They were split up into teams, one boy and one girl for their unit on badminton. Emma found herself paired up with a very foreboding and intense boy named Craig. She had seen him periodically in class and had the good sense stayed as far away as possible. He gave her the heebie jeebies.
Leering at her he said, “Looks like we’re stuck together.”
She swallowed hard and fought the urge to run. Stuck was precisely how she felt. His beefy form dwarfed her.
“This should be fun.” His eyes racked over her leisurely like she was a piece of meat he wanted to bite.
She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Reaching for a racket, Emma seriously thought about going to the nurse’s office. Anything to escape this asshole’s wandering eyes. Maybe she should rethink her stance on being a girl who ditched. Once or twice couldn’t possible hurt her transcript for college.
“Let’s just play,” she ordered, sounding a lot bolder than she felt.
He didn’t buy it. She was shaking in her sneakers, and he loved it. “I could play with you for hours.”
She gagged inside her mouth. It was hard to believe that guys like him got off instilling fear in girls. It was in his eyes, the degrading regard he had for women.
Trying to forget about the sneering Craig, she concentrated on trying to hit the little birdy. The damn thing spent more time getting stuck in her racket than it did going over the net.
Ugh.
She normally didn’t suck this bad at badminton but with thoughts of Travis and Craig’s creepy vibe running around in her head, it totally blew her game out of the galaxy. Scanning the room, her eyes briefly fastened with Travis’s cousin Chase. She’d forgotten they shared this class.
His gunmetal eyes noticed everything, including Craig harassing her. She shivered. The murder she saw inside the depths of his glare was frightening. More so than the disgusting lust in Craig’s.
Turning her attention back to the net in front of her she was stunned to find Craig so close they breathed the same air. Panic filled her. Grabbing a fistful of her hair, he took a long drag of her shampoo. “Hmm, you smell like spring flowers.”
His grip locked so tight, it brought tears to her eyes. She jerked out of his painful grasp. “Get off me,” she gritted, pushing off his solid wall of chest. He didn’t budge. Not that she expected him to. He looked like he was built out of two-by-fours. “What is your deal?” she yelled, her voice quivering.
He was still in her face and far too close. “I can see why Travis is so…enamored by you,” he muttered, lowering his voice to a danger zone.
He made what she felt for Travis sound dirty and tainted when it was anything but. She lifted her chin. “If you don’t back the hell up, I’ll scream.”
Her words only seemed to excite him. “Listen pipsqueak.” He shoved her up against the bleachers, trapping her with his gigantic frame. Sweat dripped down the sides of his face giving off a putrid scent.
Pipsqueak? Who was he calling pipsqueak?
“Travis might indulge you but you are nothing to him,” he spat the words spewing hatred. Hatred she found unjust. They had never even spoken until today. “If you knew what was best for you pipsqueak, you’d stay the hell away from him. From all of us.”
She shuddered. How was she going to get out of this? And who did he mean by us? Her mind was running in a hamster wheel with no escape.
Then suddenly he was lifted literally off her and tossed hard up against the bleachers. They shook under the impact. Chase had his hands fisted in Craig’s shirt, pinning him. “You touch her again Craig and I’ll break your goddamn hands. Is that clear?”
Whoa. If she thought Craig had a mean streak, Chase made Craig look like an amateur. The hue of his unusual silver eyes darkened to a violent storm, with bolts of lightning shooting across them. It was the strangest thing.
Almost as bizarre as him coming to her rescue, she kind of got the impression he wasn’t a big fan of hers.
“I was just having some fun,” Craig replied, attempting to downplay what was really going on.
Chase was having none of it. “I suggest you find fun somewhere else or I’ll give you all the fun you can handle,” Chase threatened dark and low.
Emma was glad she wasn’t at the receiving end.
“Whatever,” Craig said right as the whistle blew announcing the end of class.
Chase gave her one last look of disgust and then sauntered off.
Why even come to her rescue if he disliked her so?
She left gym feeling more confused, depressed, and alone than she could ever remember being.
*
Try as he might he couldn’t stay away from her. The hurt in those faerie green eyes was worse than having his heart carved out. He would rather die than see it there and know he was the cause. There had to be some way for him to protect her. There just had to be.
Skipping his shop class, he wondered down toward the lunchroom. He had to see her. The need was just too great. His demon was screaming inside of him, and Travis felt like he was going to blow. It was simmering just at the surface. The tiniest nudge would push him over the edge.