by Lisa Simmons
"Abigail!" The sound was coming from down the hall, but it was quickly growing closer.
"You need to go," I whispered in a rushed tone. My arms dropped from Reece's neck to rest my palms on his chest and push him backward through the door to the bathroom. Dim light flooded the area and I saw the pained expression on his face as he realized what I was about to do.
"I'm begging you," I whispered, shoving him further into the bathroom. I rushed forward and pressed my lips to his for a second, my fists balling the fabric of his shirt into my hand. I savored the feeling, unsure when I would get the chance to feel it again as my name sounded yet again from down the hall. He was almost here.
"Go," I begged.
I released him and backed away, letting the door fall to conceal him. Just as the door was about to close, I heard him speak. His eyes burned into mine in the quickly closing gap, sending the fire searing through my veins once more.
"I love you," he said, the words echoing through my head just as the door swung shut and cut me off from him, ending my chance to return it. I sucked in a deep breath and pinched my eyes shut for a half a second, giving myself the tiniest of moments to let it sink in and gather my emotions before I had to put on an act again. After blowing out a heavy, shaky breath, I turned on the spot and moved away from the only person I ever wanted and toward the one I never wanted to see again.
I had hardly made it around the corner when I crashed into him, my body bouncing back in surprise as I ricocheted off him. I stumbled back a few steps and shook my head before I looked back up at him, terrified he would be able to see what had just happened all over my face. But he wasn't Reece; he didn't know me like Reece did, couldn't read me like Reece could.
"There you are," he said. He was clearly irritated as he glared down at me. "What the hell took you so long?"
"Long line," I said, praying he hadn't noticed the strange lack of traffic through the hallway. Now that I thought about it, a hundred people could have walked by Reece and I and I wouldn't have even noticed. My senses seemed intensified a thousand times now that I was back with Jack, my ears picking up every single sound as I prayed I wouldn't hear the door open behind me. Every fiber of my being was tensed uncomfortably while I silently begged Reece to listen to me and stay put.
"Hmm," was all he said, his brows pulled low in skepticism. I jumped when he grabbed my arm and tugged lightly, pulling me back down the hall where he'd come from. "Let's go."
I couldn't stop my eyes from darting back toward the bathroom door where I knew Reece stood just on the other side. I could feel the pull of his body affecting mine as I fought within myself to move away from him. Every inch of me longed to yank my arm free from Jack and run back to Reece, but I couldn't. Not with Jack and half of his terrifying crew of 'friends' here.
I let Jack drag me away while I ignored the internal war waging inside me. I didn't know how, but we would figure something else out. I couldn't ignore the painful doubt creeping through me, however. Hadn't I already thought of this from a thousand different directions? Hadn't I already exhausted every possible option? I'd been forced to make the most difficult decision of my life out of sheer desperation, and I wasn't at all confident in my abilities to think of another solution that would come out any better than this one had.
At least Reece knows you love him.
That was the only positive I could think of at the moment, because even though he knew it, we still couldn't be together. Not yet, not the way we wanted to be. If anything, this was almost more cruel- to know the one you loved still loved you back but couldn't be with you. It was the most tragic thing I'd ever been involved in and it broke my heart all over again.
I clung to the tiny shred of hope that maybe Reece would be able to think of some possible solution that had eluded me, but all I could think of was a solution that terrified me: some sort of fight. If it came down to a fight, Reece would surely lose, and at great cost; he couldn't take on all of these people. It just wasn't possible.
I let Jack drag me back through the crowd, my heart heavy and my body quickly being taken over by the numb haze I'd become so accustomed to whenever I was with Jack. His friends waited for us in their dark corner, their eyes watching our every move closely until we both sat down in our seats. I winced as Jack threw his arm around me again, his touch feeling more wrong than ever in contrast to the way Reece had just made me feel. Every ounce of warmth Reece had instilled in me was quickly extinguished again as I felt the weight of Jack's arm on me.
I needed to think of something, and I needed to do it fast. For both of our sakes.
Reece's POV
My fist closed around the handle of the door, my muscles freezing me in place. I was at war with myself, fighting to fling the door open and tear her away from him while trying to remember it wasn't smart to do just that. A massive part of me wanted to throw caution to the winds and rush out there to save her, but a small, rational part of me knew that would only end horrifically.
It wasn't so much my own safety that I was concerned for as it was hers. What if she got hurt in the process? What if something I tried to do ended up hurting her? I needed to take time to think over everything I'd figured out just now to formulate a plan.
I had to save her, simple as that.
The almost nonexistent rational part of me won out in the end, stilling my muscles to keep from flinging the door open and revealing myself. I paused and closed my eyes as I let the million and one thoughts rushing through my head take over for a moment.
I love you.
Out of everything she'd said, or hadn't said, that was the most important of them all. She hadn't said a whole lot, but she gave away so much more than she ever intended to. My ability to read her told me so much more than her actual words ever could. I could see nearly every thought that went through her head on her face, something I was extremely grateful for now. Despite her attempts to be strong and hide things she thought would protect me from me, she was awful at it. She couldn't hide anything from me any better than I could stay away from her.
The moment she'd said those three beautiful words, it was like the shattered pieces of my heart had melted back together. Every dull ache in my body had been evaporated when she'd let me kiss her, and the cold numbness had been replaced by the burning fire that always took over when I was with her. In those few short moments, I was home.
Now that she as gone again, some of the warmth she'd instilled in me had gone. The only thing managing to keep me sane now was the fact that I knew this was all an act; she'd never stopped loving me, never wanted to leave me. She'd only done it to protect me, and I loved her even more for it.
I jumped when the door pushed open from the other side, and for a moment I was convinced it was Jack coming to find me. The face I was greeted with, however, was that of an obviously drunk girl stumbling into the bathroom for a moment of rest. My heart jumped in my chest when I looked behind her but relaxed immediately when I saw the hallway was empty. Wherever they were, they were no longer in the hall.
The girl who stumbled through the door made absolutely no notice of me as she shuffled around me to rush into a stall. I moved through the doorframe and down the hall to go find Luke and the rest of the people I'd come with, beyond fed up with hiding pathetically. It took everything in me not to seek Abigail out because I knew that was the last thing she wanted. She'd wanted me to go, to leave here and let her fend for herself, but I couldn't do that. I wouldn't confront Jack now, but I could at least watch over her.
My eyes scanned the crowd as I moved through it, my legs carrying me back to where I'd been sitting before I'd jumped up so abruptly. I was nearly back to my seat and had found no sign of her when I caught sight of a familiar looking face in the dark corner across the bar. I walked slowly through the crowd, my eyes never leaving his face as he focused on something I couldn't decipher.
"Reece, there you are," Luke said, interrupting my train of thought as I sat back do
wn at the table I'd come from. My eyes never left the face as I tried to determine if it was actually who I thought it was.
"Yeah," I said distractedly to Luke, not looking at him. The man I'd been staring at shifted, the light from one of the flashing lights catching his face and illuminating his features momentarily. It was exactly who I'd thought it was. Liam.
No wonder Abigail was afraid for me; I knew exactly who Liam was and I knew what reputation he had. He'd done everything and more to earn it, so it didn't surprise me that Jack had used him to threaten to have me hurt. It also didn't surprise me that he'd gone so far as to threaten to have me killed, even though that was positively psychotic. Liam was, absolutely, capable of making such threats come true.
A second wave of horror struck when I saw Samuel seated next to Liam, the old friends reunited before my very eyes. It was like a nightmare where every person I never wanted to see again decided to surround Abigail with their presence and drag her down to the cold, black abyss where they resided. I wanted them as far away from her as possible. She'd done nothing to deserve being thrown into such a dark and dangerous crowd, and it made me physically sick to my stomach to think of her being around them. It wasn't safe.
A sudden movement to the left of Liam caught my eye as I shifted my gaze over. My heart plummeted through my chest as I saw Abigail, her body visibly tense and uncomfortable as she tried not to shy away from Jack, who had his arm slung around her shoulders. My jaw tightened automatically and my fists clenched by my sides as I watched him lean into her, the action unwelcome and downright wrong.
He had no right to touch her. He had no right to even breathe the same air as her or look at her, but he had the audacity to force her to be with him. My blood boiled through my veins as my stomach twisted into knots. I felt bile rising in the back of my throat at the thought of his hands on her, his lips touching her skin. The ragged breathing returned as flashes of images of them together haunted me. Things I'd never seen flashed before my eyes- his hands on her legs, his chest pressing into hers, his lips on her throat. It was all too much as it clouded my vision and set a violent shake to my bones.
I felt physically sick as I tried to clear the thoughts from my head, but I couldn't. The images didn't relent as I was unable to tear my gaze from them, the obvious disgust in her body language doing nothing to deter him from touching her. When his hand landed on her thigh, bringing to life one of the images that attacked me, I bolted to my feet. My legs moved quickly, carrying me forward as I pushed my way through the crowd.
I had to get to her.
I had to save her.
I was nearly halfway to her, anger boiling through me so hot I felt like I was steaming, when a strong set of arms wound around my shoulders to pull me back. My arms rose to shove them off, not bothering to look who tried to stop me before they fought back.
"Stop," the voice said in my ear. I ignored it and struggled against the tight grip, but my efforts were halted when another set of hands landed on me and pulled me back the direction I came form.
"Get the fuck off me," I hissed, the anger in me making my throat tight.
"Man, this is for your own good," said the voice that I now managed to identify as Luke's. He, along with whoever was helping him, managed to drag me back a few feet while I continued to struggle against them.
"Fuck off, Luke, don't you see what's happening? Don't you see who she's with?" I spit, finally managing to free my arms and shove him off me enough to catch a breath. I halted my progress toward Abigail to glare at him. His friend stood behind me still, ready to deter me from resuming my previous course.
"I see exactly who she's with and that's exactly why I stopped you," Luke said. He was slightly winded from the effort of restraining me. "What the fuck are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?"
Funny how accurate his dramatic statement actually was and he didn't even know it.
"I can't leave her with them," I said harshly, my anger making me lash out toward my friend. I felt the muscle in my jaw twitch as I clenched it shut. He looked at me in confusion, his brows pulled low as if concerned I'd finally lost it.
"She only left me because he made her," I explained tightly. "She didn't want to do it. She still loves me."
Realization washed over his face as he absorbed my words. "He what?"
"You heard me," I spit, annoyed that I had to explain at all. My eyes left his face to dart back toward the corner. It was like a knife was stabbed into my stomach when I saw him draped lazily across her, the weight of him weighing her down in the worst way. Her beautiful face was barely masking the anxiety she was surely feeling, and I could see how much she hated it. Again, I felt an overwhelming pull to run to her and pull her away from him forever before Luke interrupted my thought process.
"Don't do it," he said, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. "You don't want to mess with them all when you're like this."
"Like what?" I growled. My head snapped back toward him as I tried to ignore the twisted knots in my stomach.
"You're all worked up and not thinking clearly and there is no way for it to end well," he explained. I blew out a heavy breath and shoved my hand through my hair. He was right. There was nothing I could do tonight that would help her in any way. Anything I tried would only get one of us, if not both, hurt, and there was no way I'd risk her getting hurt.
I turned back to look at Abigail again and felt a pang of panic when she wasn't where I'd last seen her. Flashbacks of the last time I'd lost sight of her here came back in full force, sending a rocket of fear through me. I needed to keep her in my sight at all times or I would go crazy. My eyes scanned the crowd frantically for a few seconds before I saw Liam again, quickly followed by Jack and Abigail.
They moved through the crowd easily- even the drunken minds of the college students knew better than to get in their way. I watched her closely, my feet frozen in place as I tried not to follow her. Jack's hand was clamped around her wrist and her face was pulled into a frown that was focused on the ground.
I couldn't do this.
I couldn't sit by and watch him drag her away from me.
My feet took a step forward involuntarily and I immediately heard the muffled sound of Luke's protest, but it was drowned out by the buzzing that seemed to have settled over my brain. I was about to bolt through the crowd to her when she looked up, her eyes searching the crowd briefly until I felt them lock on my own.
Her eyes widened in panic as if she could sense what I was about to do. My heart pounded heavily in my chest as I froze in place, the intensity of her gaze stilling my actions. She gave a tight shake of her head, silently begging me to stay where I was. Her brows were low and her lips were pulled in tight as she stared at me, her legs carrying her further and further away. It was like a physical blow to my chest when she mouthed a silent word to me, her final attempt to keep me safe.
My entire body shook as I stared after her, my fists clenched by my sides and my chest heaving with uneven breaths as she moved even further away from me toward the door of the club. She was leaving, her body being dragged away by the worst possible combination of people imaginable all while managing to freeze me in my place with one word, one silent plea I could tell she was begging me to obey.
Don't.
"I need you."
Chapter 67
Reece’s POV
My breath washed across the soft skin on Abigail’s neck as my lips pressed against her throat. I could feel the slight vibration as a quiet moan rolled from her when my mouth sucked at her skin, which only encouraged me further. Her hips rolled against mine, the small space between my body and the wall limiting her actions. My hands were splayed across her back, pressing her hips into mine while her shoulder blades were pressed against the wall, the pressure between us pinning her there. The sound of her already labored breathing was like music to my ears as the quiet pants and needy gasps drifted in the air around us. I loved the way her hands felt in
my hair as her fingers wove through the strands and curled around them, tugging at my scalp before releasing my hair and starting all over again. Every time my teeth nipped at her neck, her fingers would tighten and her hips would press against mine harder and harder with each successive bite. I allowed my tongue to lap over the darkened areas to soothe the sting before bringing my lips to find hers. Her lips melted against mine as I kissed her hungrily, the heat between us building quickly as it added to my desperation for her. I shifted my hips forward, pinning her tightly against the wall as kissed her. My tongue pushed into her mouth to swipe against her own. She let out a quiet groan at the feel and it was like a shot of adrenaline to me. Every sound she made drove me further and further toward the burning desperation I felt. My hand slid around her waist, my thumb grazing the soft skin above the band of her leggings and causing her to squirm before my hand even landed between her legs. She shifted involuntarily at my touch, her back arching off the wall and into me as she sucked in a breath between our kiss. My fingers curled against her to put pressure where she needed it. She responded immediately by kissing me harder and tangling her fingers even tighter into my hair, her chest pressing tightly against mine despite the small space between our hips.
I loved the way she reacted to my touch- so readily and easily yet completely tantalizingly all at the same time. It was so easy to get her worked up but I loved the thrill of it; I loved seeing her twist and shake beneath me and I loved the way her skin flushed when she finally let herself go. I loved the way her muscles would tighten and tremble while she drew out her high only to melt into me after she came down. I loved the sounds she would make and the way she’d kiss me lazily and the way she’d hold me after. I loved it all.
“Reece,” she breathed, her voice light and distracted as I touched her. That tone in her voice alone could push me off the edge.