She frowned and bit her bottom lip. I wanted to pull it out and suck on it. She looked away from me for a moment and I gave her time.

"What about Ginger's bikini?" she asked, not looking at me.

This time I did laugh. "I could not give a rat's a.s.s about Ginger."

Slowly Trisha looked back at me. "But the others. All of them. You can have a different girl every night. They line up to get your attention. Why me?"

I cupped her face in both my hands and took in the beautiful features she seemed to be blind to. Inside and out she was beautiful. "I can't see anyone past you. I haven't been able to for a long time. h.e.l.l, Trisha, you've been in my head, taunting me, since the first day I laid eyes on you."

"Oh," she said in a whisper.

"Yeah, oh," I repeated.

Trisha My heart was racing and my lips were still tingling when Rock led me into the cafeteria. He had kissed me. Like, a mind-blowing kind of kiss that made my knees weak. I had even gone light-headed for a moment.

Rock's hand was holding onto mine as he walked us through the lunch line. When he picked up my tray, he looked at his table with his friends and then looked at my table where my friends sat. "Today I want you to myself. We can figure out where we are going to sit later. Right now I don't want to share you."

How had this changed so fast? Just this morning he was barely talking to me. Now he wanted me all to himself.

"Okay," I said, still unsure how I was supposed to respond to that.

Rock led us to the far corner of the room where a table sat empty. I could feel the eyes of everyone following us. It was like p.r.i.c.ks of heat on my skin. I wanted to run out of the room. I hated attention, and this was by far the most attention I had ever gotten.

When he set our trays down, he pulled his chair over to sit right up against mine. His thigh was brushing up against mine as we took our seats.

"Eat," he said close to my ear when I didn't make a move to touch my food.

"I can't eat with everyone watching me," I explained, afraid to confirm the fact that we had drawn attention.

"They are getting over it. Most of them aren't looking anymore," he replied with a smile in his voice.

I cut my eyes to look up at him, and he winked at me.

"Please eat for me," he said, reaching up to cup my chin. His thumb brushed my bottom lip.

"Well, ain't this sweet. d.a.m.n more interesting over here than the usual place," Dewayne Falco said as he pulled out the chair across from us and sat down.

"Dewayne," Rock growled at him, startling me.

"Trisha don't care if I sit here. Do you, Trisha?" Dewayne said, turning his amused smile to me.

"Uh," I started to say, when Preston Drake sat down beside me with an extra milk carton in his teeth. He dropped it in his hand and set it down, then flashed me a crooked grin.

"The party has moved. I missed the memo," he drawled, then opened his milk and took a drink.

"I don't think Rock wants us here," Dewayne said as he took a drink of his soda. "Not that we give a s.h.i.t."

Rock had gone solid beside me. He was angry. These were his closest friends. I didn't want to be a reason they fought.

"No sweet tea today. What the h.e.l.l is up with that?" Marcus Hardy said by way of greeting as he plopped beside Dewayne and put his tray down. "I need some sweet tea to get through the next cla.s.s. Dead poets bore me."

"s.h.i.t," Rock muttered beside me.

"Rock ain't being very welcoming, Marcus. He's being kinda s.h.i.tty," Dewayne said, still looking completely amused by the whole thing.

Marcus gave me an apologetic smile, then moved his focus to Rock. "With us sitting here, y'all aren't the afternoon's entertainment," he explained with a shrug. He was right. They were blocking a lot of the crowd.

"You good with them eating with us?" Rock asked me.

I nodded. I wasn't ready to talk yet. Sitting with these four was a little overwhelming. I didn't want to say something stupid, and I wasn't sure I had anything to say to them, anyway.

"Guys, y'all know Trisha," Rock said.

"It's hard not to know her. You've been panting after her for over a year. We're kinda tired of watching it. Thanks for giving him a break. We all appreciate it," Dewayne said.

Preston chuckled beside me but didn't pipe up. I had a feeling the only one out of these four who wasn't scared of Rock was Dewayne. They were close to the same size.

"Dewayne," Rock said in a warning tone.

Dewayne only smirked. "Am I lying?"

"Seriously, D. Shut up," Marcus said, shooting him a disapproving glare.

Dewayne shrugged and took a bite of his burger.

Rock's hand slid over my knee and stayed there. "I swear they aren't that bad," he a.s.sured me.

Smiling, I reached for a French fry. "I think they're nice," I told him.

They all four started to chuckle, and then Preston burst out laughing. I glanced at all of them, then looked up at Rock, who was smiling down at me with something warm in his eyes that made my heart flutter.

Rock Trisha didn't miss another football game. Once the season was over, I had my Friday nights free to spend with her. I never thought I'd look forward to football season ending. Any time I could have her alone were the best hours of my day. She hadn't completely melted on me immediately, but over time she slowly began to trust me.

Now when I walked up to her in the hallways at school and wrapped her up in my arms, she came to me willingly. Kissing her sweet lips whenever I wanted to was also my favorite addiction. She not only let me have that mouth when I wanted it, but she kissed me back.

Life was f.u.c.king close to perfect. If I didn't have to worry about her going back to that d.a.m.n trailer every night, then it really would be perfect. Krit was dealing with some issues lately that worried Trisha. When last guy his mother had brought home had hit on Trisha, Krit had lost it and almost beat the man to death. Trisha had called me screaming and crying. My heart had almost stopped at the sound of her panic.

When I got there the dude was on the ground, unconscious and covered in blood, and Trisha had Krit in a corner talking him down while he glared at the man as if possessed. There was broken furniture everywhere, and even Fandora had a busted lip.

Apparently, he had backhanded his mother to get her away from Trisha. The kid was like a loaded gun. Trisha wanted him checked out. She was worried that he had some emotional damage from growing up the way they had. I was afraid the kid had a personality disorder. I'd been angry before, and if I'd seen the man touch Trisha I'd have beat his a.s.s too. It was the glazed-over look in Krit's eyes that concerned me.

Tonight Krit was going to spend the night with Green, and his band was going to practice. They weren't getting actual gigs yet, but they were practicing enough for someone to think they were. Surprisingly, they were good, too. Krit could sing. It had been a shock the first time I'd heard them practice.

So I had Trisha all to myself. All night. I was saving every penny I had to get us an apartment the moment I turned eighteen. But I wanted to do something special for Trisha tonight. I had let her take it slow. I hadn't said s.h.i.t that I wanted to because I was afraid she'd freak out.

Last week I had worked nights for the first time, stocking at the local grocery store. With that money I was getting us a hotel room in the next town over. I wanted to hold Trisha all night in a bed. Because I was saving my money, this was all I could afford. I wouldn't be able to take her out to eat too. So I'd made us sandwiches and bought some of the chocolate chip cookies she loved. I also bought her favorite soda and got a bag of chips and dip.

I had checked in earlier and set the cooler in the room with the sandwiches and dip. Dewayne had snagged me some candles from his house that his mother wouldn't miss. After setting them around the room, I had left a lighter by the bed so I could light them later.

The reason I hadn't told Trisha what we were doing was because I wanted to surprise her with a night somewhere she didn't have to worry about Krit or Fandora coming home. I wanted to hold her while she slept and know she was safe in my arms. What I hadn't thought about was how Trisha would read into this. Until I parked the truck and glanced over at her.

The wide-eyed look on her as she stared up at the hotel in front of us told me I had made a serious mistake. She didn't get why I had done this. She was thinking something completely different. We hadn't done anything more than kiss. I'd wanted to do more, but I was afraid to with her. I didn't want to lose her or scare her. I'd been a f.u.c.king saint with her.

Then I go and do something like this.

Dammit.

"Trisha, babe, this isn't what you think. I didn't bring you here . . . for that. I just wanted us to have a night we could sleep with no fear or worry. I wanted to hold you. Nothing more. I swear, baby."

She didn't look at me. She continued to stare at the building in front of us. s.h.i.t!

"I swear to G.o.d I would never have brought you here expecting anything. I wasn't thinking about that. I just wanted us to have a place that was ours. Where we didn't have to worry about anyone else coming along or coming home. Just us."

She nodded slightly, but she didn't look at me yet. So I waited. I gave her a moment to process what I was saying to her. I was about to tell her I'd sleep on the floor, although I really wanted to hold her all night, when she finally turned her head and met my gaze.

"Okay," she whispered.

She didn't look like she meant it.

I reached over and pulled her up against me. "Listen to me," I pleaded, taking her face in my hands and tilting it so she had to look at me. "If all we ever do is kiss, then I'll be the luckiest f.u.c.king man on the planet. Because I have you. I . . . I love you, Trisha Corbin. I love you like crazy. You've got me so obsessed with you I can't see anything or anyone beyond you. Every plan I make is because of you. Every morning when I wake up all I think about is seeing you. Every night when I go to sleep all I think about is how much I want to be holding you in my arms as you fall asleep. You are it. You're my gift. You. Just you. This hotel room was to give us a place that was just ours. I have something to eat up there and I even rented us a couple movies. This isn't about s.e.x, baby. I swear to you."

She blinked slowly, and her eyes misted over. I wasn't sure what I had said to make her cry. I started to replay my ramblings in my head, and then her full lips moved. "You love me?"

I had been scared to say it before tonight. It had come out in my panic to rea.s.sure her. But it was true. I'd never love anyone else the way I loved Trisha.

"I think you may be the only person who doesn't know that already," I said, smiling at her surprise. She was so d.a.m.n adorable sometimes.

A slow smile played on her lips before she leaned toward me. "I love you, too," she said softly, before kissing me.

I could've died right then and known I had lived.

Trisha Rock opened the door to the hotel room he had gotten us for the night. My heart was still so full from hearing him tell me he loved me that I couldn't stop smiling. I had been in love with Rock for months now. I wouldn't tell him because I wasn't sure he had wanted to hear that.

He had said it to me. And he had also said a lot of other beautiful things that had made me love him even more, and I hadn't thought that was possible.

"Cooler has our food in it. You hungry now?" he asked as I stepped inside the room. There was one big bed in the middle of the room and a television on the wall across from it. I could see the sink and mirror straight ahead, and then a door to the bathroom. It was the nicest place I'd ever stayed. Until last month when I went to the party at Marcus Hardy's house, it would have been the nicest place I had ever been. But Marcus Hardy's house had blown my mind. It was like nothing I had ever imagined.

This, however, was ours. For the night.

"I got you a grape soda. Several, actually," Rock said, slipping his hand around my waist and kissing my temple.

I loved grape soda, and once he had found that out, he made sure I had it often. Another thing I loved about him.

Normally, I would want a grape soda. But I didn't want that right now. I had been daydreaming for so long about the moment I would tell Rock I loved him. I had known how I wanted it to happen. I had fantasized about it so many times I wasn't even nervous when I turned to face him. I couldn't say the words because in my daydreams he just knew. I had never prepared words for this.

I kissed him.

It only took him a moment to respond. His hands were on my hips, pulling me up against him tightly as his mouth began to work its magic on me. His minty taste always excited me. I slipped my arms up as high as I could and stood on my tiptoes so that my fingers could slide into his short hair. My b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressed against his chest, and the ache in them only intensified. Since the first time Rock's hands had settled under my b.r.e.a.s.t.s and his thumb had grazed the undersides of them, they had started getting very excited when he got anywhere near them.

Not begging him to touch them was hard. It scared me and excited me to think about it. I had seen him looking at my b.o.o.bs a lot. He liked them. It made wearing shirts that were too small bearable, knowing he liked the view.

When his hands slid up my sides and stopped just below my b.r.e.a.s.t.s again, I let out a frustrated whimper. He stopped kissing me for a moment, but his mouth stayed hovering over mine. His warm breath bathed my lips, and I wasn't sure I could breathe.

His hands slowly began to move, and I opened my eyes to look up at his warm ones. He was watching me closely as he inched his hands up until he was touching the undersides of my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. So close to the centers, which ached for attention.

The moment he moved higher and his fingers ran over my sensitive nipples, I sucked in a breath and grabbed on to his shoulders. This was what I wanted. What I had wanted for a while.

"Can I take your shirt off?" Rock asked, his voice raspy and low.

I nodded. I couldn't form words.

He closed his eyes for a minute, and his nostrils flared before he reached down and pulled my T-shirt up my body. I lifted my arms, and he moved the shirt up and then tossed it aside. I wanted to close my eyes now. But I also needed to see him look at me. I would see the disappointment in them if he didn't like what he saw.

His eyes flashed and he swallowed so hard I could see his Adam's apple move in his muscular neck. "d.a.m.n," he whispered reverently. "So perfect."

My body hummed with pleasure from his words. The fear that I'd been holding on to about this drifted away, and I wanted more. I was ready for Rock Taylor to make me feel good. His large hands covered the satin bra I was wearing. It wasn't anything special, but it worked. It was one Fandora had given me after she no longer wanted it. It was one of the few things she'd ever given to me.

"Can I take off the bra?" he asked me. He was breathing hard.

"Yes," I managed to say.

His hands slid around the back of me and undid the hook with ease. I closed my eyes this time. I was about to be bare to him, and I wanted that but I was also not sure how to handle looking at him while he looked at me.

"Oh, f.u.c.k, Trisha. G.o.d, I'm so f.u.c.king ruined," he said as his hands grabbed my waist. I wanted his hands somewhere else. My now bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s throbbed, in need of attention.

"Come here," he said as he began to move me. I opened my eyes as he backed me up against the bed. "Lie down."

I was ready to do whatever he asked of me. I scooted back and lay my head on the pillow. He pulled his shirt off with one fluid movement, and I had only a moment to process the perfect view of his chest before he was moving over me.

He held himself over me and kissed me less gently this time. There was a hunger to his kiss that made my heart pound. I lifted my body and grabbed his head to pull him against me. I wanted to feel his chest against mine. But he held himself off, then pulled back, breaking the kiss.

His eyes were on my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "If I do something you don't like, tell me. I'll stop. I swear it."

I didn't believe he could do anything that I wouldn't like. But I nodded. "Okay."

He didn't move to touch me, and the throb in my b.r.e.a.s.t.s had made its way to between my legs, too. The ache was making me feel frantic.

"Please, Rock. Touch me." Those words came out before I could stop them. I was getting desperate.

A low growl vibrated in his chest, and he swore under his breath before his hands slid up and covered my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Then he squeezed them, making me squirm at the pleasure that came with it. "Ah," I cried out.

Rock's eyes burned with a brightness I'd never seen before as he looked from my chest to my eyes. His thumbs brushed over my nipples and I bit my bottom lip to keep from making any more embarra.s.sing noises.

Then I watched as Rock lowered his head to my chest while his eyes stayed locked on mine. When his tongue flicked out and over my right nipple, I let my bottom lip go as a soundless gasp came from my mouth, which was now wide open in wonder.

When he pulled my nipple into his mouth and sucked, I had to close my eyes to ride the wave of pleasure. Seeing him do this and feeling it at the same time was too much. I wasn't sure I could handle any more. My body felt so tightly strung, humming with a delicious ache that would drive me mad if it lasted too long.

"Not only are they the prettiest, most perfect t.i.tties on earth, but they taste like honey. And I f.u.c.king love honey," Rock said before licking my tips again.