Page 55 of Aftersome
I assumed I was going to sit next to James, but as I passed through the narrow aisle, I felt a large hand clasp around my arm and tug me toward them.
“What the…” I was pulled harshly into the seat as my arm caught itself on the person beside me, along with the upper half of my body that landed on what felt like hard muscle. At first, my eyes had gone hazy and a bit unfocused but when I felt a hand graze along my hip, my vision suddenly came back.
“Mal?”
Confusion, but also disbelief, filtered through me as I became caught in an endless orbit of green. So unique, so intense, that I found myself struggling to look away. I had even forgotten I was draped over him like a blanket.
“Your hair,” he commented as his stare never left mine. I couldn’t figure out whether he liked it or not, but at the moment, it didn’t seem to matter. Especially when he raised his hand and thumbed the tips of my dyed strands as if inspecting the color. “It’s pink.”
“I… I wanted something different.” My throat felt dry and scratchy.
Mal was touching me. Holding me steady by my hip while his other hand played with my hair. It was everything opposite of what I was used to with him.
“I can see that.”
With his gaze still locked onto my hair, I took the opportunity to get a once-in-a-lifetime, up-close look at Mal.
When I should have felt embarrassed, I didn’t. When I should’ve felt mad, I didn't. And when it should have felt wrong, it didn’t.
But just as quickly as I discovered I liked the feeling of being this close to him, I quickly realized just how wrong it was.
This wasn’t just anyone.
This was Mal.
Hayes’s Mal.
I swiftly removed myself from his hold and leaped over to the seat next to him where I felt as though I could breathe again.
“Why did you do that?” My voice turned from breathy to aggravated as I set my backpack onto the ground and refused to look at him.
“No better way to watch you than having you sit next to me.”
Great, we’re back to that again.
Rolling my eyes on a sigh, I peeked a glance over at him.
“So, your way of getting me to sit next to you is to yank me by my arm until I fall into your lap? Whatever happened to asking the other person whether they wanted to or not?”
As soon as the words had fallen from my mouth, I felt my cheeks burn up. It wasn’t something I should have felt embarrassed about, but the memory of it, and the feel of his solid body beneath me, would stay with me forever.
“Would you have said yes?” He glanced at me quizzically with an arch in his brow.
We both already knew the answer to that.
“That’s… beside the point.” I shook my head. “You can’t just manhandle me into getting your way.”
“You call that manhandling? I call it a reminder to all these idiots on the plane that you’re off limits.”
My stare swung over to his.
“So you're the reason why they’ll barely talk to me? Why would you even say that to them? I already feel unwanted here thanks to you.”
“Good. Then maybe you’ll finally realize that you shouldn’t be here.”
My mouth started to tremble along with every muscle in my body that told me to sit somewhere else. The man was hot andcold all the time, it was hard to be in his presence. Let alone be the object of his torment.
“Maybe you’re the one who shouldn’t be here. Seems to me your team likes me a hell of a lot more than they like you,” I snapped back before rising to my feet to find a new seat where I wouldn’t be berated.
