Page 34 of My Fault
“This is Noah,” she said, spinning him all the way around so I could get a good look at him. Lion was the same height as Nick and very striking with his green eyes—green like the mint in a mojito—and his perfectly sculpted, muscular body.
Jenna was a lucky woman!
“What’s up, Noah?” he said with a friendly smile but keeping an eye on my stepbrother.
“Nice to meet you,” I said, smiling back. I was really starting to like Jenna, and I didn’t want her boyfriend to believe all the stuff Nick had certainly told him about me.
“Wow, you can be nice and everything,” Nicholas said cynically. I geared up, ready to attack for the third, maybe the fourth time.
I wasn’t in the mood for another fight, though, so I resorted to a universal gesture: raising my middle finger and walking off in search of something better to do.
That was when I felt his arm loop through mine, pulling me toward a dark corner between two expensive cars. Jenna and her boyfriend watched us for a moment, but then she kissed him hard. It stung to see a couple that looked so good together, so happy. Not even four hours ago, I too thought I had the best guy in the world by my side, and now…
“What do you want?” I asked Nick, expelling all my rage. He’d pushed me into the car, so I was trapped between him and the door of a gray BMW.
He’d changed clothes. Now he was wearing jeans that left his Calvin Klein underwear exposed and a tight black T-shirt that showed off his muscular arms.
He didn’t answer, just looked at me briefly before grabbing my phone from my hand and showing me the screen with the photo that had broken my heart two inches from my face.
“Who is this?” he asked me. Was he pretending to be interested in my private life?
I reached out to grab my phone, but he pulled it away, observing my reaction.
“What do you care?” I hissed with as much contempt as I could muster.
“Me? I couldn’t give less of a shit. But I’m guessing it must be your boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend if you’ve got any self-respect. And since women are all basically the same, I’d imagine that your main goal tonight, besides pestering me, is getting your revenge on this dickhead.”
How could he know that? Was it so obvious that payback was the one thing on my mind? He continued, “So let me offer my assistance. I’ll kiss you and we’ll take a bunch of photos of it, and in exchange you’ll take your ass back home. I don’t want you here, Noah.”
I was shocked and needed some time to absorb what he’d said. As I lingered there, he stared at whatever was happening behind me. Kiss this idiot? Never! And yet, if I thought about it, he really was hot, and maybe I wasn’t into it exactly, but I knew perfectly well how that bastard Dan would take it. He had a big head and thought he was the best-looking guy at the school, and nothing would bother him like seeing me with a guy who was obviously his physical superior.
“Fine,” I said. From Nick’s expression, I could see he’d assumed I wouldn’t go along with it. “I want that fucker to feel like the biggest piece of shit in the world, and if I’ve got to kiss you to make that happen?” I shrugged. “Then so be it. But I don’t want to go anywhere else tonight. I’m having fun, so here’s the deal. You offerme your body to help me get revenge on my stupid ex-boyfriend, and I promise I won’t crash any more of your parties.”
He smiled, and I looked back at him confused. What was so funny?
“You’re honestly fucked up in the head, you know that, right?” He shook his own head in disbelief.
“I’m in a bad, bad place right now, and all I care about is seeing that bastard suffer as much as I’m suffering right now.” I could hear the pain in my voice. That photo kept flashing over and over in my mind, tormenting me. I didn’t care that Nick was my stepbrother or that he was a grade-A imbecile. I wanted vengeance, that was it. I knew the drinks I’d had that night were affecting my judgment, but I didn’t care.
“So are you going to kiss me or not?” I dared him.
Nick laughed.
That pissed me off, so I did something I’d been wanting to do ever since I met him: I raised one foot and kicked him straight in the shin. He shouted, more from surprise than pain.
“Stop laughing, jerkoff! There are plenty of dudes here. If you’re not going to do it, someone else will.” As soon as I’d spoken, I got ready to walk off and show him I was serious.
“That’s not gonna happen,” he said brusquely. “I want you out of here, so get over here.” He pulled me over to the hood of the car, where no one else at the party could see us, thankfully. I hopped up on the hood, and Nicholas looked at my legs, my waist, my chest, my eyes.
“You must really be pissed to do this,” he said, pulling out the iPhone and turning on the camera.
“You must be really desperate not to see me anymore,” I counterattacked, pretending I wasn’t nervous at all. I could barely stand him; I hated him actually, and for the same reason, it made me happy to know I was using him for my benefit.
He didn’t say anything back. He just opened my knees with his hands and got between them. While he held the phone with one hand, the other stroked the bare flesh of my thighs. Despite what I’d thought or what I wished I’d thought, that contact didn’t leave my body indifferent.
“Just get it over with,” I said, and he looked irate, but his left hand grabbed the nape of my neck, and he slammed his lips into mine.
I couldn’t suppress a tickle in my stomach. His lips were soft, his chin prickly with a slight growth of beard. He kissed me angrily, as if he were making me pay for all the arguments we’d had since we met. I realized then that I hadn’t heard the camera click.
