“No.” He took her hand again. “It’s hard because no one knows. That girl getting on my back today was Romero’s idea, not mine. If it had been Angel, no way would he have suggested it.” He kissed her hand. “If I could tell everyone how I feel about you, things would be different. But I can’t.”

She licked her lips, and he nearly went for it. He’d been dying to kiss her for so long.

“I’m saving myself for you.”

He stared at her. The thought of Sofia as his nearly choked him. She was waiting for a response, but he had no idea how to respond to that in words. So he did the only thing he could. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

His thoughts at first were to just give her a peck, nothing more. But she opened her mouth, inviting his tongue in. He couldn’t resist. He took her mouth, her tongue, she tasted so good he brought his hand down around her waist and pulled her to him. She might not have known what she was doing, but she caught on real quick.

Sofia’s br**sts pressed against his chest. Eric had such a hard on, it hurt. He’d dreamt of this day forever. His legs nearly gave out on him when she pressed herself against him. “Sofie, baby,” he whispered, “don’t!”

“Why?” She smiled against his mouth.

“Because, we can’t do anything. It’ll only torture me.” He pulled away from her, gulping hard.

She fisted her hand in his chest. “I promise you, Eric. I’m all yours, unless—”

“Unless nothing.” Eric wouldn’t even think of it.

“Unless.” She raised her voice. “I keep seeing and hearing about you with girls.” She tapped her fist against his chest. “It’s not fair.”

“I promise you I won’t do anything with anyone else ever.” He kissed her forehead. “But you gotta cut me some slack around Romero. Just because I go along with what he says or does to shut him up, doesn’t mean I’m doing anything. I’ll never do anything to hurt you.”

Her eyes brightened and he kissed her again. It was settled. Maybe seeing her with another guy had been worth it after all. The urgency levels had raised just enough to force him to move this thing along a little further. But he was playing with fire and he knew it. He’d have to be particularly careful now. If her brothers ever got wind of this, especially Alex, he was a dead man.

*

*

Thank goodness for Sarah. If it wasn’t for her, Sofia would be just bursting. Sarah was the only one she’d told about her and Eric. She promised not to say anything to Angel, but begged her to be careful.

Sofia sat in her Geometry class, daydreaming. She and Eric were making out every time they were alone now. He was so gentle with her it drove her crazy. She could hardly stand it. She roamed her hands all over his body freely, though most of the time he pleaded with her not to. But he had yet to do much to her. She knew it was a torment for him to hold back and she told him he didn’t have to, but he insisted they were already taking an enormous risk just making out.

Brandon sat down next to her. He was late again. He still lived at the end of their cul-de-sac and he was still a recluse. Sofia stopped hating him a long time ago. Instead, she felt sorry for him. There was something sad about the look in his eyes. He’d stopped being a jerk long ago, as well, and he seemed nice enough now.

The first day of the semester, he’d walked in late and there were only two empty seats left. She’d been saving the one next to her for her friend, but she didn’t have the heart to tell him no when he timidly ask her if he could sit there. He’d sat there every day since. After getting to know him better, she found out she’d been right. He was actually a real nice guy. But he clammed up whenever she asked anything about his family, so she stopped asking.

He talked a lot about joining the Marines as soon as he graduated from high school. It kind of made her sad how happy he was about getting away from his family. She couldn’t even imagine leaving her family. At least he hadn’t turned into the loser her brothers always said he would.

“You still don’t know what you wanna do once you’re done with high school?” he whispered.

Sofia shook her head. Her parents had always told her she was more than welcome to follow the family business as long as she went to school first. It was important to them that she had an education to fall back on.

For as long as she could remember, she kept a journal. She loved writing and unlike some of the kids who groaned when her English teacher assigned a paper or short story to write, she was always excited about it. Her English teacher told her she hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of her talent.

“Maybe a writer. I dunno.”

“You like writing?”

She glanced at him. “Yeah.”

“What do you write?”

“Short stories mainly, but I know I have it in me to write a novel someday.”

Brandon smiled. “I love reading. It’s all I do at home. I could read an entire novel in a day.”

Sofia stared at him, completely surprised. She would’ve never pegged Brandon as a reader. He was totally failing Geometry, but maybe math wasn’t his thing.

“What kind of stories do you write?” Brandon appeared almost captivated.

Sofia suddenly felt nervous. She hadn’t expected Brandon to be interested in her writing. Much less, ask her more about it. “Lots of stuff.”

“Like what?” He actually put his elbow on the desk and rested his head in his hand, watching her. Only then did she notice how blue his eyes were.