Bad Boy Blues (St. Mary’s Rebels, #0)

by Saffron A. Kent

His eyes are intense. They glow in the dark. Like beacons. Except, a beacon is supposed to be safe, but his eyes come with a danger of drowning. “I-I want you to kiss me.” Gosh, did I really say that? The sharp inhale of his breath says yes. I did say that and he’s surprised. Well, why wouldn’t he be? I ran away from him last time when he made me feel something. But I guess I was lying then. To myself and to him. I think I’ve wanted him to kiss me for years. Even when he was just my bully. Maybe it’s pathetic and I’m the girl in horror movies who dies right in the beginning because she just can’t stop herself from checking out the basement. So be it. I’m that girl. I’ll go down in history as the girl who courts heartbreak and hence, deserves tragedy. “I make you bleed,” Zach murmurs in a low tone, rubbing his thumb over the seam of my lips. A tone laced with regret. “Yeah.” His thumb traces the torn skin of my lip in the middle. “I make you cry too.” I blink and a tear slips out; I didn’t even know it was hovering at the edge. “Yes.” Wiping off my tear, he whispers, “I won’t stop. I don’t know how.” He will stop. I’ll make him stop. This cycle of bullying that started with his dad. It ends with us.