Page 76 of The Way We Are

“Kiss me. Kiss me. Kiss me,” I demand on repeat, each request met with the lash of my tongue on her pouty lips. I downed my sandwich so fast, it now sits like a rock in my stomach, matching the hardness pressing into Savannah’s thigh.

“I’m not going to kiss you, Ryan,” Savannah whispers, her voice ball-clenchingly sweet. “But you can kiss me anytime you like,” she adds on, her voice lowering to include the promise of her words.

She doesn’t need to tell me twice.

Keeping my eyes locked on hers, I slowly inch our mouths together. I’m dying to taste her again, but I can’t help but tease her a little for her delay in answering my request. Savannah arches her back, smashing our lips together with so much violence, our teeth clang.

“Careful,” I murmur against her mouth.

After checking she didn’t cause herself any damage, I seal my lips over hers for real.

I’ve hardly had the chance to sample the unique palette of her minty-fresh mouth when a loud, angry roar sounds through my ears.

Fuck, not again.

Leaning back, I prick my ears, anticipating more shouting to follow the first lot of mumbled screams. I’m not left waiting for long. A deep male voice booms into my ears two seconds later, but there's just one difference. It isn’t the voice I expect. This angry grumble doesn’t belong to my father. It belongs to Axel.

“Savannah!!” he screams at the top of his lungs.

I hear my mom deny that Savannah is here, but he doesn’t believe a word. He continues shouting Savannah’s name before adding demands to his manic behavior.

“Where is she? I know she's here! I’m not leaving until I speak with her. Savannah!!”

The color drains from Savannah’s face, her rosy cheeks turning ghostlike. “I have to go, Ryan. If he sees me here...oh god... if he finds out what we did...”

I carefully clutch the top of her arms, drawing her focus to me. “It’s okay. He won’t hurt you. I’llneverlet him touch you again, much less hurt you.”

Although gratitude forms in Savannah’s eyes, tears still glide down her cheeks. “It isn’t me I’m worried about. It is the people around me he will hurt in retaliation for my betrayal.”

Stealing my chance to reply, she slides off the bed to gather her clothes off the floor. The panic etched on her beautiful face grows when she realizes she doesn’t have any of her clothes in my room. She arrived wearing mine, and the ones she left here when she was younger are two sizes too small.

Savannah stops shoving her legs into my black trousers when I ask, “Your dad? You’re worried about what will happen to your dad if Axel finds out about us?”

Her chin quivers as she decides whether to tell me the truth or not.

I’m so grateful when she takes the honesty route, even with Axel still shouting her name like a madman.

“He’s sick, Ryan. He’s so sick. If Axel finds out about us, he’ll ruin everything. He’ll tell his uncle everything. That will kill my dad. If they find out what I’ve done... oh god...” I can’t hear anything she's saying through her tears.

I want to pull her into my arms and promise everything will be okay, but since I can hear someone climbing the stairs at a frantic pace, I hold back my desires—barely!

“Meet me at the tree you wrote about in your letter,” I request, my words as full of turmoil as her beautiful eyes.

The thrusting of her chest turns manic. “You read my letter?”

When I nod she blubbers, “When?”

Gratitude tightens across my torso, glad that even riddled with turmoil, she still has time to worry about me. “A few months ago,” I answer while moving to my closet to find the gym shirt she lent me months ago.

I find her shirt at the exact time a loud bash shakes the wood on my bedroom door.

“Savannah. I know you’re in there!” Axel screams, his loud voice barely heard over his frantic thumps on my door. “Open the door, Savannah. We had a deal.”

The way he slurs Savannah’s name, it’s obvious an excessive amount of alcohol is fueling his manic behavior, let alone the fact he has said it over twenty times since he arrived.

After throwing my shirt over Savannah’s head, I drop my hands to my belt circling her waist. “It’s going to be okay,” I promise, guiding her to my window.

She nods, signifying she heard my whispered comment before throwing on her shoes. My heart rate jumps into an unnatural rhythm when she starts climbing out my window. It matches the frantic pace at which Axel is banging on my bedroom door.

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