He opened the door moments later, wearing the phoniest appalled look I’d ever seen. Hold the Academy Award, in other words.
“Are you crazy?” he asked. “I’ve got neighbors.”
“Yeah, whatever. Need to talk to you.”
I pushed past him but tripped over the shitload of shoes scattered near the door. Seriously. I barreled forward and nearly landed flat on my face. How would that have looked? I straightened myself up before he could make a smartass remark—the one thing he was actually good at.
“Do you usually barge into people’s homes like this?” he asked.
“I do if I have something important to say.”
He rolled his eyes like I was being ridiculous. That should tell you plenty about Jakob Martin.
God, he was gorgeous…
I froze. Where the hell had that come from? If I wanted to squash this problem, I would need to obliterate that kind of thinking immediately. Like, who told the enemy to stop being so goddamned perfect? When I gazed upon Jakob’s face and stared into his eyes, I couldn’t do it. He possessed something wicked powerful and I worried I couldn’t overcome it.
“You’re got a reason for being here,” he told me. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell what before you cost me any more I.Q. points.”
“I’ll tell you why I’m here,” I said. “It’s to tell you that thisthingyou’ve got for me is going to stop.”
“Um, are you on drugs?”
“No, Jakob, of course I’m not on drugs.”
“I don’t know about that, Zane. Obviously you’ve been smoking something funny if you think I’m the one with a thing for you.”
“Dude, I gave you a boner the size of Cincinnati.”
“I might’ve had a boner the size of Cincinnati, but you were about to rip right out of your pants.”
“I fucking was not.”
“Oh, yes you were.”
He flitted his eyebrows at me in the most infuriating taunt ever.
“And you kissed me,” he said.
“Wrong again, pal.Youkissedme.”
“No way, never happened.”
“You’re fucking impossible, you know that?”
As I argued with him, my eyes stayed fixed on his. I didn’t want that. I understood the danger. The more I fought with him, the weaker I felt. I lost myself in Jakob’s eyes, but tried fighting my way out of it, like a swimmer struggling to escape the undertow. My breathing grew heavier, making my chest heave in and out.
I could explode if I stayed here any longer. I needed to make my point at warp speed.
“We both know that you kissed me,” I said, “and you started all this bullshit.”
“The only bullshit here is you trying to say I started this.”
“That’s the truth, whether you like it or not. Don’t like it? Too fucking bad. Now, get the hell out of here.”
“I live here!”
I would’ve screamed in frustration or at least fired back another comment at him any other time, but I again felt pulled into the undertow. When I stared into Jakob’s eyes this time, I felt something inside of me snap. Think of a load bearing member giving way to an avalanche.
