Her Kiss (Griffin) (10 page)

CHAPTER 26

As I was leaving detention, I saw
Ally walking home in the rain. Well, it wasn’t actually raining yet. But the
sky was gray and all day it had been drizzling. Still, seeing her walking
alone, the dim day turned bright—well, mine did.

I pulled up next to her in my red
Mustang (which I fixed up myself—just a side note, but it’s a jammin’
car. I don’t take pride in much, but I was proud of my car, which could maybe
tell you something about me—like we’re kind of poor … and I’m a
mechanic.)

When Ally saw me pull up, her eyes
went wide and a jolt of electricity seemed to go through her.

An amused choke of breath escaped
me, though I tried my hardest not to laugh. But man. Her reactions to me were
always so violent that I didn’t know whether I should give her some sort of
warning that I was in her near area or what. Only I’m not going to lie, I loved
it—her reactions to me. It’s just I didn’t want her having a heart attack
or anything. I like my crushes alive—and glowing.

Trying my best to look
non-threatening, I opened my window. “Need a ride?”

My pulse thumped as she smiled.
Whoa!
Sunshine right
to my heart.

“Sure!” Her smile grew. “That would
be great!”

My eyebrows shot up. Holy smokes,
she didn’t run. (Maybe I’m not the devil.)

Just as she hopped into my car the
weather turned for the worse—outside. (Inside, my personal sunshine was
buckling
herself
up next to me—filling my heart
with kittens and rainbows.) Outside though, it was suddenly pouring buckets.

As I slowly pulled away from the
curb, I flipped on my windshield wipers.
THEN … huh.
I
tilted my head, watching in wonder as a watery rainbow streaked across my
windshield.

I blinked.
What the—???

I breathed out a laugh, my eyes
cutting to Ally as she tucked her Gummy Bear wrapper deeper into her coat
pocket. I scratched my chin, grinning. Immediately, I got it. The chick had
booby-trapped my windshield wipers—with gummy bears. Made a rainbow smear
across my windshield.
Of course
she
did. Just like she was always doing to my heart—getting it to fill with
crazy rainbows. It was going to be a mother to clean.
But
still, a freakin’ rainbow.
Leave it to Ally.
Only
Ally. To get me to feel kittens purring when only an hour ago
I’d been sweating bullets, having gotten a crazy text from my mom. (The woman
is not in the best mental health. Sometimes she’s a little
worrisome—especially when she texts me things like:
The door won’t stop knocking
. I made Hailey’s mom check on her, but
my mom won’t answer the door.
For anyone.
Ever.
So, yeah.
I wasn’t exactly in a rainbow type mood … until
Ally entered my car. Then, suddenly, it was like leprechauns were going to
start dancing around handing out lollipops.)

I didn’t mention the rainbow to
Ally
though—since I knew she would die on me. Instead
I just tried to restrain my grin from exploding my face as we both ignored the
obvious—the chick had at some point earlier today, gone over to my car
and sprinkled it with gummy bears, obviously anticipating rain. (But I bet she
didn’t anticipate being in my car for the downpour—or the rainbows.)

Her face turning bright pink, she
squirmed a little, probably hoping I didn’t see the gummy bears wrapper in her
pocket. I didn’t mind her knowing that I knew, though—I liked her cute
little squirming. So, I didn’t hide my glances.
Or my smile.
Which I couldn’t do anyway.
I’m a smiler. Especially
when it comes to Ally. She makes my lips turn sky-high.
My
mood too.

Suddenly, Ally answered her
phone—which didn’t ring. And I could see wasn’t really on. I knew what
she was doing though. (‘Cause I know the chick … to stalker-ish proportions.)
She was pretending to talk on the phone because she was afraid I was going to
bring up the gummy bears—and she didn’t want to talk about them. Just
like she didn’t want to talk about writing songs
about me or
leaving me anonymous gifts
.

My eyebrows rising gradually, I
listened to her chat animatedly with her figment friend, Jazz. (Who, I was
pretty sure was an actual friend—just wasn’t really on the phone with
Ally. As, you know, Ally’s phone was off. Or dead. Or in any case, not on.) The
fake conversation was extremely amusing to listen to and had my heart pounding:
I want her
,
I want her
.

She was gabbing adorably about her
last piano recital, and then explaining that just now she had missed the late
bus home, but that I—Griffin Piper—had come to her rescue.

I bit on my huge smile, listening
to her go on and on—saying the things that I guess she couldn’t actually
tell me, yet she wanted me to know.

 
When she hung up, she smiled up at me, all shy and
thankful-like. “Thank you
so
much for
the ride,” she gushed, her pretty face glowing. It made me inwardly moan and
have trouble fighting the need to grab her. (I might have mentioned a couple
times—I dug her glow.
And her smile.
Especially
when it was directed at me.)

She added quickly, “Can you drop me
off at my friend Jazz’s? She lives just up the block and to your
right—she’s expecting me.”

She said the last part like she was
slightly worried I might be planning to chop her up into little pieces, and she
wanted me to know someone knew where she was and who she was with: scary, scary
me—the guy she wrote poems to, but usually wouldn’t let near her.
(Apparently because she thinks I have an axe in my car.)

In the short time it took to get to
Jazz’s house the sky had cleared and the sun even peeked out of the clouds a
little.

“It’s supposed to be nice tonight,”
I said, gesturing at the peeking sun.

Ally’s voice quivered a little.
“Yeah, I heard that.”

We were at Jazz’s curb now. I
wasn’t sure if Ally wanted to leap out of my car or stay and try to have an
actual conversation with me. She was kind of hugging the door handle, yet she
didn’t jump out of my car when I put it into idle. That was a good sign.

It made my lips quirk up, feeling
slightly confident. “A bunch of us are going to the river tonight—to hang
out. You want to come?”

“Oh … I, uh.” Her face was turning
red, her ears too. “I can’t,” she sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m not really the
hanging out at the river type.”

I murmured, “No. I know.” I did. I
knew that. “But … ” I didn’t finish my sentence. I shook my head. “Well, okay.
If you don’t want to.”

“No! I do.”

She said it again, “I do. But I
can’t, because I’m not like that—the party at the river type.” It seemed
she was going to leave it at that, but then she gushed out, “But if I was, I’d
so totally go with you.”

A jet of warmth shot right to my
heart. I cocked an eyebrow. “Then come.”

She shook her head resolutely. “I
can’t.”

I smiled a little. This bit. “Okay.
It’s just—” My smile grew. “That kiss—” My eyes stalled on her
lips. “—I liked it.”

She groaned. “Me too.”

My eyebrows rose. Wow, she admitted
it. I coughed, surprised.
And delighted.

On reflex, I drew closer to her,
’cause well, I’m not shy. My hands came on either side of her face as my lips
grazed hers. I gently traced my fingers down her soft cheeks. Her warm breath
heated my lips as she breathed my name. It sent sparks through my body. I
wanted her to say it again and again, never stop.

My lips lightly brushed against
hers, eager to get reacquainted. But instead of letting me fully go for another
tasty kiss, she darted away from me and out of my car like it was on fire…. And
I was the devil.

I slumped back in my seat, watching
her run away from me—again!! Wondering what I could possibly do to get
that chick.

CHAPTER 27

Okay, I can’t comfortably tell you
this next part. I mean
,
I don’t want to get all
X-rated on you. I’ll just inform you I started up a thing with my sexy English
teacher, Ms. Sharp. I didn’t really
expect
to get anywhere with the woman, but, well … I did.

’Nough said.

Still, even during that
time—while tantalizing my teacher—it’s not like I gave up my
fantasy of Heaven. (Beautiful Ally.) Well, I didn’t
exactly
give it up. But she was giving me the cold shoulder and
making it clear she and I would never happen. Well, okay, to be honest, she put
out mixed signals, since she continued to leave “anonymous” baked goods taped
to my locker.
And the occasional own-my-heart poem.
But her
actions
(which speak louder
than words, right?) said: “Keep your distance, buck-o.”

I pretty much listened to her
actions. I mean
,
she and Milo seemed to be getting
semi-tight, so I tried to respect that. I mean, what else could I do? I
couldn’t tie her up and make her spend an actual moment with me.

So … Ms. Sharp.

Like I said, I wasn’t really
expecting my advances to go anywhere—but then they did.
In a big way.

But to begin with it was just a
distraction. Only once we got started—like
really
soon afterwards—I was like, “Wow, this lady is crazy.”

Which, you know, I should have
known right from the beginning (considering she was so willing to be so incredibly
inappropriate with her student), but I was a teenage boy and I was dazzled by
her hotness and the fact that she was into me. (Hey, teenage boy.)

Then, one day after we were cooling
things Ms. Sharp asked me to stay after class.

It went like this: “Griffin, will
you wait a moment
?—
I need a word with you.”

I froze in the doorway.

My friends: “Ohhh!”
And high-fives to each other.
Because they didn’t have a
clue about
me and Ms. Sharp
. No one did. (I can be
discreet … even if I have trouble being smart.) Anyway, my friends were all
messing around because Ms. Sharp is hot and she got every male student
fantasizing about being kept after class.

I rubbed the back of my neck and
inwardly groaned, wanting to refuse her. But I turned back to face her and waited
until everyone had left the classroom. (She’s my teacher.)

Then she shut the door, and I was
like, ‘Oh man.’
But not in a good way.

She scowled at me a long moment,
shooting ice-daggers at me with her narrowed eyes. I had no clue what I did to
piss her off. Then she handed me a baggie with a lemon-bar-looking baked treat
inside. She growled, “Who’s been leaving you these taped to your locker?”

I winced.

She and I had pretty much ended
things by now. Well, I was ending them. But she didn’t seem exactly pleased
about it. I mean, her narrowed eyes indicated that. (Grand.)

I took the bag from her. “Just a
fan, I guess.”

I tried to play it down, like I
didn’t care either way, but I figured I was going to have to warn Ally somehow
to cool it. I didn’t want her to aggravate Ms. Sharp any further. Also the
gifts bugged Hailey to no end. I didn’t want sweet little Ally getting hurt
because I somehow attracted aggressive females.

“Goodbye, Ms. Sharp,” I said
tersely. Wishing that it could be forever. Wishing that she
got
that.

As I was leaving the classroom, she
said in a stern, strangled voice, “Janice.”

That was her name. She was always
telling me to call her that when we were alone. But I’d liked calling her Ms.
Sharp. It had been fun, back then—now there was nothing fun about the
situation.

I didn’t say
anything more
,
I just left
.

When I was outside of the
classroom, I groaned.

I knew I brought it on
myself—the situation I was in. But I swear
,
I
had no clue she would go for me. I was just messing around. I’d needed a
distraction from my life—my mom was afraid of the friggin’
door
and we had people calling us
saying we owed them money. I think it was my dad that owed them the
money—but my dad didn’t live with us anymore. Hadn’t for a long time. We
had a court order to keep him out of the house.

So whatever, I had just wanted a
distraction from that stuff—from my life. Okay, really, I’d wanted the
distraction to be Ally, have some heaven in my life, but … well, I couldn’t
really do that to her, being the devil and everything. So, I let her have her
way. I kept my distance.

… And went for my teacher.

That did
not
bring me heaven. It brought me a tortured kind of hell.

And made me long for Heaven even
worse than before.

CHAPTER 28

I walked up to Ally as she was shutting
her locker.

“Ahh!” She yelped and jumped when
she turned and saw me standing next to her.

Flattering.

Nah, actually it kind of was. I
mean, the way she did it. She turned all pink and her big pretty eyes widened
and then immediately turned all soft and glittery and Mmmm. Plus she put her
hand over her heart. I always loved to see her do that—about me. It got
me fantasizing her heart pounding for me. Like mine pounded for her.
(Werewolves.)

I grinned at her cuteness. “Are you
leaving me gifts?”

 
“Um …” Flustered and shaking, she turned bright red and
started messing with the combination on her locker, though she’d just gotten
all her books out and closed it. She swallowed. “Gifts?”

She continued messing with the
lock, turning it one way, then the other, but her hands were shaking really
bad—and she wasn’t actually doing anything. I mean
,
she was making absolutely no progress with the lock.

I eyed the notebook in her hands.
It had a combination scribbled on the front in big bold print.

“Yeah, gifts—food and poems
and gummy bears.” I gently moved her aside from the locker. I felt her body
instantly react to my hands on her waist. It made me grin. But I tried really
hard to ignore it, spinning her lock instead of grabbing her and kissing her
soft pretty lips like I was tempted to do.

I opened her locker for her easy,
though. It was the combination written on her notebook, just like I thought.

Her lips parted slightly and she
gasped. “How’d you do that?” She tilted her head up at me. “How did you know my
locker combination
?!
”

I grinned but didn’t answer.
Instead I arched my eyebrows. “Are you giving me gifts?”

“No,” she lied in a breathy
whisper, ducking her head into her locker, like she was searching for something
important in there—maybe something to help her breathe, since she seemed
to be hyperventilating.

She swallowed, and then lied
further. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about—poems?”

I laughed softly and pulled one of
her “anonymous” poems out of my pocket. It was written on a silver guitar
shaped post-it note—exactly like the pad of guitar shaped post-it notes
she was holding in her trembling hands.

I blatantly eyed the pad in her
tiny grip. I didn’t say anything, though—I just leaned against the locker
next to her and silently watched her reaction.

She squeezed her eyes shut and made
this tiny groan noise from the back of her throat. It was adorable. Then she
calmly shoved the post-its into her locker and silently shut the door. Finally,
she turned back to me. “
Maybe
I wrote
you a poem or two,” she mumbled.

I choked on a laugh.

She was too much. Irresistible.

I smiled, “You’re weird.” I leaned
in close to her and whispered in her ear, “I like weird.”

I felt heat sizzle through her tiny
body, which sent fireworks through mine. I wanted to stand here all day,
feeling the heat of
Heaven.…
Only, I was the devil.

Reluctantly, I pulled away from her
with a rueful grin. Instead of making off with her like I wanted to do
(wolfishly bad) instead, I handed her a slip of paper. “Here’s my locker combo.”
An amused grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. “Put the gifts
inside
the locker.” I raised my
eyebrows. “Just ‘cuz Hailey gets jealous. She’s not my girlfriend or
anything—but she’s kind of … territorial. I don’t want her to hurt you or
anything.”

“Oh,” Heaven murmured, still
sounding dazed about the “weird” thing. She whispered, “Me either.”

I breathed out a soft laugh at
that, but then cringed wondering how she’d feel if Ms. Sharp came after her.

The thought made me shudder.

I needed to ditch Ms. Sharp. Fast.