It was my turn to be confused. “What?” I asked, backing up.

He reached out and grabbed my hip and pulled me closer to him while glaring at someone behind me. “Careful,” he snarled to someone. “You almost ran into her.”

“She was the one walking into me,” a male voice argued.

Rock’s eyes flared and he tucked me close to his side. “Then move the f**k out of her way next time.”

The guy was Felix Hardgrove. He had a 4.0 GPA and was about the size of my brother two years ago. He backed up and scurried away.

“It was my fault. You didn’t have to scare him,” I said, tilting my head back to look up at Rock.

He was clenching his jaw as he stared straight ahead. “I never wanted to go to her party. I don’t want to go to any f**king party you aren’t at. Accept the fact that all I see is you, Trisha Corbin. Then decide what you want to do about it.” Rock walked past me into the room and put my bag beside the desk where I sat every day.

I stood there and watched as he got out my books and a pen, then placed them on my desk. He always did that, too. He didn’t want me bending over. When he finally turned to leave, his gaze locked with mine. It wasn’t a teasing grin or a flirty wink. It was intense, and somehow it was as if he was pleading with me.

Rock

I had taken a chance. I knew girls pretty well, and from her sudden sass I was almost positive Trisha was jealous of Ginger. It was the only reason I let Ginger keep going on and on about her bikini. Anything to get Trisha’s attention. I’d almost missed the fact that her spunky ass had signaled her friend over to get away from me. Hell no was that happening. No one else was carrying Trisha’s books. That was all me. I was taking care of her.

Getting through the next class wasn’t easy. I couldn’t focus on anything the teacher was saying. I was planning out how I was going to fix this with Trisha. My being her friend was over. I wasn’t taking her to that damn lunch table she sits at with her friends and leaving her today. She was going to sit with me. She was mine and she needed to admit that shit now.

Before she drove me crazy.

I was at the door to her classroom when the bell rang, and I made my way inside to pack her books back into her bag.

She sighed when I took the first book from her hands. “I can do this, Rock. I’m not completely helpless.”

I didn’t respond. I tossed the backpack over my shoulder, then held out my other hand to Trisha. “It’s lunchtime.”

She looked at my outstretched hand and then back at me before finally slipping her hand into mine.

I helped her up and tugged her close to my side. “Wasn’t so hard, was it?” I said with a smirk, then led us out of the room.

I nodded at Preston, who called out my name. Dewayne cocked an eyebrow at me and then grinned when he saw my hand grasping Trisha’s. I didn’t take us near him. He would only say something stupid and make Trisha feel uncomfortable.

Stopping at Trisha’s locker, I put the bag inside. Then, instead of taking her hand again, I placed my hand on her lower back and moved her toward the cafeteria.

“You don’t have to carry my tray,” she said.

“But I am.”

“Why? I know you’re tired of this. You don’t have to take care of me.”

I tried not to get frustrated, but damn, was she that clueless?

“Davey and Riley will help me carry my books. You’ve been doing it all week and having me as a burden—”

That was it. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the empty art room we were passing and slammed the door.

“What?” she asked, looking between me and the door.

I had tried words with her. I had tried actions. I had tried everything to get her to realize that I wanted her. That I wanted to be near her. That I wanted her to be mine.

She was making me lose my mind.

I stalked toward her, and she backed up against the wall as she watched me, wide eyed and confused.

Dammit, she was too sexy to be f**king cute, too. That was shit guys couldn’t shake off. Girls like her weren’t supposed to exist. They made men weak. She had me so f**king tangled in knots it was painful.

I placed my palms on the brick wall on either side of her head and stopped only an inch from our bodies touching. “What do I have to do to get you to get this? What, Trisha? Fuck, you’re all I can think about,” I said softly as my gaze dropped from her eyes to those plump lips I played with in my fantasies.

The tip of her pink tongue wet her bottom lip and I was lost.

My mouth covered hers, and the small gasp that broke from her lips was the only chance I needed to slide my tongue onto the sweet heat of hers. I had kissed a lot of girls. But never had I felt like my world was being completely rocked.

Trisha’s hands slipped over my shoulders and she held on to me. And that was f**king perfect. She wasn’t pushing me away. She was holding on to the ride and, damn, it was one hell of a ride.

The softness of her lips moved under mine, and then she began to join in on the kiss. It took all my willpower to keep from pressing her against the wall. I had to be careful with her ribs. But I wanted my hands on her. I wanted to get lost in how wonderful she felt.

When she leaned into me and whimpered, I broke the kiss and moved back instantly. “Are you okay?” I asked, looking down at her ribs.

She didn’t respond, and panic that I’d hurt her started to grip me. I found her eyes and saw the same arousal in them that I had been feeling until that whimper had scared me.

I started to lower my mouth again, needing to taste her more.

“No, wait,” she breathed, pressing both her hands on my chest this time.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No, it’s just . . . I . . . We shouldn’t . . . Why did you do that?”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to be patient with her. Trisha had her issues, and trust was one of them.

“Because I’m crazy about you. Because your lips are the prettiest damn lips I’ve ever seen. Because you think you’re a burden to me when I just want to keep you close to me all the time. Because you are making me lose my mind. Because I don’t want to be your friend, Trisha. I want to be yours.”

Her mouth fell slightly open as her blue eyes stared up at me in surprise. How did she not already know all this? It wasn’t like I have been subtle.

“You’re . . . you’re crazy about me?” she asked.

I held back a laugh. “Yeah, and everyone seems to see it but you.”

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 ass 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. Hell, 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 pricks 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. Damn 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 shit.”

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 hell 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 class. Dead poets bore me.”

“Shit,” Rock muttered beside me.

“Rock ain’t being very welcoming, Marcus. He’s being kinda shitty,” 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 assured 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**king close to perfect. If I didn’t have to worry about her going back to that damn 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 ass 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.