Page 62 of Charming Cruel Boys

It’s going to have to be well planned out. I can’t leave any evidence and risk going to prison myself. But as I mull this over in my mind, I think I can do it. After all, it’s not me I’m doing it for. It’s for the people I love. And doesn’t that make me more determined? More dangerous? More deadly?

I wasn’t set on the idea for a long time. Sure, it’s been flitting around in my brain for weeks, months even. But tonight, when I was on the sidelines grabbing some water and waiting for the next play, I saw something that set this whole plan in motion.

Remi, in cute ass braids with my number on her shirt, walked down the bleachers and turned for the school gym, all with a sly smile on her plush lips. Did my cock stir at the thought of cornering her in the locker rooms after the game? Fuck yes. But I’ve been careful because I’ve been afraid. I’ve been so goddamngood.

As I watched Charles grab Remi’s wrist tonight and pull her out of view, something clicked in my brain. I’ll never be the good guy. But for Remi, I’ll be the best kind of bad guy. I’ll slaughter the entire world and bathe in the blood if she only asked. If she looked at me with those soft gray eyes and asked me to carve out my own heart and hand it to her on a gold platter, I’d find a way to do it.

The look on her face as Charles grabbed her tonight, true fear and pain, it created a monster inside me. All I saw was red. A bloody, violent, spill-your-guts-and-smile-about-it kind of red.Remi has no idea the kind of devotion I have for her, how far I’m willing to go.

But right now isn’t the time to plan a murder. That’ll come soon. Tonight, as I pull off my sweaty football gear, the only thing I want to do is check on Remi. My mind is a vicious slideshow of everything I might find, everything her father might have done to her. Duke stayed home tonight, wanting to work on some new songs, so Remi was alone when Charles cornered her at the game. We should have known better. I just have to make sure she’s in one piece right now. Then, from now on, she’ll always have one of us with her to prevent this shit.

I throw on some sweatpants and head down the hall for her room, hesitating with my hand raised to knock. Will I be waking her? It’s late. Instead, I carefully open the door, trying to be quiet in case she’s asleep.

“Hello?” she calls out in the dark.Busted.

I close and lock the door behind me and embrace the darkness, blinking to let my eyes adjust. Remi is sitting up in bed, arms wrapped around her legs, one hand gently rubbing at the wrist that Charles held an hour ago.

I move through her room, inhaling that sweet floral perfume that drives me mad. Sitting on the edge of her bed without a word, I grab her hand, carefully massaging the abused skin around her wrist, and she lets out a pained squeak. I flick my eyes up to her face, barely visible in the absence of light. With my eyes locked on her silhouette, I bring her wrist to my mouth and press my lips to the warm skin there.

Remi shudders at the contact. “Knight?”

I don’t answer her. I graze my lips over Remi’s skin, making a trail from her wrist down her smooth palm, from her palm to the tip of her middle finger. Then I give it the lightest bite, teasing her in the spot where she teased me, when she had my finger in her mouth in the kitchen.

Remi’s moan is barely there, just a slip of a sound spilling from those plush, pink lips.

I kiss the pad of each finger, holding her small hand gently in my large one. When I press my lips a final time to her heated flesh, she whispers, “Knight, please.”

Letting go of her hand, I lean in, brushing my lips against her forehead. Soothing, loving words are hammering in my mind and begging to be free, but I keep my mouth closed. I stand, intending to leave now that I know she’s not broken and crying because of Charles. My body is buzzing with explosive energy and I need to find something to punch or I’ll end up dragging her father out of bed. But before I can move away, Remi grabs my hand, lacing her fingers through mine, and pulls.

She pulls until I’m forced to put a knee on the mattress so I don’t tumble onto her. She pulls until I’m leaning over her, our chests inches apart. And then she wraps an arm around my neck and pulls until our lips meet in a slow, tender kiss.I fight back a groan as my tongue caresses Remi’s, tasting her as if for the first time.

She hooks her ankles together around my waist and tangles her fingers in my hair, pulling on the strands enough to ease my need for violence. Then I’m just fucking lost to her.I can’t hold back anymore.

I run my hands up her sides, along the curve of her waist and ribs, until I find her breasts. I massage and squeeze until Remi’s whimpering underneath me. Finally, I break our kiss so I can lick and suck and bite my way down her neck and collarbone. And still, I haven’t said a word.

With eager hands, I lift Remi’s oversized shirt over her head, and as soon as the fabric is free, I drop my mouth to a budded nipple. Remi gasps and arches up, grinding her hips against my painfully obvious erection.

“I want you. Please,” Remi rasps. “Don’t shut me out again. Pretend for one night, at least.”

Oh, baby girl, you have no idea how much I don’t need to pretend.

I’ve been falling in love with Remi for years. Every time she walked by me in the hallway between classes. Every time our eyes met during lunch. Every time I heard her silky voice or sultry laugh.

My heart ached to have her when I volunteered for the park clean-up freshman year just because I knew she would be there too. I became desperate for her the first time she came to a football game, cheering along with the crowd when it was clear she had no idea what was happening. Then I was hopeless in my feelings for her when I had to drive Duke over to her house that summer they were together because it was raining too hard for him to walk.

I’ve had a million and one fantasies about the girl made of sunshine and hope, never truly believing I had a chance. So even if I’m going to hell for risking everything, I’ll do it with a smile on my face because Remi just asked me the only thing I can’t deny.

Give her one night of my love.

42

Remi

Iknewitwashim the second my bedroom door opened. Knight and Duke have very different energies. I learned how to tell them apart a long time ago.

Duke is warm and comforting, like toasting marshmallows over a campfire or pulling on an old sweater that brings back happy memories. He’s home and security and dreams of the future.

Knight is a dark thrill, like that feeling when you’re walking through shadows and imagining monsters just out of reach or watching a horrifying movie in the safety of your own home. It’s enough to scare you, but you know nothing bad will really happen. He’s excitement and risk and the kind of bad guy who feels so right.

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