Page 46 of Pucking Bad Boys

“Oh,” she gasps when I nip her bottom lip with my teeth.

For a second I think maybe it was too much, but rather than breaking the kiss, Talia’s fists hold on to my t-shirt to keep me there. And there is nowhere I would rather be than with my lips on hers and my fingers tangled in her hair.

The trouble with the notion of the entire world fading away because of a perfect kiss is that the world eventually will fight its way back into focus.

In our case, a wolf-whistle and a few catcalls bring me back down to earth.

“Woohoo!” the DJ chuckles into his microphone. “I guess it’s a kissing competition rather than a dancing game. The winner is the couple who lasts longer.”

I don’t give a fuck about what Gen and Becks are doing, but I guess the DJ’s words get through to Talia too.

She steps back with a surprised gasp. Her blue eyes are dark and hazy; her chest is heaving with each labored breath as she takes me in.

The spell is definitely broken when she sees Gen and Becks’s faces still smashed together.

To be fair, my brother looks like a very reluctant participant. Becks keeps trying to push my ex-girlfriend away, but Genevieve is cupping the back of his head with her hand, her claws digging into the back of his neck.

Talia likes Becks. I was right.

Her gaze moves back from me to them, and after shaking her head, she takes off, running back into the house. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.

Fuck. I need to make sure she’s ok. I take off after her, but Sam steps in front of me, blocking my way into the house. “Not now.” She warns me. “Give her a minute. I’ll take care of her.” Talia’s best friend looks less than impressed as she shakes her head after looking at me.

I’m not in the mood to party anymore. I can’t shake the feeling that somehow I fucked up.

Chapter 14

Are You Jealous?

BECKS

Everything happened so fast that my head is fucking spinning.

One second I’m questioning all my life choices and regretting coming to this party as Gen’s date, as she and her friends are talking my ear off about all the gossip on campus.

It isn’t just that I’ve just gotten here and, aside from my teammates; I have no idea who the people they’re talking about are. I’m a head down and mind your own business kind of guy. Mack is the social butterfly between us.

I’m about to fake a headache and go home when I spot her. Talia steps out into the backyard with one of those neon blue drinks in hand.

If she looked pretty in shorts and a t-shirt at work and in jeans at class, she’s a knockout in a black dress that I can’t help but imagine on my bedroom floor.

“Becks,” Gen’s voice goes up a few notches. “Are you listening to me?”

If a second ago I was looking for an excuse to go home, now I just need an excuse to ditch Gen and go speak to Talia without being rude. “Yeah, sorry. I was just looking for people I know.”

Gen follows my gaze. “Ah, yeah. You’ve met Talia in Cantucci’s class. If she weren’t a legacy and if her brother wasn’t Tucker Prescott, there’s no way she would have been allowed to even pledge Zeta Theta Beta. She’s our very own charity case.”

Her words rub me the wrong way. I haven’t spent much time with Gen in the past few years, but I’m beginning to wonder if she was always this catty. “A charity case? What does that even mean?”

“Her mom and my mom were really good friends.” Gen explains. “Liz was pre-med and had dreams of becoming one of the top neurosurgeons in the country, like her father. Then she met her husband, and it all went to shit.”

I’m not sure I understand what she means. Her friends must notice my confused expression, because they fill me in.

“Talia’s mom fell in love with a guy who worked at the mechanic shop in town when she had car trouble. Her family was absolutely against the relationship, and they cut her off. So she dropped out of college and married the boy from the wrong side of the tracks.” Madison says.

“Instead of finishing her degree and going to medical school, she had five kids with the mechanic. She went to night school at community college to get her nursing degree. It took her, like,ten years. She works at the E.R. here in town when she could have been earning millions in L.A. or New York.” Gen adds with a shudder.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a nurse.” I bite out, annoyed by their snobby attitude. “And it’s admirable that she got her degree even after getting married and having kids. My mom never finished her degree after she met my dad and had Mack, me, and Raya.”