grassy area where students sat on benches and studied while others ran for their classes. He backed me against the tree. “I’m never on time, baby. You know that. Get used to it.”

  He lowered his mouth to mine.

  I HADN’T PLANNED on kissing her. I wanted to. Fuck, I’d wanted to since the day I’d picked her up in my arms and jumped off the cliff into the water. I’d been suffering a perpetual hard-on for months. But it was more than that. I’d wanted to kiss her because I’d been falling in love with her.

  It was all worthwhile kissing her now. Shit, if I’d tasted her mouth before, I’d have waited years just to get this again. Her past fucked with my unwavering steadiness. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, except I knew I wasn’t letting Haven go.

  Her demons weren’t black shadows. They were fuckin’ monsters and the road ahead was one that was going to test every part of me and her. But for some reason, it didn’t scare me. Because as long as she was in my arms, we’d be okay.

  As her lips submitted to mine, her body sagged against me and her mouth became pliable. I groaned, one hand on her hip the other at the back of her head so it protected her from the rough bark of the tree. “Fuck, baby. Your lips are like your voice—honey.”

  She nipped my bottom lip and my fingers tightened on her hip as my cock strained against my jeans. “I have to get to class.”

  Fuck yeah. Haven may have monsters, but her drive to get her life back was stronger. Despite not wanting to stop kissing her, I loved that part of her.

  I lifted her up, so her ass was sitting in my hands and most chicks would’ve squealed and giggled, but not Haven. She grabbed hold of my neck, hooked her ankles behind me, her expression serious as she looked at me. Then she surprised me and leaned forward, lowering her mouth to mine.

  It was soft and hesitant at first until I couldn’t stop myself and deepened it, my mouth roaming, tongue skimming over her teeth then darting inside to sink into the velvet warmth.

  “Class,” she mumbled beneath my kiss.

  I sighed, drawing back. “Tell me it’s sex ed.”

  She smiled. “This isn’t high school and it’s an elective, Women and Gender studies. Roman hates it.”

  “Fuck.” I let her slide down my body to her feet, then snagged her hand. “You tell any of the guys I’m sitting in some women’s lib class, I’ll get up in front of Professor Eric’s class and sing to you.” She missed a step and I smiled. I knew she wouldn’t like that. “Let’s get this over with.”

  I sat through listening to the history of feminism with two hundred women and me and Roman, then Haven told me the good news that her next class was her elective—Greek mythology. I couldn’t even begin to pronounce half the gods’ names the professor talked about.

  Halfway through class, I nudged her leg with mine and leaned over. “You understand what he’s talking about?”

  She nodded, then went right back to listening to the Professor’s voice drone on like a rusted factory machine. I couldn’t take my eyes off Haven though. Fuck, but she was cute. The most I’d ever paid attention in high school were to chicks, except during music class. I became an exemplary student rocking it out with the band; it was too bad half of them sucked.

  It was when Ream, Kite, Logan and I got together in my garage that shit really happened. It was like the stars aligning. The sound came alive in that garage, and I think we all knew what it was between us. It was something fuckin’ special.

  That was what it felt like with Haven, and that was something you held onto with both hands. I’d been a man-whore ever since high school. Fuck, Ream and I covered for one another when we brought chicks home and had to sneak them out the second-story window before our parents got home from some charity gig.

  One chick got her top caught on the tree branch and ripped it right off. Chick went home in her bra and Ream and I watched her run down the street holding her breasts. We never laughed so hard, rolling around on the floor afterward, clutching our cramping bellies.

  A pen tapped me on my forearm and I snapped my head up. “Shh, stop chuckling,” Haven whispered.

  I hadn’t realized I was laughing. When I glanced around, students were turned in their seats and looking at me. The only one who didn’t notice was the Professor, who was writing shit on the blackboard, her voice sounding like the dead. No wonder she taught mythology.

  I smirked at the class and reached across the space between Haven and me, snatching her hand before she could object and pulled her chair closer to me. It scraped across the floor, making a loud echoing sound on the linoleum. We were in the last row, no one beside us and I grabbed her book bag and placed it on my desk as a sort of shield. No one could see what I was about to do. Well, maybe Roman, but he’d look away.

  “Crisis? Stop.”

  “I’m bored as fuck,” I complained. And, I’d been laughing by myself about some crap that happened when I was seventeen.

  “I’m not your amusement park.”

  I had her close enough so I could put my hand on her thigh. Damn, she had rock hard thighs that were going to feel incredible around my naked ass. I knew it might be a while before we got to that point, but I’d wait forever . . . well, a few weeks, anyway. My cock might have something to say about that, but jerking off to thoughts of Haven would have to do until she was ready.

  I ran my hand up her leg, fingers trailing along the inner seam of her jeans right up to where her pelvis met her thigh. I didn’t want to push it so I stopped there. “Oh, you have no idea how wrong you are. Your body is my roller coaster, baby.”

  She snorted and put her hand on top of mine. I thought she was going to push it off, but instead, she pushed my hand up further until my baby finger grazed over her pussy. My cock jerked along with my body as every muscle tensed.

  She kept her hand on top of mine, fingers lightly caressing my skin. I swallowed then flicked my finger over her pussy. Her breath hitched and her back straightened. I did it again. Her legs parted further and I took full advantage, placing my palm over her and applying pressure.

  She now gripped the edge of her desk with both hands and her head tilted back slightly, eyes closed.

  Jesus. The expression on her face . . . Haven with desire sparkling in her eyes, cheeks flushed . . . it was so fuckin’ special because she was letting me in and letting go all at the same time.

  I slipped my hand away, down her inner thigh again then back up until my fingers tap-danced across her pussy again. This time I applied some pressure, not too much, just enough to make sure she could feel every flick of my finger through her jeans over her clit. And I knew she did because she pushed back in her chair, and latched onto my wrist to stop me.

  I refused. I was nice, but not when it came to playing. She started this and like I’d told her, there was no going back.

  “Vincent,” she hissed as she tried desperately to move away from my hand but couldn’t without getting out of her desk.

  I moved my fingers faster over her jeans. I swear I could feel the heat between her legs and I was betting my fuckin’ car that she was soaking wet.

  “Please. St
op.” She panted and her grip was so tight on my wrist, I was sure to have bruises.

  “Shh, baby,” I whispered. “You need to be quiet.”

  And that was when she gave in to it. Right there in the back of the classroom with the teacher going on about some Greek God. It was also when Roman moved up to the front of the class and started coughing, taking any potential attention away from Haven. Thank you, Roman.

  “Oh, God,” Haven whispered as her legs quivered and shook, body tensing as she came against my hand.

  She released my wrist, but I didn’t move my hand away. Fuck, no. If I had to finish sitting through this class with a rock hard cock, I was keeping my hand right where it was.

  And it was the longest class I’d ever sat through. Pure torture. As soon as the Professor dropped the piece of chalk on the ledge of the board and shut her book, I was on my feet. I grabbed Haven’s books off her desk, shoved them under my arm and snagged her knapsack, hitching it over my shoulder.

  Haven’s teeth dragged over her lower lip and her eyes held a dazzling sexiness that smoldered with desire. “Are we in a hurry?” And that voice . . . fuck it was laced with graveled innocence.

  I groaned, then held out my hand and she took it. Fuck, that was nice. “Yeah.” A hurry to kiss her again. A hurry to have her against me. A hurry not be under the watchful eye of students, a professor and a bodyguard.

  I tugged her out of there so fast, although tugging may have been an exaggeration because once Haven was on her feet, she followed beside me with just as much urgency and that right there was a huge turn on.

  Haven was fuckin’ mine.

  Haven gave herself to me.

  I made it through the building, outside to the stairs and around the corner before I pushed her against the brick wall, my thigh parting her legs so I could stand between them, hand at the nape of her neck, the other on her hip.

  There were no words as we both panted and stared at one another before our mouths crashed together. And it was a crash. It was teeth hitting, and noses getting in the way and lips crushed.

  My head tilted as I eased up for a second, our mouths finding their way against one another and molding into a passionate urgency that put all other kisses to shame.