Page 81 of Survival

“For me?!” I felt the heat hit my cheeks. Was he crazy? “Tucker could have really been hurt. How could it have possibly been forme?”

“Damn, I forgot how hot you are when you’re mad.” Zane reached out, his fingers brushing against my flushed cheek.

I smacked his hand away. “Don’t touch me,” I growled. “Answer me.”

I almost flinched when the smile fell from Zane’s lips, and his brown eyes, so close to black, flickered in warning. Frustration seeped from him right then, and I could still feel it even when he painted the calm back onto the handsome canvas other girls still gushed over.

They hadn’t felt him lose control. His anger.

Zane leaned to place his hand on the wall behind me then, his body uncomfortably close to mine as he closed me in. Every nerve in my body was alert, aware of the unseen palpable danger that lingered in the air if I pushed him too far.

“I was trying to show you that Tucker’s not as perfect as you think. That he’s fallible. He’s weak. I’m not. But for some reason, you still don’t see it. I can protect you. He can’t. That’s why you can’t sleep with him.”

“What?” I blinked, actually thrown.

“Last summer, he protected you when I…lost my temper. So much shit was going on then. Things I wanted you to know.” He shook his head. “But it wasTucker’sweakness that hurt you last time. He couldn’t control himself and look what happened? No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t protect you.”

His smug smile spread as he leaned in, and I tensed as his thick body threatened the space between us. My chest tightened as the room faded at the edges, his close presence alone now apparently enough to trigger this response from my mind. But he didn’t touch me, the last bit of distance just enough for me to hold it back.

Had he always seemed so large? I wasn’t sure. It had been a while since he’d gotten this close, and fear could do strange things to the mind.

When his mouth was just above my ear, he spoke softly, his words caressing me like the tongue of the forever encroaching snake. “But, now, you know what I would do for you. How I would do everything I can to help you.”

“And hurting Tucker is helping me?” I breathed.

“You’re barely surviving, Izzy. Everyone sees it. I just want to be there for you. I want to help you live. To help you shine again and be my light in the darkness like you were before. Like you still are. There’s still that connection between us. That pull I’ve felt since I first met you. It’s strong, even if for you it’s buried in your grief, and I’m not willing to give up on it.”

My heart throbbed at those words, but not for the reason he wanted. “I want Tucker.”

Zane leaned back and removed the white rose boutonniere from the jacket of his tux. “For now, maybe, but eventually, you’ll come around. I’m just as stubborn as you, Izzy, and I’m not giving up.” Leaning in once more, he pressed the flower into my hand as he whispered, “I can’t wait until we’re together again. Once you’re with me, I’ll make sure you never want anyone else.”

The gym doors flew open, noise and light flooding the hall, and a group of girls stepped out, giggling and chatting, oblivious to my torture.

Zane slowly backed away, keeping his dark gaze locked to mine. I kept telling myself to break the connection, to not feed into his delusions, but it was like I was in shock, frozen until Zane smirked and walked through the doors into the dance.

I took a deep breath to collect myself, my lungs dragging in the air like it was too long since I’d had a properbreath. This wasnotgoing to ruin my night. Zane wasnotgoing to screw things up for me.

Smashing the rose in my hand, I dropped it to the floor and rubbed it into the ground with the toe of my heel.That’swhat I wished I could do to Zane.

Chapter 25

TUCKER

“Don’t you dare, whiskey,” Izzy warned when I reached up to adjust my blindfold.

“I’m not.” I grinned, obediently putting my hand back down. We’d left the prom not too long ago, and when the limo brought us back home, everyone else took off to change for the after party while Izzy pulled me over to my truck and tied a blindfold around my eyes for some surprise she had planned.

“Where are we going?” I asked after we’d been driving for a while.

“Almost there.” I heard the blinker turn on, and my truck slowed as Izzy took it around a curve. She pulled to a stop a few seconds later, cutting the engine. “You ready?”

I could just picture her face from the excitement in her voice. Whatever this was had to be good.

“Born ready,” I replied, reaching up for the blindfold. “Can I?”

“Yes.”

I pulled the cloth away and looked around, surprise, excitement, and confusion mixing together as I took in where we were.

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