Tough Shit (Rejects Paradise 1)

My skin burns under his touch despite the thin shirt that acts as a barrier between us and I can’t help but wonder if I’m about to be met with the overprotective amazing guy I was with on the dance floor last night or if I’m about to see the Colton that tears me down, the one I’ve become so accustomed to over the past month of being in Bellevue Springs, the one I’ve learned to despise.

“Why did you want me at that party, Colton?” I murmur, letting him see the real me, the one who has been plagued with this question, the one who won’t dare stop fighting for answers.

He watches me, his eyes roaming over my face as though I’m some sort of mythical creature that’s completely bewitched him. “You’ve showered,” he comments. My brows pinch in confusion but he’s quick to explain himself. “You put my shirt back on.”

My eyes drop to my body. To be completely honest, my morning has been a little too fucked up to think too much about the shirt but now that I see it for what it is, I can’t help but like the way it feels on me and the way it screams of possession. My chin raises and I meet his eyes again. “Colton,” I whisper. “The party?”

His chest drops as he exhales and I find myself spreading my fingers out over his damp skin. His eyes soften and I watch the exact moment as he decides to finally be real with me. “There’s something about you, Jade. It drives me in-fucking-sane but when you’re not around, I crave it. I need it more than you could ever fucking know.”

“Then why are you such a dick to me?”

He shakes his head, not prepared to answer that knowing that a question like that is a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. “Hearing you with Charlie … fuck, babe. You’ll never understand how fucking close I was to storming in there and tearing that mother fucker off you but I knew you wanted it even though I know a part of you was only with him to get at me.”

My lips press together and although I don’t say a damn word, it’s the clarification that he needs.

“Understand something about me, babe. I don’t get jealous, but hearing that … I’ve never been so fucking jealous in my life.”

“But …”

He continues as though I didn’t say a damn word, desperate to get it out before this moment passes or one of us fucks it up again. “After Charlie, you pulled away. The snarky comments stopped, the attitude started to fall away but I craved it. I needed it from you and so I pushed you and it only pushed you further away.”

“So, what? The party was just some desperate attempt to reel me back in?”

“No, Jade. The party was a desperate attempt not to lose you. I saw you in the parking lot with Milo and I’m not even going to try to understand that shit, but I can’t watch you move on to another guy and fall further away.”

He falls silent but words are lost on me. I haven’t got a clue what I’m supposed to say to that but I feel it right down in my gut. The pull between us is too strong, too real.

I push up onto my tippy-toes and as I do, his face drops and our lips meet in the middle. His arms curl more securely around me as mine wrap around the back of his neck, holding him close and refusing to let go. The kiss is short, nothing like the one we shared last night but it’s so full of power that it cripples me.

I pull away and drop back to my feet, needing a moment to collect myself and as his forehead drops to mine, I’m reminded of that perfect moment on the dance floor before the night turned to shit. “I shouldn’t have walked out last night,” I tell him. “I was safe with you.”

Colton’s fingers come up and brush the hair off the side of my face before his fingertips gently trail over my skin. “You’re always safe with me, Ocean,” he says, his voice thick with emotion. “Even when it doesn’t seem like it, you’re my priority. Since the second I first saw you.”

His words are my undoing and I can’t help but raise my chin and brush my lips over his once again. “Thank you for last night,” I whisper. “For everything. Saving me, the party, the gown. It was perfect until it wasn’t.”

He doesn’t respond, just nods and to him, that’s as good of a ‘you’re welcome’ as I’m going to get. My eyes drop and I focus heavily on his wide, tanned chest. “He destroyed my gown.”