My mouth fell open, and heat rushed to my cheeks. His long torso, tan from playing ball out in the sun, stood right in front of me, and I dropped my eyes. I’d seen David and the guys without their shirts plenty of times, but they didn’t look like that.

“She’s pretty,” he told Kai, the two of them walking side by side toward me as I kept backing up. “And she looks easy for us to handle. Together.”

I heard Kai’s quiet laugh, and I took another step back, suddenly hitting a tree. I dug my nails into the bark behind me.

“Don’t be afraid,” Michael told me, and I glanced up just enough to see his boxer briefs sticking out of the top of his jeans. “We’re good. We’re really good.”

We’re good? They weren’t serious?

I fucking bolted. Without turning back, I ran through the forest and toward the music. Get to a phone, get a ride, and get home. For once, the hiding I always had to do sounded pretty damn good right now. My brother was right. Guys were assholes.

I panted, digging in my heels harder and harder to get away. Kai would’ve let that happen? For me to be used like entertainment? There was an air of danger about him at the church today, but he was also gentle.

All of a sudden, Kai was in front of me, cutting me off and bringing me to a halt. “Wait,” he said.

But I didn’t care what he had to say. I shoved him in the chest, pushing past him and running away. I dug in my heels, racing as fast as I could without even watching where I was going.

Arms wrapped around my waist, and I was lifted off the ground as a husky whisper breathed in my ear, “It’s not what you think,” he told me. “It was a joke.”

Oh, even better. Something for them to get a laugh out of.

“Why did you bring me here?” I cried, trying to wriggle free.

“Shhh.”

He tried to soothe me, but I just shook my head. I just wanted to go home. If I wasn’t seen, I couldn’t be humiliated.

“Get off me!” I thrashed, feeling him stumble as we both fell to the ground.

I landed on him and heard him grunt, but when I tried to sit up and scurry away, he hauled me back to the ground and climbed on top of me. His body nestled between my legs, and he squeezed my wrists, pinning them above my head.

“Let me go,” I said firmly. “Now.”

But he just held himself up, staring down at me. His groin rested on mine, and I tried to ignore the nerves coming to life.

“Say it,” he whispered.

“Say what?”

“That you only want me.”

“I’d rather lick an ice cream cone of razor blades,” I gritted out.

He smirked. “You let me touch you in the confessional booth today. You liked me touching you.”

I slowed my breathing, evening out my expression. “Really? I barely remember.”

He then shifted between my legs, rising to the challenge, and a small moan escaped me.

Jesus.

Leaning down, he tickled my lips with his. “Stay?” he asked, heat filling his eyes. “I’d like you to.”

God, he was on top of me. I’d never felt someone’s weight on me like this. Unless I counted wrestling with the guys growing up, and even then, it wasn’t like this.

“What’s going on?” someone asked. I darted my eyes up to see some girl come up to Michael, who stood behind Kai. How long had he been there?

She probably came from the party. We had to be close then.

Kai twisted his head, talking to Michael. “Go on to the cemetery. I got this one.”

Michael didn’t say anything, but I saw his shoes walk over to our side and then a condom dropped to the ground right by my arm.

My chest caved. What?

Michael left, taking the girl with him, and Kai looked back at me. He released my arms, planting his hands on the ground instead.

“Pick it up” he ordered me. “Or run.”

I picked it up and flung it away from us, somewhere behind him.

“We don’t need it,” I told him, calling his bluff. “You’re just trying to scare me.”

But then he moved his body, nudging his groin into me, and I felt the rock-hard ridge inside his jeans.

“Ah,” I moaned and then clamped my mouth shut. What the hell?

“We might need it,” he said, a cocky smirk on his face.

My clit throbbed, and I shifted under him, wanting more.

“Who are you?” he asked.

But I couldn’t tell him. The confessional was an accident, and I didn’t have any intention of running into him again. I didn’t think I’d ever have to face him.

I stared up into his dark eyes, wanting to talk to him again like we did today. Wanting him to know me. But I wasn’t allowed.

Instead, I uttered in a small voice, “I’m cold.”

It was all I could think to say.

Kai rose to his feet and took my hands, pulling me up. But he didn’t release me. Instead, he led me in the opposite direction from where we’d come.

Into the Bell Tower.

I looked around, still hearing the music in the distance, and I could make out shouts and laughter, too. We were close to the party. What was he doing?

I stumbled along anyway, though, not resisting. My insides were twisting and knotting in the most exciting way. This was what I wanted, right? A chance to be close to him?

The gray stone structure was about half as tall as a lighthouse, with a bell chamber at the top. I wasn’t sure if the bell was still there, though. The clock had long since stopped working, and an archway welcomed us with a gated door.

I stepped inside, looking around and taking in my surroundings.

The walls were lined with a few windows, and a couple of stone benches were built into the room. There used to be some kind of house or meeting place attached to the tower, but it was long gone now.

Black vases hung from the walls with decaying roses the color of ash sitting inside. Who knew how old they were?

A little light streamed in, making the red, blue, and gold of the stained-glass windows dance off the walls, and wooden stairs wound around a wall and spiraled up, disappearing from my sight.

Kai released my hand and pulled out a book of matches, lighting the small stub of a candle sitting on the windowsill. The small room glowed a little warmer, and I suddenly became very aware of how quiet it was, the music nearly inaudible in here.

His presence—the anticipation—was a weight on my chest. God, he was beautiful.

His skin was a little darker than mine—warm, tanned, and glowing—and I bit the corner of my lip, gazing at his neck. I could see the ridge of the vein coming through the skin, and I wondered what it would feel like to touch it.

I’d seen his mother once. He had her lips and smile and lashes.

But Kai definitely took after his father, too. Angular jaw, lean body, straight nose, and while his hair was thick like his mom’s, it was coal black like his dad’s. He also inherited his father’s sharp gaze…. So sharp and stern it intimidated me.

Kai turned, the candlelight flickering in his eyes, and I heard the wind howling in the trees through the open gate.

“How do you know me?” he asked, walking toward me.

“Everyone knows you.”

“Do you go to our school?”

I shook my head. “I’m…homeschooled.”

Which was, I guess, the best way to describe it. I’d only made it through the sixth grade, missing more school than I attended, when my brother moved me in with him and made me start doing all of his homework, while I stayed home all day. And that’s how I learned Algebra and Spanish and how Shakespeare used corruption, betrayal, and deception as themes to portray guilt, sin, and retribution. He attended the classes, absorbing just enough to pass tests, while I did the written work, absorbing just enough to not be completely ignorant. There were gaps, of course, but I’d done a really good job of disciplining myself to do the work and his assigned readings. I had always been less than everyone around me, and it made me want to be more. I’d try to get my diploma, at some point.

“I see you around, though,” I explained. “My bro… my mom cooks for the Torrance’s.”

I swallowed, my throat like a desert. That was a lie. Marina wasn’t my mother, but it was the explanation we decided to give people, since my father didn’t want anyone outside the house to know who I really was.