Hard to Forget (Hard to Resist Prequel) (5 page)

A few guys tried to brush against us but once Bryson noticed that they were too close, he came up and told them to leave. “Stop dancing with people you don’t know,” he said into my e
ar. There was a hint of anger behind his voice but I liked it.
Now he could feel even a small part of how I felt when he was all over Sara. I told myself that I wouldn’t dance with any other guys but him.

The doorbell rang and Bryson went for it.
I wanted to be with Bryson all night but he was the host so I let him be. I needed the fun. My mom and dad had been arguing all of the time and it was starting to get to me. Plus the drama with Bryson—I needed an escape and a party was the perfect place. Mark was dancing with Grace and I knew they were out of it. Grace always found it odd to dance with someone that seemed so close to us. Mark, on the other hand, probably cared less. He was all about getting some, no matter where it came from. Everyone was having a ball and I had to admit that I was, too. It was a party that was full of no regrets, no worries, no problems . . .

That is until Bryson opened the door.
The room slowed around me. The bodies that were grinding, moving, and spinning were nothing to me. I couldn’t see anything outside of Sara Manx hooking her arms around my boyfriend’s neck. It stung me like a slap in the face when he smiled down at her and didn’t pull away. I watched them the entire time. She smiled heavily beneath all of her caked makeup and her minions followed her in. He shut the door and she grabbed his arm but he shook his head. He looked up, directly at me, but I wasn’t about to watch her dumbass game take place. I pushed through the crowd to get to him and grabbed his hand.

“Sara
,” I hissed.

“Natalie,” she scoffed.
“Great to see that you overdid it.”

“Great to see that
you’re actually conscious.” I gave her a wink but she narrowed her eyes.

“Ladies,” Bryson said, holding his hands up. “Please be reasonable. We’re here to party, right? Let’s not start any drama.” He winked at Sara as he grabbed my hand. “Have fun, Sara.”

“Yeah,” she said as she watched us walk away.

I frowned up at Bryson as we
pushed through the crowd. We entered the next room where a few people were on the sofas making out or blowing smoke from a hookah. “Bryson, why do you flirt with her?”

“I wasn’t flirting,” he said, stroking
my cheek. “Just being friendly and making up for your crazy side.”

I don’t kno
w why I flushed but I did. “Why did you invite her?”

“I didn’t.” He pulled me against him and kissed me. “She must’ve heard about it.”

Giggling, I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck. He picked me up, leaving me with no choice but to sink against him and wrap my legs around his waist. His lips were firm but soft. I could taste the beer on his breath but it began to fade as our tongues thrashed and coaxed one another’s. It felt good. He felt good against me. I never wanted to let go and by the way that he was holding onto me, I could tell that he didn’t want to let go either. My back pressed against the wall and his hands slid up my thigh. I allowed my head to fall back as he placed his soft lips against my neck. I was tipsy and with the addition of his kisses, it was adding fuel to my hormones. They were going crazy deep down inside of me.

“Get a roo
m!” someone with a deep voice yelled from the sofa. I laughed as Bryson stopped kissing me to place my feet on the floor. He looked around and chuckled as if he could make out the culprit but I couldn’t believe how fast he had gotten my mind rid of that altercation with Sara.

He led me toward the living room and we centered ourselves on the dance floor. I spotted Grace dancing with
Dustin, the guy from her Psychology class. He really was hot. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and his ears were pierced with gages. I glanced around the room and saw Sara standing in the corner with her minions, scowling at me.

Instead of letting
her get to me, I grabbed Bryson’s hand and he spun me around so that my hips could press against his groin. I began to move but it seemed like the moves weren’t real. I was so out of it that I felt like I wasn’t even really there. I could feel him getting hard, his warm breath against my neck, his fingers pressing against my waist to hold onto me. I’m sure I was turning him on more than ever and as I opened my eyes to look at Sara, she was still grimacing while gritting her teeth with her mouth clamped shut.

“Damn, Natalie,” Bryson said against my ear, bringing me
out of my daze and where we were supposed to be. I allowed my head to fall against his shoulder and he ran a hand across my bare thigh. “So fucking sexy. I’m so glad you’re mine.”

“I’m glad that you’re mine, too. No one else’s, okay?” I turned around to look at him and he tilted his head.

“Who else could have me besides you?”

“Any girl in this room
wants to have you, Bryson. You’re the quarterback of our school. You’re hot.”

Chuckli
ng, he leaned forward and placed his soft lips against my ear. I gripped his shirt as his tongue circled around it. “Your insecurities are going to be the death of you, you know that right?”

“I’m not insecure,” I lied.

“Sure about that?”

“Maybe,” I said after nibbling on my bottom lip.

“Let me go make sure everything is alright. Go have fun,” he said as he squeezed my hand.

Nodding, I watched him walk away then sighed as I rushed for the
kitchen. Mark, Grace and her date Dustin were already in there with another cup of alcohol.

“Natalie!” Grace yelled with a grin. “You missed it. Mark drank four beers in less than three minutes. This guy is a beast!”

“Well, he is huge,” I teased.

“I’m huge in a lot of places,” Mark said with a wink.

“You are so gross,” Gracey said, her nose crumpling. I grabbed a beer from the case and popped the cap. Mark, Grace, and I continued to talk and joke around but after a while I noticed that Bryson hadn’t come to check in.

Knowing that Sara was at the party made me nervous so I
decided to go check on where he was, and left them to go for the dance floor. I saw her minions dancing with a few guys but I couldn’t find her . . . or Bryson.

Pushing through the crowd, I hurried for the stairs and climbed up. A guy
with curly red hair was bent over on his elbows on the railing and I knew he was in my art class so I went for him. “Hey, have you seen Bryson?”

“Uh, yeah.
I think he went to the balcony with that blonde cheerleader chick.” My heart clutched as I rushed away from him without so much as a thank you. The hallway was long and it bothered me because I wanted to run but I wanted to remain calm, or at least appear in control. I didn’t like that he was alone with her. I didn’t trust her.

The balcony door appeared at the end of the hall
way and the door was open. A breeze was blowing against the curtains and with each step, it kept getting colder and colder and my heart kept banging louder and louder. I could feel the beats through my ear drums. I was becoming too nervous and that’s never a good sign.

Finally reaching
the door, I slid it open some more and slipped myself through the crack and saw them standing near the railing. Their elbows were on the rail and there was absolutely no space between them. The atmosphere between them was tense, almost filled with a sexual presence. I narrowed my eyes as he turned around to face me.

“Oh, Nat,” he said nervously. “What’s up? Did something happen?”

“Why are you out here with her?” I asked, looking from him to Sara who had just spun around to look at us. She folded her arms with a smirk and I wanted to push her over the rail but she wasn’t worth being tossed in prison over.

“We were just talking about sports and shit.
Nothing major, babe.”

“You were just gone for a long time, Bryson . . .” I trailed off, realizing how
stupid I was making myself sound and look.

Bryson’s smile fell and he took a step back, tucking his fingers into his front pockets. “I think you’re overreacting. We were just talking. Maybe you
’ve had a little too much to drink.”

“I-I’m not drunk. I’m fine,” I lied.
“I just don’t like when you’re alone with her.”

Sara laughed and it caused us both to turn and look at her. She pushed from the rail and stepped past, still smirking. “She is beyond ridiculous. I’ll see you around, Bryson.” Sh
e placed a hand on his arm and I burned holes through it with my eyes before she let go. She stepped between the crack of the balcony door and Bryson sighed as he ran the palm of his hand over his face.

“Can you just stop making shit worse than it is, Natalie? I’m not doing shit with her!
I understand you don’t like her but damn it, grow up already.”

Bryson stormed past me, leaving me dumbfounded, lost, but most of all
hurt
. I didn’t know what I’d done but I blamed myself for getting him upset. I was worried and I thought that he would respect me enough to leave her alone for the sake of our relationship but he was calling me immature? He was blaming me for worrying about a bitch that was aiming to steal him away from me?

I don’t know when I had snapped out of it but I went back for the party and saw Bryson on the dance floor . . . in front of Sara. She was standing on her toes, whispering something in his ear and then giggling. My heart sank to my stomach but then Bryson looked up and saw me. He stepped past Sara and pushed through the crowd to get to me.

Without a word, he led me to the kitchen and grabbed the vodka. He filled my cup halfway, poured a cup for himself, and then smiled. “Look, I’m sorry for acting like a dick, babe. I love you. Let’s live it up.”

I forced a smile as I took a sip of my drink. Eventually, he forced me to drink it all and later that night, I began to forget more and more why I was mad at him. I started to forget what the problem was. He drowned me with liquor just to
make me forget but how could I forget something that may have been the start of another relationship and the end of ours?

Out on that balcony, my eyes weren’t deceiving me. They were comfortable with one another and it was only a matter of time before I was going down the drai
n, along with his memories of us. I fought as hard as I could but winning just wasn’t on my side.

What Bryson did to me was
extremely
hard to forget and as torn as I was, I only hoped that one day I would soon get over it.

To keep updated with Shanora and her novels, find her on:

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/ShanoraWilliamsAuthor

Blog:
http://shanorawilliams.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @shanorawilliams

To find
the
New York Times
&
USA Today
Best Seller,
Hard to Resist,
on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, click the links below:

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Hard-to-Resist-ebook/dp/B00BEQP450/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_HSTT

Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hard-to-resist-shanora-williams/1114511966?ean=2940016224275