Page 39 of Cruel Devotion

“I…” I frowned, not brave enough to face him with this intense conversation. It made me feel too raw. Too concerned. Too vulnerable and wishing I could comfort him. “I’m sorry. You’re more of a victim than I ever have been. It sucks to be the butt of every joke and teased and bullied, but hell, no one’s everhurtme. Aunt Cindy never…” I shook my head again. “Sorry, Eli. I’m sorry he hit you.”

“But someoneishurting you.” He didn’t back up. “If it irritates your eyes to wear contacts because something happened to your glasses, that is hurting you.” Standing up in the tight space between our stools, he forced me to look up at him.

“Yeah, but?—”

He covered my mouth with his hand, but I jerked out of his touch.

“Tell me.” He narrowed his eyes some more, looking harder. “Because I’ll do more than just tell you I’m sorry to hear that someone messed with you.”

“Oh, yeah?” I smirked. “What would you do?”

“I’d make them sorry.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I laughed until I felt like I could look at him with a straight face again. “Why?”

“Because.” He stepped into my space, stealing my breath. Within my reach like this, he was larger than life, more tempting than any vice I could dream of. “Because when we graduate, I would rather hear you tell megoodbyethangood riddance.”

“It’s a little late for you to get a conscience,” I teased wryly.

“And it’s a little late for you to think I’m letting you walk away without telling me what happened to your glasses.” He edged closer yet, nearly flush to me. I’d parted my legs when he stood, and with him right there, in my space, it felt naughty.

I exhaled a long breath, figuring it wouldn’t make a difference if I told him. He wouldn’t really care. He was only saying that for whatever stupid reason he had.

“Some guy took them during our organic chem lab and dropped them into the sink with acid from our experiment.” I lifted my gaze to him and shrugged. “I’ll be able to get replacements soon. It’s not a big deal.”

He stepped back, pursing his lips and nodding. “Nope. Not a big deal at all.”

Later that afternoon, when I waited for Aunt Cindy to pick me up, I saw the guy.

He approached me, clearly unhappy about his black eye. “Sorry,” he muttered.

I blinked, unsure what alternate reality I’d been transported to. “What?”

“Sorry about your glasses. I’ll bring money for them tomorrow.”

My jaw hung open as I watched him walk away.

The next morning, waiting for sociology to start, I sat in my chair to the side and wondered when Davina would be over that stomach bug that was making her miss class. She wasn’t behind, but she hated to miss out.

Eli slid into the seat next to me without a word.

“You realize that more wrongs don’t make a right, correct?” I quipped dryly.

He shrugged. “Maybe sometimes.” He bored me with an intense stare, making me fight a smile. “But not this time.”

I shook my head, uncertain how to handle this “new” Eli.

Instead of talking any further about it, I got my notebook out and showed him the revisions to the redo paper that Eli and I could still turn in. We had a few minutes before the teacher would show up, so it was as good a time as any to discuss it with him. I didn’t count on him bringing his chair so close. Or that he’d need to rest his arm around me, on the back of my chair, so he could angle nearer to read the paper.

Snug like this, it was hard not to shift a little to the right, to remove the gap between us and touch my thigh against his. And as intoxicating as it was to want to be near him, I damned my body for falling to the lure of wanting contact with him.

“Okay, that’s enough.” The teacher walked in, a couple of minutes late, but Eli didn’t back up with her arrival.

“I said that’s enough,” she repeated as she strode down the aisle between seats, rapping her knuckles on the desks she passed. “Enough…” she warned.

The couple in the front of the room didn’t realize she was scowling at them as they kissed. “Enough, love birds. Enough.”

Everyone cracked up as she reached her desk, setting her things down. And still, the couple who’d decided to pass their time by making out failed to break apart.

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