Clarissa caught a whiff of his cologne and her heart skipped a beat. She had never smelt something so tantalizingly delicious. Clarissa inhaled his scent again and closed her eyes. Why did this jerk have such an effect on her?
“I heard you the first time!” he shouted back.
“Sorry,” Clarissa mumbled and pulled away from him again, “you’re still a jerk.”
Clarissa didn’t complain when he drove around the town square a couple of times before heading to her house. She figured the more she complained and protested the more of her time he’d take up. He seemed like the sort that goes out of their way to do something just because you asked them not to.
“Which part of South Avenue?” he asked, when he brought the bike to a stop at a red light.
Clarissa told him her address, but didn’t say anything else. A few minutes later he pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and Clarissa scrambled off the bike, trying to bite back a smile.
“I’m Clarissa,” she said.
“I know,” the guy said, “You’re still wearing your name tag, Bookworm.”
“Oh yeah,” she frowned, “Well, thanks for the ride home.”
Clarissa turned and began to hobble towards the stairs to get to her apartment, but he called out.
“Skull,” he said.
“What?” Clarissa asked, not sure what he was talking about. She slowly turned back around and walked back to his bike so she could hear him over the roar of the bike’s engine.
“My name is Skull,” he said again.
“I’m sure that’s what your parents decided to call you,” Clarissa rolled her eyes.
“No, but it’s who I decided to be,” Skull laughed.
Clarissa was about to turn to go inside when Skull leaned down from his bike and pulled her to him, wrapping a strong arm around her waist. His lips hovered inches from hers for a few seconds, before claiming her mouth. Clarissa knew she shouldn’t allow this jerk to kiss her, but his warm lips felt so good against hers and he tasted of something exotic.
His tongue slid into her mouth and Clarissa let out a small gasp of surprise, but she didn’t pull away. Soon her tongue was dancing with his and her hands were resting on his shoulders. Then as suddenly as the kiss started, it broke. Skull pulled away, grinning, and sped off into the night.
Clarissa hobbled into the house feeling more than a little shocked. She dropped her purse and shoes by the door and headed into the bathroom. Clarissa had been kissed before, but never so suddenly and certainly never by a guy she barely knew. It tasted of something wild and unknown and she wanted him to kiss her again even if she wouldn’t allow herself to admit it.
“Stop being so silly,” she told herself as she changed out of her work uniform, “It was just a kiss. You’ve been kissed before.”
It was true that Clarissa had been kissed before, but never in a way that left her feeling dizzy, giddy, and slightly angry all in the same breath. She wanted to kiss him again to see if the affect was the same. Kissing him was nothing like kissing any other guy she knew.
Clarissa had had a long-term boyfriend in high school, but he was a year ahead of her and dumped her before leaving for an out of state college. Justin had wanted to be free to explore his options. That had been a year and a half ago. Clarissa had gone on a few dates since then, but none of the guys had wanted to stick around. Clarissa was mature for her nineteen years and most of the guys whom she dated reminded her of the boys in high school. They were too immature and self-assured for her taste. Skull (she rolled her eyes at the fact that she lacked the knowledge of his real name) was both of those things.
Clarissa poured her jasmine oil into the tub and waited for it to fill. Her fingers moved absently to her lips and she sighed. Her mouth was still warm from the kiss she shared with Skull. That was the other thing that Clarissa didn’t like about him. Who wanted to call themselves Skull? It didn’t sound good and it wasn’t even creative. Clarissa shook her head and laughed. She shouldn’t be worried about his name, because she wasn’t likely to see him again, even though she wanted to.
“He’s bad for me,” Clarissa whispered to her empty apartment, “Anything that exciting has to be bad for me.”
Chapter Three
“I don’t care if you believe me or not,” Clarissa laughed and took another sip of her milkshake, “It’s what happened.”
“So some jerk on a motorcycle saved your ass when your car broke down and then kissed you goodnight, like out of nowhere, before riding off into the night like some sort of urban cowboy?” Julie asked and arched a brow.
“Yes, just not the cowboy part! Seriously, I would have preferred to ride home on a horse” Clarissa insisted, feeling insulted that her bestie didn’t believe her. Why would she invent something so unbelievable? Clarissa would have never been able to make up a story that bizarrely sexy, even if she tried.
“Whatever, girl,” Julie rolled her eyes, “Let’s just shop.”
Clarissa followed Julie from the food court through the twisting maze of the mall. Julie ducked into her favorite clothing store and Clarissa followed behind. She headed to the skirts while Julie headed towards the jeans. They’d switch spots when they were finished, even though she knew she didn’t have enough money to get a new pair of jeans and a new skirt. Clarissa was a holding a promising sea foam-colored skirt to her waist when in the distance, out of the corner of her eye she saw a black leather jacket. She grinned to herself remembering her brief encounter with Skull and her lips tingled as if the mere memory of the kiss summoned the physical sensations into the present.
The guy waved and Clarissa blushed. He must have thought she was checking him out or something. Clarissa glanced in his direction again and her heart skipped a beat. Walking through the mall, in flesh and blood, leather and uber-hotness was Skull. Clarissa felt her face redden and she nearly ran to hide in the dressing room. She didn’t want to crush on this jerk named Skull.