Page 98 of Obsession

He wasted no more time, pushing me against the wall in the hallway and lifting me up, wrapping my legs around his waist while his palms gripped my bare thighs.

Instantly, I lost control.

My body remembered his touch, his breath passing through my lips, his taste. How addicted I had become to him.

I took off his cap and ran my fingers through his hair, pulling at the strands and we both moaned at the same time, one between the other’s lips. My skirt had ridden up legs, and Harriswas very aware of it as he rolled his hips into me, then moaned over my mouth, a sound of ecstasy and pain.

His lips tasted of coke, tobacco, and madness, his kiss a terrifyingly intense drug. Nothing could be heard in the cold hallway except our whimpers and gasps and the sound of our clothes rubbing against each other, which I would have loved to get rid of. My father had left the air conditioning running; it was freezing in the house, and the feelings Harris triggered in me were volcanic. I was on the verge of burning up.

He bit my bottom lip and then pushed away from me. He leaned his forehead against mine and breathed frantically.

“Does it look like that was it for us, Katherine? Do you think what’s happened now is a reason to step back?”

He leaned over my lips and took my lower one between his teeth again, biting into it slowly and erotically, driving me completely insane.

“It’s only just begun.”

I was at a loss for words; I could only struggle to keep my wits about me after what had just happened.

A vibration ran through my thigh, and Harris exhaled through his nostrils, holding me up with one hand to pull out his phone.

He didn’t answer, and I couldn’t see who was calling, but he frowned, and then he looked at me.

“I have to go now, but I don’t want to hear what you said in the car again.”

I bit my lip as I looked at him. I wanted to remind him that he had a girlfriend and this thing between us was getting extremely toxic, but I couldn’t find the strength to open my mouth again.

He lowered me back to my feet, and I lost my balance briefly, whereupon he caught me again, and giggled in my ear.

“You okay, baby?”

I cursed in my head, struggling to stand on my own two feet. He kept calling me that! I hated and loved that word in equal measure, even though it was getting stupider because I wasn’t his only baby, so it had no value.

“I’m fine. I went jogging this morning and I think my muscles are sore.”

I preferred blaming that even though both I and he knew what the truth was. He didn’t say anything, just smiled and took my chin between his fingers.

“Until next time,” he whispered, then pressed his lips to mine.

Gently this time, and he engaged them in a soft kiss unlike the others we’d shared.

By the time I regained my composure, he was gone.

I remained in place for a long time as I heard his car drive away, then I came back to my senses and muttered a long list of curses in my head, many against my stupid lack of control when it came to him, then against the sexual attraction I couldn’t suppress even if I banged my head against the wall.

I decided to put everything to do with Harris Elay Stone out of my mind and went to my room to take a shower. To my surprise, I fell asleep immediately afterwards and only woke up again when my father knocked on my door and it was already dark outside. He only did it to check on me. He either didn’t know anything about what had happened in the warehouse or didn’t want to talk about it.

I was completely shocked to learn that a boy had died that day during the preparations for the fair when he tried to hang a poster over a building.

He didn’t take me with him on Sunday and I was relieved because I was not in a position to meet grieving people. I was sure that many people had lost their enthusiasm as a result.

***

On Monday morning, my father drove me to school again. It didn’t annoy me as much as it used to, considering I was rid of Harris that way. He called, but after I didn’t answer, he stopped insisting. The only strange thing was that he wasn’t at school either. I didn’t see him in the first two classes, none of them, and that made me even more curious about the reason for his call. Maybe it was about something else, not just an offer to drive me.

I didn’t feel like letting everyone watch and analyze me again, so I skipped lunch and grabbed a Lion bar, which I ate in the bleachers next to the empty football field. This high school wasn’t so bad when people weren’t there to bug me. I told Kristen and the others that I wasn’t feeling so well, and I wanted to be alone, which wasn’t even a lie. I was fighting my addiction every second, and I could feel my control slipping away, my temper getting scary at times, and the medication not working as it should. It was getting harder and harder to control the shaking in my hands and some people had already noticed.

I dragged myself to my next class, which was psychology. I was nervous because I hadn’t taken the subject at my last high school.

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