My whole body heated up from his words. “That was different.”
“Why do you think I was so drawn to you? I wanted to get to know the girl behind the Hermione sweater and when you let go, it’s incredibly hot. So let go, Red.” He nibbled at my earlobe and then his lips trailed down to my neck, his teeth nipping at the soft skin.
A low moan gathered in my stomach and burst through my mouth. I tried to hold it in, but the feeling of his warm lips was enough to turn me into a puddle of jelly.
His lips were back on my ear. “As much as I would like to see you come undone again here, I think we need to try this skating thing again.” He pushed back, grabbing onto both of my hands and pulling me with him as he glided across the floor backwards.
“Are you serious right now?” I pushed my legs forward, trying to shift my feet without falling as he moved like it was no big deal.
“Come on, let go.” His eyes pleaded with mine as he pulled me in a circle around the small skating rink.
The other two girls weren’t even paying attention to us and the guy at the snack counter hadn’t looked up once from his phone, yet I was still afraid to fall. It wasn’t that I was afraid of hurting myself on the ice or even embarrassing myself in front of John. It was something else. Something almost primal that wouldn’t let me.
Then John dropped his hands from mine, but still stayed only a foot away from me, skating backwards, slowly.
“Why did you do that?” I kept my hands out in front of me, my feet still moving forward, but clumsily like I would slip at any moment. “Hold my hand!” I reached forward, but he skated backwards, just barely out of reach.
“John!”I screeched.
He smiled, barely showing any teeth. “Come on, Red. You can either keep skating or you can fall. You’ll never know what’s going to happen unless you try.”
“This isn’t funny!” I stumbled forward, trying to reach for his hands, but every time I got closer, he was quicker and moved out of the way.
“What’s it going to be, Red? Skate or fall?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know what kind of psychological thing you are trying to pull here, but it isn’t funny!” I lurched forward, hoping to fall into his arms, but he moved too fast. My feet gave out first, slipping on the ice like butter on a frying pan. My legs went airborne and I moved too fast to even blink or move my arms to soften the blow. Instead, I fell chest first onto the cold ice below, followed by my face.
John was by my side, pulling me up to my knees. But that didn’t stop the pain from exploding onto my body. The cold ice soaked through my clothes and my nose felt like it was bent in half.
“Are you okay?” John’s voice was soft and concerned, but at that moment I was angry at him for letting me fall.
“No!” I threw his hands down and then tried to stand up by myself but then ended up falling down hard on my butt. I’d probably have a bruise there to add to all of my internal ones. “OW.”
He pulled me up to my feet. I gave in and let him, since obviously I couldn’t control my own feet. “I think I broke my nose,” I whined.
He turned to face me. “I don’t think it’s broken, maybe just bent.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re not the broken one.” I touched my nose, which just made it hurt worse and I winced.
“You’re not broken either, Melanie.”
I met his eyes. He rarely ever called me Melanie. Instead of smiling, he was deadly serious. “I know what you’re trying to do,” I whispered.
“And what is that?” He leaned in, pressing his forehead to mine.
“Trying to make me feel better.”
“And I’m never going to try to stop trying. You’re stuck with me. Broken or not, I’m not going anywhere.”
I let out a slow breath, closing my eyes. “I want to go home.”
“Melanie...”
I closed my eyes tighter. I didn’t want to see him. I wanted this date to make me forget about my surgery. To forget about all the bad shit. Now I didn’t want to think about anything but sleeping it away. “I said I just want to go home.”
Chapter 20
My first date with John wasn’t exactly everything that I hoped it would be. I had to ice my face the rest of the weekend and my bruised nose made it look like I got in a fight. Going back to class on Monday wasn’t any better.
“Hey, Red, how’s the nose doing?” John plopped down in the seat next to me like he didn’t have a care in the world.
I glared forward, willing myself not to look at him. “You’re the one who put it there, so if you don’t mind I would like to focus on the lecture since finals are coming up.”
The girls in front of us glanced over their shoulders, looks of disgust on their faces.
I smirked. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, ladies. I fell ice skating, he’s not beating me or getting me involved in some weird sex act.” That got them to turn back around.
“Since when does sex involve bruises? What kind of stuff are you into, Red?” He leaned in, his voice low and almost right at my ear.
“I am not talking to you, John,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I told you. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
I groaned. He had apologized a million times about me falling on the ice, but then would go right back to saying that it was a good thing because I needed to let go. Easy for him to say. He didn’t have a disease or an ex that gave it to him. It was hard to start anything new, let alone let go, when that was always in the back of my mind.
“I don’t even know you,” I said, but regretted the words as soon as I them, no matter how true they were.
What did I really know about the beautiful boy who carried me up the stairs after my surgery? I knew that I was falling, hard. More than I had for anyone else and that scared me. It scared me how much I was willing to do for him. How much he made me forget about what a jerk Robby was to me.
“You know me, Melanie. Better than anyone,” he whispered the last part. “You’re the one that’s a mystery to me. You’re the one who keeps everything inside and won’t let go.”
“You keep saying that. I don’t know what you’re trying to get at. Do you want me to just keep falling on my face?” I looked up, seeing that the professor walked into the room and I kept my voice low. I did intend on passing the class and I had been slacking on paying attention ever since I started sitting next to John.
His hand slid from under his desk and slowly moved up my leg until his fingers grazed my inner thigh. He couldn’t just pull something sexy and think that I’d forgive him that easily.
I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly, turning my head ever so slightly toward his. “Stop it. We’re not doing this here.”
He pulled his hand out of my grip. “Geez, Red. No need to be so touchy.”
“You were the one being touchy,” I whispered. “And now I need to pay attention to our lecture.”
“Come on, Red. I thought we were good.”
One of the girls in front of us turned her head sharply. “Will you two either quit talking or take it outside? Some of us are trying to listen,” she hissed.
“Mind your own damn business,” I pushed back.
She huffed and then turned around to face the front again.
“Ouch! Feisty and I like it,” John said through a laugh.
I glared in his direction and then packed up my books and put them in my bag. He wasn’t going to stop bothering me during class and I was sure I could get the notes from someone. There was no way I could concentrate, so it was better just to leave.
Once my bag was packed I stood and didn’t even look back as I pushed past other people’s desks and stormed out the front door.