Page 51 of Tell Me Softly
I was trying to be indifferent, but seeing her there reminded me that she had kissed my brother. I couldn’t believe it, but I was constantly drawn to her, and I was infuriated with him. Was it really possible I was jealous?
“Please don’t make me talk to the principal,” she begged me. “He threatened to expel me. I’m hanging by a thread here.”
I leaned my forearms on the desk and looked at her just as the clock struck eight. No one moved, so I shouted, “Detention’s over. Everyone out but Kami.” She looked miserable. My brother stopped at the door for a second and shot me a threatening glance. When had Taylor and I become enemies?
When we were alone, before I could say anything, Kam began, “Thiago…”
“Stay away from my brother,” I warned her, before I could even think about my motivations or what those words meant.
Kam blinked with surprise. “What?”
“Stay away from Taylor, or I’ll make your life a living hell.”
“Are you threatening me?”
I stood. I wanted to look down at her at that moment.
“Stay away from my brother. Stay away from my mother. Stay away from my house. And stay away from me. I’m not kidding.”
She looked at her feet. I thought I’d broken her––I thought she’d say OK. I thought she’d agree to keep her distance. But then she looked up at me with a defiance I didn’t think I’d ever seen in anyone before.
“You can forget that,” she said.
I walked around my desk, taking a deep breath and trying to control myself, using everything––my eyes, my stature––tofrighten her. She stood up and backed away. “If you don’t, I’ll make sure you sit here in detention for the rest of the year. It’ll be you and me alone in this library. I don’t care if it takes up all the free time I have; it’ll be worth it to make you pay.” I hadn’t realized I’d gotten closer to her until she had her back against the wall. I leaned a hand next to her face and smelled her without meaning to. Then I remembered she had kissed my brother. Taylor had tasted those plump, wet lips…
“You can’t do that. You can’t justify it.”
“Oh, don’t you worry. I’ll find justifications. I can be crafty when I need to be.”
“You don’t have that power. You’re a nobody at this school.”
“Try me, Kamila, and you’ll see.”
“Keep my name out of your mouth.”
“Oh, so we’re getting frisky now? Let me tell you something: I get to tell you what to do, not the other way around.”
“You can’t bully me.” She was deadly serious.
“Oh, I can, though. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Get away from me. You’re weirding me out.”
Weirding her out or turning her on? I looked at her cheeks, her blond hair, thinkingFuck… I fell into a trance, only broken when she spoke my name: “Thiago…” And hearing it made me feel everything except the apathy I was trying to show just then. I put a finger to her lips and said, “This thing with you and my brother, it’s finished, OK?” I wanted it to sound tough, but I could hear my voice softening. I was giving myself away. I felt a stirring inside my pants.
“Are you jealous?” she asked. And the echo of those words, soft as they were, traveled through my body like a shock wave.
Just then, a hand reached through the doorway, and we froze. It was Mel, the janitor. But she didn’t bother to look in, she just flipped the switch. She must have been making her last roundsbefore heading home. And that meant we were alone. In complete darkness.
My finger was still on her lips, and I could feel the tension in her face. I thought she’d push me away or insult me. I even wanted her to do that, but instead, her mouth opened and she started to suck. I opened my eyes wide, trying to see her in the dark, and managed to catch the flicker of her tongue wrapping around my finger. My body was warm, as if I were standing in the middle of a bonfire. She was torturing me. My brain turned off, and instinct took the wheel. I slipped my finger out, put it back in, imagined doing the same, but with a different part of my anatomy…and that fantasy nearly brought me to my knees. Watching her toy with me was more exciting than anything I could have imagined. But what the hell were we doing?
As I thrust my finger in and out, my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I managed to see hers. I’m sure I saw in them what she must have seen in mine: pure lust. But something else too. Accumulated rage, bitterness, hatred, and arousal all at once. I could have taken her then and there, not even thinking of the consequences, but then I heard a noise out in the hall. I stuck in another finger, grabbed her neck, and pulled her toward me.
“You need to go, Kam. Otherwise, we’ll both be in hot water.”
I stepped back. Once. Twice. She was turned on, I could tell. And we’d barely touched each other. I saw something in her eyes that drove me wild. That called out to me. That told me to come closer, to put a hand under her clothes, to feel how warm and wet she was. She bent down, grabbed the backpack that had fallen at her feet, and vanished through the door.
Chapter Twenty
