Page 166 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“Ready to dance?” he asked.

Catherine flashed him a sexy smile. “You know better than to ask.”

Shit, that was the one and only reason he was going to his prom, frankly. Because she liked to dance, and he liked to watch her do exactly that. Also, she looked damn good in a gown, with her lips painted red, and her hair down for him to tangle his hands in.

She always looked good, though.

That wasn’t new.

“Step on the gas, Cross, we are late.”

“Get your hands on my fucking gears, and maybe I’d have a reason to drive faster,” he shot back, cocking a single brow in challenge.

He was not talking about the Rover’s gears, either.

Catherine’s cheeks flooded with sweet pink. “You’re terrible.”

“Yeah, it’s a gift.”

They were hot, and they were cold. They were on, and then they were off again.

That’s how his entire final year of high school played out with Catherine Marcello. Sometimes, they were more on than they were off. Sometimes, she was pushing him away more often than she pulled him in. Sometimes, he felt like they were playing games with one another because once they got back together, it was so much fucking better.

He tried to keep an eye on her when they weren’t together, but she made it hard. It was made more difficult by her continuing to deal with her cousins, but that was just one aspect, really. He could almost deal with the supplying drugs because he knew she was taken care of and safe with Andino or John. It was what she did when her cousins weren’t looking that messed Cross up sometimes, and made him raging pissed.

Not to mention scared.

Her partying picked up a lot over the last few months, but even more so when they weren’t doing their thing together because they kept splitting up again and again. He hated those calls at night when she was drunk, but he went and saved her ass every single time. He snuck her into his house, hid her in his arms and blankets, and waited until she was sober, before taking her home to her father.

And fuck it all because that probably didn’t help with Dante. The guy likely thought Cross was a big reason for Catherine’s new difficult nature, her rebellion, and all the other trouble she was causing. Sure, she was seventeen, and her parents could lock her down if they wanted, but their approach to Catherine’s behavior seemed to be a wait and see type of thing. Including where Cross was concerned. Like if they waited long enough, he’d be gone, too.

It didn’t matter.

Cross took the shit.

He brushed off the dirty looks and comments. He accepted blame and fault, even when it wasn’t his to take.

For Catherine?

Always.

She was his, in any case.

Cross wasn’t really sure what he and Catherine were doing together, except for this week, and maybe for the entire month of June, they might actually stay on. He liked it a hell of a lot better when they were on again, and she was just his.

Sometimes they were nothing.

Sometimes they were a thing.

Most times, they were just them.

On or off, they were still just them.

Catherine’s breathless laughter picked up as she unbuckled her seat belt to lean over into Cross’s seat. Her cherries and sweetness scent soaked into his lungs like a drug as her demure gaze looked up at him from his lap.

“Don’t even,” he warned, glancing down.

Cross had been kidding earlier about getting her hands on his gears, sort of …