Page 15 of The Heavier The Chains…
And, yeah, it was.
~
Kenzlee~
Dinner was agonizing, but I understood.
Uncle Allen and Aunt Sheri had wanted to hear all about my first day of school and asked all the standard questions. How did I like Lakeside? Did I make any friends? Did I like my teachers? I told them everything except about Talon.
Hell, I wouldn’t even know what to say if I had mentioned him. I mean, how do you explain how we met? How do you explain what went down in gym, or godawful seventh period?
Seventh period.
That stunt he pulled by sharing his desk had me ready to throw my book at his beautiful face, but when he had wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, I had almost bolted out of the classroom. The only reason I hadn’t was because I truly had not wanted to cause a scene. That nonsense during gym was bad enough, I hadn’t needed to add to it by running away from him in class.
But, the second his fingers had circled around my neck, I knew I needed to stay away from the guy. Another person’s touch should not be able to alter your physical chemistry. It shouldn’t make you feel hot and cold through the marrow in your bones. It shouldn’t make you feel…tethered. Human touch is supposed to make you feel connected, comforted…it shouldn’t make you feelchainedto someone. And it sure as hell shouldn’t make you feel chained to a someone you’ve only known for a day. And that’s what I felt.
I felt chained to Talon Draven.
His hand wrapped around my neck had made me feel…honestly? Like crawling into his lap and letting him make the entire world go away.
I had to laugh.
Neglect can make you feel that way from the first person who shows you something different.
And it can make you lose your mind over the first person who makes youfeelsomething different.
And, Sweet Jesus, when he licked my earring…Christ.
It wasn’t right for a person to be that lethal. It wasn’t right for a person to have that much pull or control over another human being.
After dinner I had gone straight to my room, and after an hour of staring at the ceiling, I still had no answers where Talon Draven was concerned. I knew I needed to stay away from him, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.
My phone rang, dragging me out of my thoughts. Grabbing it, I saw the name flashing across the screen and smiled. “Julie,” I breathed.
“Hey, Kenz,” she greeted over the phone.
Julie Crane and I had been friends since we were in grade school, and while she hadn’t been my best friend, she had been the only one who hadn’t abandoned me when my parents had lost everything. My best friend, Belinda? Yeah, she had abandoned me faster than the bank had cut off our credit. But, if I’m being honest, she had started abandoning me around the same time Cameron had dumped me; around the time I stopped being self-absorbed and wanted to be a better person.
“What’s the haps, chica?” I asked, suddenly missing her terribly.
“It’s the same old thing here,” she replied. “I’ve got nothing important to report. I’m actually calling to hear all about what you’ve been up to.”
“Oh, nothing much,” I deadpanned, “just a new life, new school, new friends, and new future.”
“Yeah, but does that new life, new school, new friends, and new future include new hot-looking guys?” she laughed.
Little did she know.
“Well, they’re definitely not interested in me, but there are these two brothers who look like they would belong on a magazine cover except they look too…rough to pull it off,” I admitted.
“Ooooohhh, do tell,” she chuckled.
“Are you in your room?”
“Yeah.”
“Go to your computer, pull up the social media platform of your choosing, and type in Lars or Hunter Finley,” I told her.
