HUNTER: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rosewood High Book 5) Page 2

  “These frown lines,” he says, his finger gently running between my brows, smoothing them out. “I want to know what puts them there.” His finger continues down over my nose until it connects with my lips.

  I suck in a ragged breath as I watch his eyes follow its journey. It lingers on my bottom lip for a beat before pulling it out. His eyes darken as he sucks on his own bottom lip like he’s imagining all kinds of dirty things.

  I’ve seen the look on him before. Usually right before he makes a play for a cheer slut. But despite the fact I know that, it doesn’t make me move. In fact, right now, with his scent filling my nose and the heat of his body seeping into mine, all it does is make me want to find out where he’s going with this.

  I don’t need to look up to know we’re alone right now, someone has turned the music down and all the voices that can be heard are coming from the garden.

  I should push him away. Harley, or worse, Jake could see us and jump to conclusions. What I really don’t need in my life right now is more drama. But as I remain locked in his stare, I’m powerless to move.

  His hand wraps around the back of my neck, his fingers squeezing in the most incredible way.

  “What keeps these muscles so tense, Pops? What are you hiding?”

  My lips part to respond as he rests his forearm against the wall beside my head. He steps closer, completely surrounds me with his size and I feel like a little girl once again. I feel like I’m fourteen once more and about to experience everything I’d been dreaming about.

  “Zayn,” I warn as he slowly closes the space between us, the crowd from outside beginning their countdown to the New Year.

  “Celebrate the New Year with me, Pops. Let’s bring it in style.”

  He steps closer still. His hard, powerful body pressing mine back into the wall. His muscles meld with my softness and my knees threaten to give out.

  Right as the first firework explodes, his lips connect with mine. His grip on my neck gets tighter and my lips part without any instruction from my brain.

  You shouldn’t be doing this, the little voice in my head screams. But I already know I don’t have the strength in me to stop it. Not now that I can taste him, feel his tongue dancing with mine, feel his hardness pressing against my stomach.

  Fuck, he actually wants me.

  His tongue delves past my lips once more, searching mine out. This kiss is different to the previous one we shared. There’s no hesitation whatsoever. He knows what he’s doing this time.

  As he should, he’s been with half of the senior girls according to the gossip.

  “Oh God,” I mumble against his lips, the realization of what I’m doing slamming into me full force.

  Pressing my palms against his solid chest, I push in the hope of making him back up.

  “Zayn, stop,” I beg the second his lips part from mine.

  Keeping my eyes on the fabric of my shirt, I fight down my need to pull him straight back to me.

  I miss him already. It’s crazy.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” I whisper, needing to at least attempt to tell him how wrong it was.

  “Why?” His voice hits me exactly where I don’t need it to. That combined with how ferociously his chest is heaving doesn’t help my resolve at all.

  “Because nothing good happens when we…”

  “When we?”

  I roll my eyes at myself, at the fact he needs me to say the words out loud. “When we kiss.” I lift my eyes to him, needing him to know how serious I am.

  “I don’t have a black eye yet, do I?” he says, referring to what happened after that horrendous experience of our last kiss.

  I might have wanted to hide in that closet for the rest of eternity but the second I heard Jake’s angry growl and the girls start screaming, I didn’t have a choice but to step into the light and watch as Jake rained hell down on Zayn’s face for what he said about me.

  “Give it time.”

  Our eyes hold, mine hold a warning whereas I swear his hold a promise, although I’m not entirely sure what he’s trying to promise me. All I do know is that the tingles continue to race through me and my temperature doesn’t decrease at all with his stare burning into me.

  When the fireworks are over, the crowd starts to disperse and their chatter and laughter filter down to me. I know I need to move. I can’t be standing here in this stare-off with Zayn when Jake or Harley emerges.

  Thankfully, loud footsteps approaching us sound as I drag my eyes away from his dark and hungry stare.

  I look up in time to see Justin clap his hand down on Zayn’s shoulder. His eyes are wild and he sways a little on his feet. The guy’s wasted.

  I’m about to roll my eyes at the state of him when he says the words that rips the rug from beneath me once again.

  “Sweet, man. I didn’t think you were going to pull off your tag tonight. Right at the stroke of midnight, too.”

  My eyes widen as understanding washes through me. The team’s little games aren’t a secret around the girls of Rosewood High.

  “What?” I ask, forcing the word out through the lump in my throat.

  “Pop, it’s not—”

  “Don’t lie to me, Zayn,” I hiss back. “Tell me I wasn’t a dare,” I demand.

  He swallows nervously but his lips remain sealed.

  “Tell me,” I damn near plead, not knowing how I’m going to deal with this again. The first rejection hurt like hell. But this time, it’s so different.

  That kiss, those few seconds of escape from reality, there’s no way he can have any idea how much it meant to me, how much I needed it.

  He gave me something that took me away, even if for a few seconds and now it’s all crumbling around my feet once again.

  “Pops, I—”

  “No,” I bark, shoving at his chest. “Don’t Pops me. You’re a fucking joke. You know that, right? The group of you are a fucking joke,” I scream, briefly meeting Justin’s eyes who doesn’t so much as flinch at my volume.

  Assholes.

  Zayn takes a step back, his eyes still trained on me. Something akin to regret filling them but I refuse to acknowledge it.

  Stepping past him, my arm collides with his, sending a pain right down to my fingers but despite my gasp, he doesn’t react.

  “I told you, nothing good comes from us kissing. It’s time you realized that,” I hiss at him before I storm past.

  “And what if I don’t?”

  Shaking my head, I march from the kitchen and head toward the stairs.

  What I really want to do is walk straight out of the Hunter’s front door and leave this party and his games behind me. But where would I go?

  Home?

  I almost laugh to myself at the thought. I think I’d rather be Zayn’s plaything, the pawn in his games, than being at home tonight.

  I fly up the stairs, my legs burning as I take two at a time in my need to get away. I ignore all the doors until I get to the penultimate one and I swing it open.

  The safety of Harley’s room makes me sigh with relief. I slam it behind me, feeling the vibrations of the force I used before I throw myself at the bed.

  I tell myself not to cry. Not to waste any more tears on that asshole, but it’s not a fight I can win because the harder I try to keep them in, the more they insist on being released until I’m sobbing into Harley’s pillow.

  2

  Zayn

  “What the fuck, man?” I bark at Justin who stands staring at me like he didn’t just fuck everything up.

  “What? You won. You kissed your tag. What’s the big fucking deal, that she didn’t like it?”

  I stare at him, my lips parted but unable to find any words.

  He’s right, this shouldn’t be a big deal. I shouldn’t care that she knows that it was a dare. I shouldn’t have cared about the lie I told about her three years ago either. But I did, and I took the beating I deserved for it.

  Things between Jake and I have never been the same sin
ce that night. I’d been in Rosewood less than a year and still trying to find my place within the team. Doing what I did was probably the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. If Jake didn’t believe in my skills, he could have dropped me there and then. We might have only been sophomores, but he had the power, even back then.

  I didn’t lie to her that night. I had been thinking about kissing her. What fifteen-year-old boy in their right mind wouldn’t. She was gorgeous. But not in the same way as the girls I hung around with. She was effortlessly beautiful. She hardly wore any makeup, she didn’t need it. Her light brown hair had a natural curl and her gray eyes captivated me. There was so much innocence within them, but at the same time wisdom, the kind of wisdom that only came with experience, but I had no idea what that was. As far as I could tell, she had a good life. She lived with her parents and younger siblings and she’d formed a fast friendship with my sister. But there was more to Poppy than she let on and I was desperate to unearth whatever it was.

  I’ve wanted a repeat of that night ever since. Not that she’d ever let me anywhere near her. She became distant to the point it pissed me off and instead of being concerned like I should have been, my automatic response was to be a dick.

  I have no idea why she just kissed me like she did. I don’t deserve it.

  “Get out of my fucking way,” I snap, pushing past Justin with such force that his drunken ass hits the floor. He cries out behind me, but I don’t give a shit. The only thing I can think of right now is getting a drink. The new year has only just started but I’m already wishing for a do-over.

  This is it. The best year of my life. Senior year. We’ve won both the division and the state championships. We’re the fucking best team this town, our school, has seen in a really long fucking time. We’re living the life. We have parties every weekend and more girls than we know what to do with. Mom ensures that I have everything I could ever want. So why do I feel like something is missing?

  “Zayn!” My name being screamed from somewhere in the house drags me from my sleep. “Zayn.”

  “Oh fuck,” I grunt, rolling onto my back, keeping my eyes firmly shut. Afraid that if I open them the light will burn them from my sockets.

  My head pounds a steady beat as my stomach crashes about.

  How much did I drink last night?

  I think back to swiping a bottle of whiskey from Mom’s drink cupboard while everyone else was forced to drink the beer she’d allowed us for the night, and I took myself to the only place I knew no one other than my sister would be able to find me. The treehouse.

  We were too old to really make use of it by the time Mom moved us here, but it still comes in pretty handy. Mostly for me when I’ve had enough of all the female hormones running around my house being forced to live with three women.

  New Year’s Eve—or New Year’s Day—I guess, and I was hiding like a pussy in a treehouse. It wasn’t exactly the start of the year I’d imagined.

  “Zayn Alexander Hunter, get your ass out here right—” The sound of my door flying open and then a loud gasp sounds out. “Oh my God.” There’s movement before she speaks again. “Get yourself decent, see your guest out, and then meet me in the kitchen. You have some work and a hell of a lot of groveling to do, my boy.”

  “Ooooh, someone’s in trouble,” a sickly-sweet voice comes from beside me, finally forcing me to open my eyes.

  I take in the blonde who’s half-asleep in my bed in only her underwear.

  “Shut the fuck up, Laurie. What the hell are you even doing here?” I ask, having zero memory of even talking to her last night, let alone inviting her into my bed. Granted, it’s not her first visit, but still.

  “You brought me, said you needed to see the New Year in with a bang.” She winks. “If you get my drift.”

  “You need to leave.”

  “But—” she starts, her hand skimming over my stomach until she’s cupping my junk. She might think my morning wood is because of her, but she’d be bitterly disappointed. I have no idea if anything actually happened with her last night, but if it did, it certainly wasn’t memorable. Not like a certain kiss.

  “No, Laurie. It’s time for you to go home.”

  I throw her hand off me and push from the bed. My head spins, forcing me to reach out for the wall until it clears.

  “When I get out of the bathroom, you’ll no longer be here.” Reaching down, I swipe her dress and shoes from the floor and throw them at her.

  “You’re an asshole, you know that?”

  “I’ve been called worse. You know where the door is.”

  She huffs in frustration, but I ignore it as I swing the door shut behind me and turn the shower on. The good thing about being the only male in the house is that I managed to snag one of only two rooms in this house with an en suite.

  I grab the mouthwash and freshen up before resting my hands on the cool basin and hanging my head.

  That was a dick move I pulled last night. I poured salt into an already pretty painful wound where Poppy is concerned.

  I tell myself that receiving anything other than her hate would be weird anyway, and without looking at myself, I drop my boxers and step into the shower.

  When I finally get down to the kitchen, desperate for the biggest mug of coffee I can find and maybe a blunt if I can unearth any, I discover Mom sitting at the island surrounded by empty bottles, crushed Solo cups and discarded cigarettes.

  I wince at the sight but with last night’s whiskey still flowing happily through my veins, it doesn’t affect me as much as I’m sure it should.

  “When I told you that you could have a party, I trusted you to keep it under control.” Her voice is calm, cold even and it sends a shiver running down my spine.

  “Sorry. People turned up with more alcohol and things went a little crazy.”

  “Crazy. The house stinks of weed, Zayn. The one thing I forbid in this house.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “You will be. I hope you don’t have any plans today because all of this,” she says, gesturing to the devastation. “Is all yours to fix. By the time I get back this afternoon, I expect it to be back to normal.”

  “Where are you going?” I ask, walking to the coffee machine.

  “I’m taking your sisters for a spa day.”

  “Brilliant,” I mutter. Scarlett may have been elsewhere last night, but Harley was here and enjoying the party, surely she should help me clean up.

  “Oh no, don’t even think about it,” Mom warns as if she can read my thoughts. “We’ll be out of your way in half an hour. Poppy is just packing her stuff up so I can take her home.”

  “Great.” Thoughts of how Poppy and I left things last night leave a bitter taste in my mouth—worse than the lingering taste of the whiskey I can’t shake.

  “I suggest you start in your den. There are bodies everywhere.”

  She shudders as she says the words, hands me her mug and glides from the room.

  Rolling my eyes, I rinse her mug out and place it into the dishwasher.

  So much for a New Year’s Day workout with the guys later today then.

  I do as was suggested and head toward my den. I don’t need to open the door to know what I’m going to find inside. The smell of weed and teenage boys lingers in the hallway.

  “Rise and shine, motherfuckers,” I shout, turning the spotlights on and hitting the button to open the blinds. Grunts and groans sound as bodies begin to stir to life. “Unless you planned on spending your day cleaning this house from top to bottom, I suggest you get your shit together and fuck off.”

  At the threat of cleaning up, everyone jumps into action.

  Twenty minutes later and Justin is the last to leave as I begin sweeping the room with a trash bag in hand.

  So much for being a fucking team. They were all more than happy to fuck shit up last night, but they have no interest in the consequences.

  It wouldn’t have been like this at the beginning of the school year. Jake, Mas
on, and Ethan would have stayed to help. Even a few weeks ago, Shane would have been here tidying up the mess they helped make the night before. But now they’ve all got their girls, they’ve got more important things to worry about than sorting this place out.

  I’m in the kitchen getting a new bag when footsteps thunder down the stairs. Female voices fill the room and when I turn around, I find a smug Harley and a sheepish-looking Poppy standing in the doorway.

  “Regretting it, yet?” Harley asks, her eyes flicking around the bottles and cups still littering the counters and floors.

  “Fuck off,” I grunt, ripping my eyes away from the two of them. Poppy might not have looked up at me but that doesn’t mean she won’t and I don’t have it in me to see the hatred in her eyes, not yet at least.

  “Jeez, you clearly didn’t get a kiss at midnight,” she mutters absently.

  I fight not to react, but my spine goes ramrod straight.

  Spinning back to them, I find Poppy staring daggers into me, begging me not to say anything. And I won’t, not about that at least.

  “That’s where you’re mistaken. Laurie only left a few minutes ago. Mom caught us in bed together.”

  I watch as all the color drains from Poppy’s face and her lips purse in anger. I want to say there’s some jealousy there but mostly, I think she just wants to cause me pain.

  “I’m not sure that should be something to be proud of,” Harley announces to the sound of Mom coming to join us.

  “Ready to go?” she asks Harley before the three of them turn and disappear from my sight. Although I don’t miss the “have fun” that Mom calls out to me.

  3

  Poppy

  My stomach twists to the point I think I might puke on the Hunter’s tiled floor as Zayn proudly states that he had a bedmate last night.

  It’s not news to me. I watched them both stumble inside as I made a trip to the bathroom before I finally fell asleep last night.

  The jealousy, the anger that swelled within me like an angry beast was almost enough to force me to follow them and pull that hussy away from him.