Mad Love (Slateview High 3)

He didn’t answer. I looked up to see his gaze focused over my shoulder, and I was positive he was staring at Barrett.

No. I needed him with me.

Kace had killed a man for me, and I didn’t doubt he would do it again if he had to. But violence wouldn’t help either of us in this situation. It would only make things worse.

So I fought against the violence brewing inside him with the only thing I could think of.

Love.

Rising up onto my tiptoes, I looped one hand around the back of Kace’s neck and pressed my lips to his, relishing how hard he was everywhere—how soft he made me feel. His earthy sage scent crept into my nostrils as his arms wrapped around me and he returned the kiss with wild heat.

Then, before I could even register what was happening, his lips broke apart from mine. I had a horrible certainty that he was about to push past me and stalk toward Barrett like a killing machine. But instead, the world spun around me as I was picked up by the waist and thrown over Kace’s shoulder.

I let out a little yelp as his arm beaded around my thighs, pinning them against him as he began walking toward one of the other doors on the perimeter of the room. He shoved it open, and the lights and sound of the dance faded as it closed behind us. The hallway was dark, and the sound of Kace’s heavy footfalls seemed like drumbeats in the empty corridor.

My cheeks flamed as a rush of heat surged through my body. On the one hand, half my school had just watched this boy throw me over his shoulder and carry me out of the room like a caveman claiming his mate.

On the other hand…

I fucking wanted to be claimed.

My core throbbed as heat pooled in my lower belly. I could feel the flex of Kace’s muscles beneath me as he walked, and the sheer strength and power of his body made me ache for more contact. I wanted to be enveloped by him. Owned by him.

When he finally set me down, I found myself leaning back against a door. My legs wobbled a little, adjusting to supporting my weight as I gazed up at the tall boy before me. His hands rested on the door on either side of my head, and he was staring down at me with an intensity that almost burned, his moss-green eyes seeming darker than usual in the dim light.

He dropped his head, our noses almost brushing as I tilted my own head up. Then he kissed me again, and my whole world narrowed to the connection between us. I was vaguely aware of him doing something with the door handle, but I couldn’t focus on that. Not when his tongue was sliding so insistently against mine, not when I could feel the heat radiating from his body, lighting mine up like a furnace.

Then the door suddenly fell

away from behind me as it swung open. I’d been resting so much of my weight against it that I almost fell over when it opened, but Kace’s arms caught me, holding me tight to him as he walked me backward into the room.

I expected it to be a bathroom. He and I had made something of a habit of fucking in public bathrooms on school grounds, so it only seemed fitting that we would christen one of the bathrooms at Highland Park too.

But when Kace tore his lips from mine and began working them along the line of my jaw and down my neck, I blinked my eyes open and realized I’d been wrong.

We were in the nurse’s office.

It was a small, sterile room with an exam table in the middle and stacks of brochures on the small stand by the door.

Keeping his lips on my skin, Kace urged me backward again, and when my ass bumped into the exam table, he kept moving my upper body backward, dipping me deeply as his hand supported the back of my head. His lips trailed over my chest, along the neckline of my dress, and he made a pleased, animalistic sound in his throat.

It was the closest he’d come to speaking since he’d arrived here.

I groaned, reaching up to grab handfuls of his short blond hair, arching my back even more to encourage his exploration. “Fuck, Kace!”

“I want to kill him, Princess.”

The words were muttered low, spoken against my skin as he devoured me, but I could hear the truth in them. I could feel the truth in his body, in the tension that tightened every one of his muscles.

“Don’t!” I gasped. Forcing my head up, I met his gaze as his lips brushed over the exposed tops of my breasts, staring into his eyes as if I was trying to meld our souls into one. “Please, Kace. He’s not fucking worth it. Stay with me. Show me I’m yours.”

Something shifted in his expression, brutal anger warring with insatiable hunger. His breathing grew harsh, and the hand that roamed my body became rougher, more possessive.

“Are you mine, Princess? Are you ours? Do you belong to us?”

“Yes,” I breathed, shifting my head to the side, wanting more of his mouth and hands everywhere. “Yours. All of me.”

He drew back slightly, the muscles in his neck standing out like thick cords. His tongue slid out to lick his full lower lip, and my core clenched, a flood of anticipation moving through my body.