Read Online Dark Creations: The Hunted (Part 4) by Jennifer Martucci, Christopher Martucci - Free Book Online Page A

sense to me.  Just being with a girl you like should be enough.  The whole feeling entitled thing is kind of … disturbing, like a girl is an escort or something; her dinner or whatever activity he foots the bill for becomes payment for anticipated services, is that right?”
    “Jeez, Gabriel, when you put it like that it’s even creepier.  But yes, I guess that’s pretty much it.”
    “And this is how guys have treated you in the past, expecting something in return for whatever they invited you to do with them?”
    Gabriel could feel his temper flare imagining other guys trying to paw at Melissa.  His hand involuntarily clenched into a fist.
    “Well, yeah.  And some of them, like Kevin, didn’t even attempt the whole courtship route.  I mean, he just drove to the Rec Center and tried to maul me.”
    Though Kevin Anderson was dead, he could not help but tense at the mention of his name.  He had seen him as he attacked Melissa in the woods behind Harbingers High School the night of the bonfire.  If he hadn’t come when he did, if he hadn’t stopped the attack before it went any further, Melissa would have been a statistic, another faceless victim of date-rape.  The thought of her alone, vulnerable and trapped in a car with the lecherous jock that outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds, made his blood boil.  His fist tightened.
    “Gabriel, are you okay? You’re knuckles are white,” Melissa noticed.
    “Oh, sorry,” he said sheepishly.  “Just mentioning that guy’s name makes me so mad.”
    “He’s dead, Gabriel.  There’s nothing more he can do,” she reminded him.
    “Of course I know that.  My mind just goes right back to that night in the woods after the bonfire, what was happening, what could have happened.  I think of you alone with him at the Rec Center, and if he weren’t dead already, I’d want to kill him myself.”
    Gabriel wasn’t sure but he assumed discussing the night she was almost raped was the most effective way to cool whatever romantic fire burned between them.  In fact, he felt confident he had just dumped the verbal equivalent of cold water on the meager heat he had generated.  He took another sip of his wine and scolded himself silently for ruining what could have been the best night of his life when Melissa surprised him by kissing his cheek.
    “What was that for?” he asked dejectedly.
    She took his face in her hands and looked at him.  The medley of green shades in her eyes was highlighted by the purple of her dress as she seemed to stare straight through him.  She closed them briefly then pressed her full lips against his.  Her gesture was tender, gentle.  Suddenly, it did not matter to him what direction their relationship went in, as long as he could continue to kiss her perfect lips.  She leaned back and looked at him a second time, then grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him toward her.  She kissed him again, only this time it was not tender.  She kissed him with urgency.  Her hands moved from his shirt to his hair as she tangled them in the longer top-portion of it.  His heart raced and the world began to spin.  She kissed him passionately and paused only to playfully nibble his lower lip. 
    He could not place exactly what he was feeling, the sensation of fear and assurance colliding.  He was terrified; there was no denying it.  But whatever they were doing felt natural, right.  He decided to not hold back, to match her intensity.  He moved his mouth from hers and kissed her chin, then down the length of her neck, inhaling the intoxicating fragrance she wore the entire time, before working his way back up to her ear.  He kissed and teased the soft skin of her earlobe.  She let out a sigh of approval and he knew their feelings were mutual.  He returned to her mouth again and felt her arms tighten around him, felt her softness press against him.  Then, just as he contemplated exploring her throat and bare shoulders with