Pushing the Limits (14 page)

Noah balled up his napkin in his hand, his playful demeanor gone. “So why isn’t he out here with you?”

Good question. “I told him to stay and watch the movie. He’s been looking forward to it.”

“You deserve better.” He pushed the plate in front of me, his part of the hamburger gone, but all the fries still on the plate.

Like a guy who would share his dinner with me and give me all the fries? A guy who broke rules so I could listen to my father talk to my therapist? A guy who gave me his jacket when I was cold? A guy who set me on fire with a simple touch? But Noah couldn’t possibly want a girl like me.

I finished my hamburger and pushed the plate back to him. “Thanks. I guess I should let you go home.”

“What are you going to do?”

A few teenagers gathered around a table in the middle of the empty food court. A janitor set up a sign indicating a wet floor. A homeless guy clutched his shopping cart and stared at me and Noah from across the room
. Oh, I don’t know. Wander around by myself, probably end up dead, stuffed in the bottom of that guy’s shopping cart
. “Maybe head to the arcade and hope someone left some quarters on the table so I can play pool.”

Noah raised an eyebrow. “You play pool?”

“Aires taught me.” The sound of Aires’ laughter as we played replaced the screaming in my head.

Noah hopped off the stool and enveloped my hand in his. The gesture took me by surprise and caused my heart to stutter. He pulled me off the seat. “Come on, let’s go see if Aires taught you pool like he did math.”

We walked toward the arcade and Noah shifted his hand to allow his fingers to rest beside mine. My heart galloped like a horse. This was Noah Hutchins. The Noah Hutchins that refused steady relationships or even dating. The Noah Hutchins that only wanted one-night stands. A stoner. My opposite. And right now, everything I wanted.

NOAH

Echo withdrew into her hair the moment she entwined her fingers with mine. I hadn’t touched weed in over a week yet somehow I floated above the ground, my blood ran warm in my veins and I felt high—no, not high … invincible.

“Can I ask you a question? I won’t mean to offend you by it,” I said.

Her hand went limp, but I clung to it, not allowing her escape. “I guess.”

“Is there a meaning behind your name?”

We reached the arcade. A few middle-schoolers hovered around a game with a mock machine gun. The sound of bullets flying amid screams blared from the game. A college student flipped through a comic book behind the glass counter full of cheap prizes from ski ball tickets. I squeezed Echo’s hand tighter and led her past the game to the empty pool tables in the back.

Reluctantly, I let go of her hand and pushed a couple dollars into the coin machine.

“My mom was obsessed with Greek myths. I’m named after the mountain nymph, Echo.”

Aires’ name suddenly made sense, too. I plunked two quarters into the table and the balls rumbled out of the slot. Echo immediately tossed them onto the table. “Eight or nine ball?”

“Eight.” Nine was more complicated. I already planned on playing at sixty percent capacity, hoping she’d have a good time. “What’s the myth?”

She set the balls into the rack and flipped the triangle away. “There are several, actually. You break.”

I’d met several girls like her; terrified to break because they couldn’t hit more than a few balls off the group. Better she break and get one in than nothing at all. “Ladies first.” I couldn’t wait for this game to be over so I could teach her how to break properly. Images of her body pressed against mine, bending over the table, caused my jeans to get tighter.

“Your funeral,” she sang and my lips turned up at her flash of confidence. Echo twirled her pool cue like a warrior going into battle, never once taking her eyes off the cue ball. She leaned over the table. I focused on her tight ass. My siren ate me alive with every movement. As she took aim, she no longer resembled the fragile girl at school, but a sniper.

The quick and thunderous cracking of balls caught me off guard. The balls fell into the pockets in such rapid succession, I lost count. Echo rounded the table, once again twirling the cue, studying the remaining balls like a four-star general would a map.

Damn—the girl knew how to play.

“Stripes,” she called. Echo bent over the table to make her second shot. Her beautiful breasts were right there for me to see, but I wanted to do more than observe, I wanted to …

“You should put your tongue back in your mouth. You’ll get all cotton-mouthed if it dries out.” She sank two stripes with one shot.

“I can’t help it you’re hot.” I loved it when she dished it out. “The myth?”

After sinking two more shots she finally missed. Now it was my turn. Sixty percent capacity wouldn’t cut it with her. Hell, one hundred percent may not even be enough.

I worked the table while Echo settled onto a stool. “Zeus enjoyed affairs with nymphs on earth and his wife, Hera, didn’t quite approve of his extracurricular activities. So he sent Echo, a beautiful wood nymph, to distract and entertain Hera while he did a little entertaining of his own. Hera finally figured it out and punished Echo by taking her voice, cursing her to only repeat what others said.

“After this happened, Echo fell in love with a jerk who didn’t love her back. Echo wandered the woods, heartbroken, crying until there was nothing left to her but her voice, which still haunts the earth.”

Some of us were named after Bible personalities, others from a dart thrown at a baby book. Echo was named after a psychotic Greek myth. I sank two balls into the right pocket. “She didn’t like the names from normal fairy tales?”

Echo laughed. “Those were my fairy tales. I grew up understanding the story behind every constellation. What Greek god was mad at whom. Love, lust, anger, revenge. I slept with the light on for a long time.”

I missed my shot and swallowed the curse. Echo pranced to the table with a wicked grin on her lips. I craved nothing more than to kiss that pretty little smirk off her face. Instead, I yanked one of her silky red curls. Her laughter tickled my skin.

“Your turn to answer a question,” she said.

“Shoot.”

“Why do you want to see your file?” She aimed for the eight ball and sank the shot.

No one, except Keesha or Mrs. Collins, had asked me a question that personal in years. I placed two more quarters into the table. “Are you going to tell me why you want to see yours?”

Echo arranged the balls again. “You already know most of it. You break this time.”

Feeling off balance, I leaned on the pool stick. “I have two younger brothers. Jacob’s eight and Tyler’s four. We were separated after my parents died. They’re in a shitty home. I want to prove it and hopefully win custody of them after I graduate. That file lists where they live. If I can catch these bastards hurting my brothers, then I can get them out, and make us a family again.”

I broke the balls with more strength than I’d intended. I couldn’t get the picture of Tyler’s bruised face out of my head. My brothers wouldn’t become victims like Beth or turn into hard-asses like me. The cue ball bounced several times after hitting the group of balls. “Solids. Your turn to answer.”

“My mom hurt me and I don’t remember it.”

She sounded detached, but I knew she wanted in her file as much as I wanted in mine. I’d told her my story, I wanted hers. “Tell me what you do know.”

Echo rolled the pool cue in her hand. “I don’t know you well enough.”

How the hell would I get her to trust me? On some level, she did. But not like I wanted her to. My reputation with girls at school preceded me like cheerleaders in front of a marching band. Shit, what if she did trust me? What would I do with it?

I rested my hip against the pool table. “What if we only have one shot at those files? I’m not telling you my personal shit because I’m into group therapy, I’m telling you because if you have the opportunity to get into the files, I need you to find my brothers’ foster parents’ information. Last name, address and phone number. If I get a crack at yours, what am I looking for?”

Damn if she didn’t turn into a vampire. Absolutely no blood remained in her gorgeous face. “Swear you won’t tell anyone.”

What could be worse than being called a cutter? “Whatever it is …”

“Swear it,” she hissed. The tilt of her head, the way her eyes flashed a deep green and narrowed like a savage animal’s warned me that a joke may not be the smartest move.

“I swear.”

Echo left her pool stick against the wall and walked to the table. It appeared all games were over for the night. She picked up the cue ball. “My mom is bipolar. You know, manic depressive. There are two types of bipolar and my mom is number one. Not like one is the bottom, one as in Category 5 hurricane, 10.0 earthquake. She was misdiagnosed for years and then when I was six …”

Echo rolled the cue ball onto the table, hitting multiple balls. “She had a major breakdown and got help. My mother was great when she stayed on her meds.”

She wrapped her arms around herself and stared down at the table. Her foot tapped against the floor. “I only know what little my dad and my friends told me. She came off her meds, went into a manic episode, I went to her apartment and she tried to kill me.”

I was terrified to move, breathe, exist in this moment. On TV, teenagers were portrayed as happy, carefree. Echo and I
would never know such a life. My parents died. I got screwed by a system supposedly in place to protect me. Echo … Echo was betrayed by the person who should have laid down her life to protect her.

She raised her hand like a claw to her forehead. “Do you know what it’s like to not remember something? My mother loved me. She wouldn’t hurt me. Do you know what it’s like to have horrifying nightmares night after night? I go to bed one night, my life perfect, and then wake up in agony two days later in a hospital and my whole world is torn apart. I need to know. If I know, maybe I’ll feel whole again. Maybe …”

Echo reminded me of the statue of a saint my mother had once placed in her flower garden. Arms outstretched, seeking an answer from a God that hated us both. “Maybe I’ll find normal again.”

“Tell me about Aires.” I grasped for any straw to help.

By pure miracle, my statement snapped her out of misery. She blinked, coming back to the beeping and ringing of the video arcade. “Aires loved cars. He salvaged this 1965 Corvette and spent years working on it. That’s why I’m tutoring you. I need to make money to finish fixing it up.”

So she wasn’t some nerd looking for extra credit or service hours. She wanted to honor her brother—her family. Echo and I were more alike than I’d thought. “What’s wrong with it?”

She picked up her pool cue and placed it back on the rack. “I have no idea. For all I know, it needs twenty dollars in gas and new spark plugs. Or it could need something huge and expensive. I got a mechanic to come and look at it today, but I have a feeling he’s going to take me to the cleaners.”

“I know a guy who’s a genius with cars. He’d love to be in the
same zip code as a ‘65 Vette. Would you mind letting him have a crack at it?”

Her siren smile appeared and her eyes lit up the room. “Yes. Totally. Yes.”

She’d probably lose some of that excitement once she met Isaiah. “Isaiah’s a little rough around the edges, but a good guy. I don’t want you to be shocked when someone like me shows up.”

Her laughter sounded like music. “What, you don’t hang out with missionaries in your downtime? When the rest of us go home and slip into sweatpants and T-shirts, you kick back in a polo shirt and khakis.”

No one but Isaiah and Beth teased me. People ran from me. Yet this little nymph thoroughly enjoyed this game. “Keep it up, Echo. I’m all about foreplay.”

She laughed so loudly, she slapped a hand over her mouth, yet the giggles escaped. “You are so full of yourself. You think because girls swoon over you and let you into their pants on the first try that I’ll follow suit. Think again. Besides, I have your number now. Every time you try to look all dark and dangerous, I’ll picture you wearing a pink striped polo, collar up, and a pair of pleated chinos.”

No way. I stalked over to Echo, feeling like a tiger after its prey. She backed up against the wall, but I kept up my approach. I pressed against her, feeling each sensual curve. I wanted to touch every inch of her body. Her sweet smell intoxicated me.

Her eyes kept their laughter, but her smile faded as she bit her lower lip. Damn, did she have any idea what she was doing? For a girl hell-bent on keeping me away, she sure did everything to turn me on.

“You were saying?” I lowered my head and inhaled the warm
cinnamon scent at the nape of her neck, allowing my nose to skim along her inviting skin.

Her chest rose and fell at a faster pace. My hand melted on the curve of her stomach, centimeters from her hip. I reeled with the decision of moving up or down, both areas I’d dreamed of touching.

“Noah,” she breathed out, unknowingly fulfilling one of my many fantasies involving Echo. If I played my cards right, maybe she’d fulfill a couple more. I barely brushed my lips down her cheek as I moved toward her mouth. Her nails tickled my chest, driving me insane. Kissing her became my single reason for breathing.

Her hands applied pressure to my chest and her lips moved against mine. “I can’t.”

She pushed me away. “I … I … can’t.” Any traces of humor were gone, her eyes wide. “I’m on a date with Luke and this—” she motioned with her hand between us “—cannot happen. You’re Noah Hutchins and I’m not the girl that does ‘it’ with … with …”

I closed my eyes to regain some control over my body. I finished for her. “Me.”

“Yes … no … I don’t know. I want normal, Noah. Can you give me normal?” Funny, she talked about normal as she tugged at the gloves on her hands.

“When are you going to figure out that doesn’t exist for people like us?” I wasn’t sure who I wanted to hurt more, myself or her. She could pretend, but she’d never return to the girl without scars. Hell, maybe I said it to remind me that a guy like me could never have Echo.