Page 69 of The Hallows Queen

“You’re a student,” I whisper, closing my eyes in fear that he’s reading my mind, controlling it somehow.

Chapter19

Hayden

Fear,anger, pain, and panic course through me like poison, and I feel desperate to get through to her, to get her to stop pushing this away.

“Baby, don’t fucking do this.” I can’t think of anything else to say, my mind having gone completely blank from pure, unfiltered anxiety.

My cock is still out, my chest bare, and my pants under my ass, but I don’t fucking care. I can’t handle her pushing this away again, and I don’t knowwhy. I don’t know what the fuck is going on – all I know is that I want her.I need her.

“This isn’t okay,” she says, her voice cracking. “I shouldn’t have let this happen. That was my responsibility, and I’m sorry. You need to go.”

My chest burns, and she shifts from foot to foot like she’s uncomfortable. “Tell me what I need to do. You want me to transfer schools? I’ll do it. You want me to fucking drop out, I will.”

She shakes her head. “Hayden, no.”

“Then what!” I yell, grabbing her hair tighter. “Penelope, I can’t let this go. You make me feel something for the first time in myfucking life.”

She shakes her head again. “You’re young. You don’t know what you’re feeling.”

“Oh, fuck you,” I snap. “You don’t get to sit there and tell me I’m fuckingyoung. I’ve been an adult since I was twelve years old. I’m probably more grown than you are. Maybe I don’t know exactly what I’m feeling, but I know it’s real.”

Her eyes glisten with unshed tears as she looks up at me, but there’s anger behind her gaze. “You don’t know anything about me. Not really.”

I drop the hold I have on her hair and point my finger at her. “And you don’t know shit about me either, Penelope Leyton, so don’t act like you do.”

“What do you want me to say?!” she yells, a tear escaping her eye and trailing down her flushed cheek. “That it’s okay for me to date my student?I can’t.”

“I expect you to say that it’s worth the risk.”

I don’t know why I say it, I don’t know why I’m fighting so hard for this, but I know I have to. I can’t just walk out of here and let go of the feelings barreling through me right now. I can’t forget about the fact she’s lit something inside of me that’s been dull and lifeless for the last eighteen years.

Now that I’ve had a taste of this, I never want to stop. She’ll be my newest addiction, the drug to replace all other drugs, the thing that keeps me upright and standing.

I can fucking feel it.

“Hayden–” she starts, shaking her head.

“Shut up,” I say, grabbing her by the hair again. “Just shut up.”

I slam my lips to hers, silencing her when she tries to speak, and she moans. The bag of food she has in her arms falls to the floor, and she grabs my forearms as she kisses me back.

I pull back, speaking against the skin of her lips. “I’m fighting for you, so fight for me, too.”

She’s silent, her eyes pressed closed as she breathes through her mouth onto my lips. My heart thrums in my chest as I wait, the blood rushing through my ears like white noise.

It’s as if time stands still as the suspense circles around us, filling the room like a living, breathing thing.

“Baby,” I plead, my voice hurting as it climbs its way up my throat. I want to claw at my skin in protest of my own words, my own feelings – because, why? Half of me screams I’m losing my mind, when the other half is telling me I’m finding my way home.

“We can’t tell anyone,” she finally whispers, making the air whoosh from my lungs in relief. When she opens her eyes to peer up into mine, I press my nose against hers, my chest shaking as I breathe.

“No one, Hayden,” she says, her voice steady now with conviction.

I shake my head, agreeing with her, my pulse slowing almost immediately. “No one.”

Her fingernails dig into the skin of my forearms when I press my lips to hers again, turning my chest to burning fire and need – and then I can’t be stopped. I slide my hands under her bare ass and lift her, her legs wrapping around my waist as my cock fills with blood again.

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