Pretty When She Cries - Black Mountain Academy

I think Theo seems to be aware of all these things, and ultimately, he agrees, albeit a little reluctantly.

“I’ll be in the house if you need anything.” He heads for the door and then pauses before he leaves. “Oh, and I’ll leave it up to you two to tell your mother about this.”

“Thanks, Theo.” I smile at him, and he smiles back, and it feels like some sort of strange barrier has just broken between us. With a quiet nod, he shuts the door behind him, leaving me alone with Landon.

“Still hate me?” Landon tilts his head back to look up at me.

“Always.” I offer him a weak smile.

I’m too vulnerable to admit that I don’t. At least not right at this moment.

“Tell me what happened,” I plead.

“You got anything to eat here?” He perks up with a sudden interest in anything other than this conversation.

It bothers me that he doesn’t want to talk about it, but I also get it. There’s value in secrets. If he told me his, it would mean he’d have to trust me with them, and we both know he doesn’t.

With that knowledge in mind, I walk to the fridge and open the door, listing off the items inside. “I have yogurt, apples, string cheese, cupcakes—”

“Cupcakes?” he repeats. “How about a couple of those.”

I grab two of the cupcakes my mom baked this week, and my stomach rumbles in want. I’ve been staring at them in the fridge for three days, only allowing myself a small taste of frosting here and there. But right now, I could use a sugar high if I was feeling reckless. But I’m not. Definitely not.

“Here.” I hold them out for him.

While my hands are full, he tugs me onto his lap, startling a squeak from my mouth. He plants my ass right over his thighs, so I’m straddling him. When I start to wriggle around, he grabs my waist.

“Hold still, unless you want to wake the beast in my pants.”

That does still me. “What are we doing right now?”

Being this close to him feels… intimate. So close, I can see the tiny fragments of kaleidoscopic color in his eyes. So close, I can feel his chest drawing oxygen into his lungs when he breathes. I want to taste that oxygen.

“You said you’d take care of me, remember? I’m pretty certain this will make me feel better. Your ass, my lap. A sugar rush. What else do we need?”

“Pervert.” My lips tilt, but I stop them before they turn into a full-blown smile.

His fingers skim against my bare thighs, and I nearly jump out of my skin. My shorts have ridden up, and I’m quite certain he can see every little dimple and flaw. It’s unnerving, and I can’t stop myself from cringing when I imagine what I must look like to him right now.

“I’m crushing you.” I try to wriggle away again, and he pulls me closer yet, and this time, I do feel the beast in his pants. Holy moly…

“It would take at least five or six of you pint-sized hellions to crush me,” he boasts proudly.

I want to ask him who he’s kidding, but I don’t. It doesn’t look like he’s lying. In fact, it looks like he’s perfectly comfortable like this. Landon is a big guy, but I always just assumed since he’s drop-dead gorgeous himself, he’d want one of those tall, wispy model types.

He steals a cupcake out of my left hand and sets it on the table beside him before nodding to the other one. “That one’s for you.”

“Oh, I’m not hungry,” I lie.

“Sell that bullshit to someone else,” he says. “Eat the damn cake, Kail. Enjoy it.”

I stare at it, giving just the tiniest shake of my head. I want to but giving in would be weak. And I don’t ever want to be weak again.

“What are you so afraid of?” he asks.

“I…” Words fail me. There’s no way I could explain this to him so he’d ever understand. And there’s no way I could ever be that vulnerable in front of him. He’d probably use it against me the first chance he got.

“If you were my girl, I’d rather see you happy and healthy with thick thighs and a bouncy ass than miserable and starving to be some magazine standard.”

His girl? What?

I’m still trying to wrap my head around that concept and what it all means when he grazes the curve of my hip with his giant palm.

“Let me tell you a secret, little pineapple.” He leans in closer to whisper against my lips as he grabs a handful of my ass. “Guys like this. When they look at you, they see a bunch of fun pillowy toys. They think about your tits bouncing in their face. Your ass grinding in their lap. Your soft, naked body rubbing up against theirs. They aren’t even remotely considering what size you are.”