Chapter 16
Grease
I knew that all the shit that had happened to Callie was on me. It was my call to pull her out of that house, and my call to leave her helpless when I’d finished my business. They were both bad decisions, but there was only one that I would’ve changed.
There was no way I could have left her passed out and alone on the floor of that house. The longer I knew her, and the more time I spent with her glued to my side, the more I knew that the decision to keep her safe had been the right one.
It was the decision to walk away that hadn’t been right.
At some point, Callie was going to realize that her f*cked up life was entirely my fault. She was going to blame me and hate me and wish she’d never met me.
But at that moment, in her Gram’s bedroom, she wasn’t doing any of those things. Instead, she was standing in front of me, pulling the rubber band out of my hair far more gently than I ever had, and running her fingers through my hair.
I wasn’t a f*cking saint.
I asked her if she was planning on crying again, mostly because I wasn’t sure where her head was at, and when she told me no, that was it.
I pulled her onto my lap, on her grandmother’s f*cking bed, and I kissed the shit out of her.
I was so distracted by the taste of her that I didn’t notice her whimper at first. It wasn’t until the taste of blood filled my mouth that I ripped my head back to see what the f*ck was going on. She had blood pooling in the corner of her lip, and for a second, I was afraid I’d f*cking bitten her or something.
She wiped at the blood, swallowing thickly as her face turned beet red.
“I’m sorry! My mouth’s just—well, my braces…” she stuttered, looking at me apologetically.
“Holy f*ck! Did I just do that to you?” Shit, I kissed her and drew blood. My thoughts were completely self-centered until she started trying to pull herself off my lap.
“No. Um, yesterday my mouth was really dry—and I wasn’t being careful.” She tried to lift her leg over me to crawl off the bed, but I grabbed both of her thighs and pulled her tight against me, effectively ending her squirming as her breath caught. “My braces cut a bunch of little sores on the inside of my cheeks. Totally not your fault.”
“Ah, sweetheart, why didn’t you say anything?” I asked her quietly, finally understanding what was going on. I’d never been with a chick with braces, and I couldn’t remember any of the kids at the club having them growing up, either. But it wasn’t hard to see how having metal f*cking brackets in your mouth could f*ck your shit up.
“Let me see, Sugar.” I hoped that the damage wasn’t bad enough that she’d need stitches or something. F*ck. That was all we needed.
She pulled her lips out on the sides and turned them a little inside out so I could see the little red sores in her poor mouth. The things must have burned like hellfire, but she hadn’t said a word about them until I’d f*cking attacked her.
“You got something you can use to fix it?”
“I’ve got wax in my purse I think. I forgot it here at Gram’s the other night.” She gave me a small smile. “It won’t help the cuts, but it’ll keep the little f*ckers from making them worse.”
The bravado in her eyes from dropping an f-bomb mixed with the little goddamn dimple in her cheek had me smiling back at her. I couldn’t even help myself. It was so f*cking…cute. I knew at any minute she was going to remember—she was going to get lost again in grief and guilt, and those few minutes where it was just her and I would be over.
Instead of talking to her, rubbing her back, or getting up so she could go find some of that f*cking wax she needed for her braces, I lifted my hand and wrapped it around the back of her neck so I could bring her mouth to mine again.
I was careful, but I still tasted blood when I licked her lower lip.
“Ugh. Gross. I’m sorry. My mouth’s still bleeding,” she told me quietly, but her hands were still threaded through my goddamn hair. Christ, that was hot.
“Don’t f*ckin’ care,” I mumbled before pushing my tongue between her lips.
No one could ever accuse me of being a good guy.