Page 39 of Regrets

“Not yet. Haven’t found her. What’s wrong, P? Where’s Colt?”

She turns away from me again, following the hallway, and I keep up with her.

“Penelope.” I grab her arm and turn her to face me just as we reach the door to the master. “What happened? What do you mean everyone knows you’re dirty?”

“I’m too dirty for him.”

“Who?”

She fights a sob, evident by her voice barely choking out his name. “Colt.”

“He fucking said that?”

I could kill him. My own flesh and blood.He called her dirty?

“He might as well have.” Her eyes meet mine with a deadly glare. “This is what you wanted, right? For him to realize I’m dirty, that I’m not good enough for him, and he would break up with me.”

He broke up with her? On prom night?

It doesn’t make any sense. Maybe I don’t think they’re a good fit, but I know he loves her.

Her voice gets louder. “That’s what you fucking wanted, right? For Colt to realize that I’m filthy? That I’m a girl who has put herself between two brothers.” My eyes flare with anger, and I can feel her pushing me. “That I’m a girl who likes to flirt with them both, living my life on the edge between right and wrong.” Her body moves closer to mine as her chin tips up in defiance. “Knowing how wrong it is, but not able to stop because it gets her hot.”

Her tongue flicks in her mouth when she says “hot.”

“I’m a girl who watched you screw some random girl. And you know what, Linc?”

Her voice is too loud, and although the party has music blaring through the house, if someone walks by, they could hear her. And I have a pretty good idea what she’s going to say. “P. Stop.”

“I liked it.” I try to fight the desire stirring inside me. I know she did. She laughs in irony. “What’s the matter, Linc? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it? This is our favorite game, right? Teasing each other. You love to push me to the edge.”

She’s pissing me off, and I grab her arm, dragging her into the master bedroom and closing the door behind us. Then I release her. “Stop. Okay. I know you’re pissed-off. Just tell me what happened.”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened. He won’t touch me. Because I repulse him.”

There’s no way she repulses anyone.“I’ve seen him touch you.”

She throws up her arms in frustration. “Yeah well, he won’t fuck me.”

I stare at her in shock, trying to process what I just heard. I was certain they were fucking by now. She sleeps in his bed.How could he say no?“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Doesn’t it?” Her small body crowds mine. “I’m not good enough for him.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“It’s not, Linc. I’m tainted by my past and my inevitable future, and he’s afraid I’ll drag him down. I bring pain and tragedy.”

I can’t fucking take hearing her description of herself, and I lose control. This time, I can’t hold back. My hands move to her, one on her back and the other in her hair, pulling her mouth to mine. And when our lips meet, I don’t come up for air.

Her hands rest on my hips, pressing her body against mine as she kisses me with a hunger I’ve never felt from any girl before. My tongue moves inside her mouth, and I swear she’s going to swallow it.

“Fuck them all, P. If they don’t see you, . . .” my lips crash against hers as I breathe the next words, “fuck them.”

She moans softly into my mouth as her back hits the wall of the master bedroom.

Her hands lift my shirt, and I raise my arms to let her take it off before she tosses it behind me and her lips mash against mine again, her teeth nipping on my bottom lip.

Fuck, I know it’s wrong, but maybe the dirty girl finally met the perfect dirty boy.

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