I couldn't breathe.

The air had practically left my lungs. Maybe it was the shock of what had just happened, the inevitable rejection served to me with a lovely disguise of a date. I covered my face with my hands and cried uncontrollably which led to a lack of oxygen and I had to use my inhaler.

I was a sore loser, alright. This wasn't just a 'tiny' crush you had on your classmate that would pass with ice-cream or moving onto liking another guy . In my opinion, I was totally and completely in love with my best friend. I loved him as deeper as you could love someone. He was a part of me that I didn't want to lose.

Tyler was standing outside the car, leaning against the glass and saying something but I couldn't hear him, so I lowered the glass just a little.

His expressions were solemn when he said. "Open the door, Vicky."

"I'm going home," I said without even looking at him.

I probably looked like a sobbing mess. How very unattractive. I tried to control tears, but they just wouldn't stop. Damn my weak tear ducts!

"Let me drive you." He offered.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not." He said. I sneaked a look at him and he appeared to be worried. "Sit in the passenger side. I'm driving you."

"I'm fine," I repeated harshly.

You wouldn't believe what he did; he plated his large hands on the sides and gave it a hard shove which had the car moving a little.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked.

In a low menacing tone, he said, "Best believe I'll break the goddamn window and open the car door if I have to. So unlock the car, get in the passenger seat and let me fucking drive."

I think it was definitely the serial-killer looks and the entire change in his demeanor that promised what he'd threatened that I unlocked the car quickly and slid into the passenger seat because if you were at the receiving end of those looks, you'd do exactly what he asked you to.

I watched him as he pushed the car seat way back to accommodate his giant body. "Wanna go to the hospital?"

"I told you I was fine." I looked out the window.

"There's a hospital owned by our family. Uncle Vincent runs it. He's got one of the best doctors working there. It's a little out of our way but I can take us there in twenty-minutes. Shall I take you there?"

I shook my head. "I want to go home."

He pushed my hair behind my ear and grazed his thumb across my cheeks to wipe the tears. He slowly pulled me into his arms; an awkward hug with the stupid handbrake coming in between us, but sweet nevertheless. I didn't have guts to crawl into the driver's seat and into his lap.

It was like he could read my mind.

Before I knew what was going on, he scooped me up from the passenger seat and placed me in his lap. And I sat sideways in his lap, shell-shocked. I lay my head on his chest, and since I didn't understand what I could do with my hands, I placed them on his chest as well. I was welcomed by the scent of his familiar intoxicating perfume and the warmth of his embrace, not to mention the ripple of abs.

And during that moment, I forgot all about my breathing issue.

His lips touched the top of my head and I closed my eyes. If I possessed a little more guts, I would have caught his face in my hands and kissed him until he told me that he'd changed his mind about not wanting us to date, but I'd always been a coward. I'd told him I loved him a moment ago, and that was completely out of pure desperation.

I was completely lost in my thoughts that I narrowly missed when he said. "I would do anything for you, Victoria."

I pulled my head up from his chest to stare into his fierce blue eyes, "Anything?"

"Anything." He repeated.

"Then I want to be together with you." When it came to Tyler, it was funny how I became hopelessly shameless. I'd just been rejected, and look at me, already back to groveling.

"I would do anything to protect you from myself." He said, "And that's what I'm doing right now."

"So you're telling me you'll never date anyone in your life because you pose a threat to them?"

"I haven't thought of that far."

"What are you? The American Psycho?"

He chuckled, "You don't know the half of it."

His fingers continued to play with my hair as he tilted my head, cradling my face in his palms. "Your eyes kinda resembles snowflakes, did you know that?"

"I didn't know."

He ran the back of his fingers over my cheek, "Your skin is soft like a baby."

"I have no idea."

"Liar."

He touched my lips but made no move to kiss me, and my heart kept thudding in my ribcage, heat pooling between my thighs.

In a gravel voice he whispered, "You're really fucking sweet, and I would have loved to taste you. All of you. But once we go down that route, there will be no turning back."

"I won't stop you." Even though I was partly seated in his lap, I could feel his arousal through the thick material of the denim. He followed my gaze to the front of his jeans. "Don't you want to..." I couldn't believe I was even saying this. "Don't you want to feel the relief?"

All Hail the Queen of Desperation, Lady Victoria.

Suddenly, Tyler's expressions turned hard and he practically tossed me into the passenger seat. He'd been gentle, but I could sense when the aggressive side of him switched on.

What have I said now to warrant such behavior?

"Do you know what I fucking hate the most?" he asked, never taking his eyes off me.

"What?"

"I fucking hate it when you throw yourself at my mercy, just plain asking me to take you casually. Do you really want that to happen? Me fucking you in the backseat of this car and be done with it? Because let me be honest, that's going to be a hell lot of fun for me, and then you're going to ask more which I won't be able to give you and then you'll cry all night and guess what? I won't be done with you, I'll ask you to let me screw you again, and again. It stops when I say it stops so unless you want that in the near unforeseen future, you'd offer yourself to me."

If Tyler thought he was scaring me by being intimidating, he was so wrong. I liked the way he would change gears from being extremely sweet to downright deadly.

"Stop acting like Harper. I fucking hate it!"

"What do you mean like Harper? Elaborate."

His eyes turned into menacing slits. "A slut like Harper." When my eyes went wide, he said, "You asked me to spell it out for you."

That seriously made me mad, I know Harper didn't exactly top the best characteristics list, but the way he said it seemed so wrong. "You can't judge anyone like that; Ty, it's not nice to say such things about people."

"What else do you want me to call her? Saint Harper? She's fucked every player on my hockey team and more. She won't stop until she's fucked their power forward, that's me and I'd rather eat my socks than let her have that. Right now, almost every jock in school knows her inside out."

"Do you too?"

He gave me an incredulous look. "Are you deaf? I just told you I'm a virgin."

"So if I'm throwing myself at you, I'm a slut?"

"Now you're putting words in my mouth."

"Let me put this out for you, Ty because clearly you don't understand certain things. If I'm throwing myself at you, it's because I like you. I wouldn't have said the same things to some other guy."

"You better don't. In fact, DO NOT even fucking think about it." He warned. "Now repeat after me. 'I will not tempt Tyler...' say it."

"I won't say anything," I said adamantly.

Ignoring me, he said, 'I will not tempt Tyler or force myself onto him.'

"When did I force myself on you? You're making me sound like a rapist."

"I will not tempt Tyler or force myself on him because I'm sweet innocent Victoria and I won't slut around like Harper."

I inhaled and exhaled because turned out I was going to need energy when I argued with him. I decided to give him my version of the oath. "I will not tempt Tyler or force myself on him because I have some pride and dignity still remaining inside me and because Tyler is an asshole."

He gave me one last look and pushed the car into drive and maneuvering it onto the road. "Put your seat-belt on."

I didn't talk to him the entire ride home. When Tyler parked my car into the parking space, I climbed out of it and made my way inside the house. He was right behind me, hot on his heels. The moment I walked in, I saw Archer waking down the stairs.

"Vicky..."

I didn't wait to hear what Archer had to say as I started to make my way upstairs.

"Ty! My man!"

Seriously?

They did the fist pump that boys usually did.

"Dude, I need a favor. Can you drop me to Waffle house? I left my car there." Tyler told Archer.

"What happened? Did someone hit your car or something?" Archer asked. As usual, he was thinking the worst.

"Nah, Vicky started having breathing problems."

"Vicky, what happened?" Archer called out to me.

I stopped at the top of the stairs. "I'm fine now."

"Are you having asthma attacks again?"

"I said I'm fine, Archer. I took my medication."

"Let's go to the hospital." He offered.

"Yeah, I told her that." That was Tyler.

"TYLER!" That was Hazel.

Did I mention that Hazel had a crush on Tyler too?

The kind of crush you would have on a movie star. She looked up to him, like a role model. She was hugging him so fiercely; it was making the snake of envy coil inside me. Maybe I should have been Hazel; eight and innocent to be able to hug him like that.

Her glossy dark hair was down till her waist, a pink hairband holding it back, her big black eyes watching him, utterly spellbound.

Tyler had a way with women. No matter how young or old, they still managed to be hypnotized by him.

"How is Princess Hazel?" Tyler asked, working his Prince Charming smile. He would put all the Disney Prince's to shame. "I almost forgot, I got something for you."

"O.M.G. What did you get for me?"

"Haze, how many times have I told you not to annoy Ty?"

"I'm not annoying him, dummy. Ty likes me, Jeez, There's a difference." Hazel said in the sassiest way an eight-year-old would say.

I couldn't help giggling as I watched them secretly from the railing upstairs.

"Wait, there's something here." Tyler grinned at her, touching her ear and producing a coin.

"Ohhhh..."

"Look what I found." He was good at it. With a sleight of hand, he touched her pocket and summoned a Reese chocolate bar out of it.

That impressed my little sister BIG TIME. He produced M&Ms, Skittles, Hershey's bar and any other candy whenever he came to visit home, and that just put Tyler in her 'most favorite people in the world' list. She even kept a small diary where she had written 'Hit list- most favorite people' and then there was a 'Shit list- people that should be in a gutter.'

Archer and I thought it was hilarious so instead of telling her not to do things like that, we actually laughed at it and that only encouraged her further.

We weren't exactly perfect older siblings. A very bad influence indeed.

"You're spoiling her again," Archer complained.

"I think Princesses are meant to be spoilt, and one such as adorable as Hazel." Came Tyler's reply, giving her an adorable wink.

How could you hate someone when they displayed such a soft side?

How could you possibly hate someone when they treated your sister like their own?

He made it so hard to hate him. I hated myself for not wanting to hate him. (If that even made sense).

He had set the bar very high for boys in Hazel's class. I mean, most third graders weren't exactly used to showcasing finesse, all those poor boys were still learning to clean the snot off their puny noses.

She looked at him with open admiration. "When can I see Snowball? And Jeni-furr and Diablo?"

Notice how Hazel never mentioned his pet Iguana or the Tarantulas. No matter how much Ty found them cute, they just weren't kid favorite. He would have loved to argue with me on that fact, considering his nine year old cousin Travis played with them all the time. Then again, you couldn't call Travis as a normal child either. He was a Lockhart. There was a chemical imbalance right there.

"You can see whenever you want, Princess. How about tomorrow? Wanna come by?"

"I would love to!" Exclaimed Hazel. "I'll bring Vicky with me since she has like this huge crush on you. She can sit in a corner while we play."

"Hazel!" I warned her.

"Oh look, she's eavesdropping."

Smartass kids.

I heard Tyler laughing. "Sounds like a plan. I'll call Travis as well."

Hazel waved her hand dismissively, "there's no need of him. You and I get along just fine. Now, come on Ty, let's have tea. My friends are waiting for you." Hazel said, catching his hand and starting to drag him towards the living area.

Poor Tyler. Now he was going to be subjected to a tea party with Hazel's Barbie and plush friends.

"Give me one minute, Haze. Why don't you set up your tea party until then?"

"Cool." Hazel happily skipped her way into the other room singing an incoherent tune.

"Where's Maya?" Tyler turned to Archer.

"She finished her assignment early so I dropped her home."

The atmosphere was filled with some tension.

If Tyler had something to say, he held it in. "Okay."

"You busy right now?" Archer asked.

"Not really. There's a test tomorrow but I already studied everything in class unlike SOME PEOPLE." He screamed the last word near the staircase so I could hear him.

I knew he was only trying to get on my nerves.

Archer chuckled, "leave my sister alone, man."

"Gotta attend the tea party first and then let's play on the PS. I'll order dinner. You in mood for Indian food?"

"Hell yeah."

"Fantastic. I'm ordering the Samosas for starters. Let's also get the Butter chicken and Saffron rice. Cool?"

"Awesome." Archer said, "let's pick up your car from that Waffle place first. I'll grab my keys."

Archer hurried off to look for the car keys. I saw Tyler lingering at the foot of the stairs and he was looking directly towards me, or the hidden part of me.

"Calling out to the blonde spy on the stairs. You can join us in the living area if you want, instead of sulking in your room. I can even help you with the test tomorrow."

"How very noble of you, Mr. Lockhart. I don't need your help. I can do just fine." I retorted.

"I'm a lot of things, Victoria." He said leaning against the banister. "But noble is not one of them."

"After today, I'm not even going to argue with that fact. They should have named you Lucifer."

He smiled, not kindly. "Think of it as a warning from the devil himself. I will not warn you a second time. Throw yourself at me, Vicky, and I'll take what I want."

His eyes leveled with me in an obvious challenge.

"You should try threatening someone else, Ty, because it doesn't work on me." I taunted him.

I will make you eat your own words, Tyler Lockhart. You watch me.

❤️