Page 9 of Fight or Flight

“Oh. Um. I never knew my father, and my mother is... not around. I’ve been staying with Saint for a few years. We lived all over the place since then, traveling as a group. Usually, we don’t stay for longer at one place. Bell Ridge is the longest stop we had, to be honest. And to my dismay, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be out of here anytime soon.”

“So, it’s all horrible for you here?” I question, and he stops me.

I’m not exactly sure what the look on his face means, yet again, this slight shiver of heated anticipation takes root in my body. He bites his lip before stepping closer—no space left between us.

“Actually, I am just now discovering that it’s not all so awful. Bell Ridge appears to have at least one thing that the other places I lived at were missing.”

“Like what?” I ask and then gasp soundlessly when Aidan leans toward my face like he’s going to kiss me. At the last moment, he shifts and goes straight to my ear.

The hand that’s not holding mine currently moves to my cheek, and my eyes flutter shut at the gentle touch.

“This pretty, intriguing girl that I just met. I honestly was pretty nervous about the thought of approaching her before. So imagine what I felt when she fell right into my arms at school. Like it was meant to be,” he whispers.

I sense his breath on my ear and gulp when a new, more intense sensation enters my core. It’s hot like lava, and I have to stop myself from moving my legs to ease the newly awakened tension between my thighs.

He leaves a small kiss right under my earlobe, and I have to bite my lip. I’ve never even kissed a boy before today, so even this little, subtle touch has me almost melting on the spot. I’ve never felt like this before.

I’m so disappointed when he moves away and starts walking again that I almost scream at him to kiss me. I want him. So bad. And I was never good at keeping myself from people that I wanted. Or contain my instincts. That’s just not me.

So, I allow him to lead me toward the illuminated town in the distance while we talk about things that don’t really register. My mind is too scrambled, already running a mile a minute, thinking of a way to get what I want. To possess Aidan in every way possible and to make him mine.

CHAPTER IV

AIDAN

It makes my blood boil whenever my mind goes back to the image of that weasel Marcus putting his disgusting hands on Claire and pushing. If he thinks he's off the hook after that stunt, he's got a surprise coming. I just didn't want to make a scene in front of Claire, seeing as she's already had enough bad experiences for one evening.

What I've said about noticing her before is true. Many times, I found myself looking for her in the crowd, even though I had no idea who she was. But with everything happening right now, I know I shouldn't even look for a girlfriend or anything like that. And one look at her tells me casual wouldn't be enough with her. She’s worth more than that.

Asking Claire to the Mill was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing that I didn’t have time to think through, and I told myself we'd just hang around and maybe talk, and this is all whatever. Yet, I still felt a heavy pang of disappointment when I didn't find her anywhere when I got to the place.

And was even more disappointed when I saw her dragging Marcus away. I was honestly surprised by how much the image angered me on the spot like I had claimed the girl already when, in reality, it was just today that I learned her name.

I almost turned away, but then I saw her body language, and she looked more than uncomfortable, which made me pause and observe. And then react.

Going to the old farm was the last thing on my agenda for today when I woke up. All I wanted to do was to close myself in my room, surrounded by some heavy sounds and a few sheets of paper getting filled with my drawings.

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