#Nerd

What the hell was I doing here? I mean, really. I shouldn’t have come. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be feeling things for a guy who could never reciprocate. This was wrong. It was just all so wrong.

It wasn’t going to happen again.

I couldn’t let it.

Tears burned the backs of my eyes and I blinked them away.

His mother was still standing there studying me. It seemed like some of the fight had left her face. But I didn’t care. It didn’t matter.

“Tell Romeo,” I said, not bothering to correct myself and use his full name. “That I found my own way home.”

I turned and walked away, keeping my head held high and my shoulders back. I walked that way until I disappeared around the curve in the driveway along the side of the house. Once I stepped into the darkness, I allowed my shoulders to slump.

A lone tear fought its way past my furious blinking and trailed over my cheek. I wiped it away and ran.

I ran to the end of the driveway and out onto the street without ever looking back.

Chapter Sixteen

Romeo

When I went to find Rimmel, she wasn’t anywhere in sight.

But my mother was standing in the driveway near the Hellcat, staring off down the empty driveway.

“Where’s Rimmel?” I asked, palming my keys.

She turned to me. There was a shadow of regret in her eyes.

“Mom?”

She blinked and she was her normal composed self instantly. “She left. Said to say she found her own way back.”

Worry slammed into me. It was the same feeling I got when a running back found an opening and mowed me down on the field. “Where did she go?” I asked harshly.

Mom’s eyes widened. “Down the driveway.”

I rushed toward my car, fumbling with the handle to get inside.

“Just let her go,” Mom called behind me.

I stilled as anger overcame the worry. In seconds, I was towering over her with a hard look in my eyes. “What the hell did you say to her?”

She lifted her chin. “Don’t you talk to me like that.”

“So help me,” I growled, and she drew back. “You let her run off into the dark, in a neighborhood she doesn’t know, by herself?” I spat. “You better pray nothing happens to her.”

“You care about her.”

She was as shocked by her words as I was.

“Yeah,” I said, turning back to the Hellcat. “Maybe I do.”

“She’s not good enough,” Mom called.

My fists clenched and I turned in the open doorway of my car. “You don’t even know her. She’s the only person I’ve met in years that hasn’t wanted one single thing from me.”

“She wants something,” Mom vowed like she knew.

I gave her a sad look because I couldn’t believe she would act this way. “She doesn’t have anyone, Mom. Not one friend. I would think a person like you—a woman with so much—could have at least afforded a small amount of kindness.”

A stricken look paled her face, but I ignored it and turned away. She was still standing there when my headlights bounced over her as I turned and sped down the drive.

I found her on the next street over, heading in the direction away from campus. It might be funny if it didn’t scare me so fucking bad. Yeah, I lived in a nice neighborhood, but that didn’t mean these streets were exempt from crime.

Anyone could have driven by and seen her. Rimmel was no match for anyone. She was too small, too gentle, and too innocent to protect herself.

I was going to have to do it for her.

She didn’t look when my headlights shone directly behind her, but her steps quickened when she realized I wasn’t just going to drive past.

It was freezing outside and all she was wearing was that stupid too big sweater and T-shirt. It hung well past her butt and her thin legs almost looked like twigs sticking out from beneath it. The bag on her shoulder probably weighed more than she did, and I clutched the steering wheel at the sudden bout of anger that lit inside.

She had to know it was me behind her. The Hellcat’s engine was the smoothest purr I’d ever heard. But still, she didn’t turn around.

She was angry.

I guess I couldn’t blame her. My mom was a friggin’ piece of work.

I swerved out around her and hit the gas to shoot forward. Up ahead, I pulled to the side of the road and slammed it in park. I swung open the door and jumped out, but I then leaned back in to rummage in the backseat for something.

When my hand closed over it, I straightened and turned toward Rimmel. She was standing down the street a little ways, just staring at me through the darkness. She made no move to come any closer, and the way she shuffled her feet told me she wasn’t sure what to do.

But I sure as hell was.

I left the car running, the door open, and the headlights on. I stalked toward her down the street, not once taking my eyes off her. I stopped just shy of bumping into her. I was so close she had to tilt her head all the way back to look up at me.

I said not one word when I reached out and relieved her of the bag and dropped it on the road beside me. Even in the darkness, I could see how pale her cheeks were, how her lower lip trembled just slightly from the cold.

I lifted the item in my arms and worked my hands in it. Then I slid it down over her head. “Up,” I murmured, and she lifted to push her arms through the oversized sleeves of my Alpha hoodie.

The soft, thick fabric fell over her, and I felt her sigh against the warmth.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I ordered, but the words came out hoarse and low.

She tilted up to look at me again, her eyes wide beneath those damned glasses.

I wouldn’t wait another second. Not one.

I cupped her jaw, my fingers splaying out against the sides of her head, and then I crushed my mouth to hers.

Chapter Seventeen

Rimmel

Oh my God.

He kissed me.

Chapter Eighteen

Romeo

If you’d kissed one girl, you’d kissed them all.

Not true.

The second my lips touched hers, everything else melted away. The street, my car, the initiation. Everything.

Her mouth was soft and inviting. I was demanding, almost desperate, but she didn’t seem to mind. She opened for me instantly, and my tongue swept inside, staking its claim. I gripped the sides of her face like she was my lifeline as I slanted my mouth over hers again and again.

Rimmel’s hands came up to wrap around my forearms as if to hold me in place while the kiss went on and on. The fullness of her mouth begged to be nipped at, which I did so hungrily at her bottom lip. Her fingers dug into my skin and she reached up on tiptoes so she could get a little bit closer.