Compulsion: Magnetic Desires Read Online Free Page A

sat cross-legged on the bed and patted the spot beside her.
    "And the chocolate cake?"
    "Every birthday."
    She had to be lonely in this big house with parents who were too involved in their own life to even realize who she was. It made it easier to understand why she’d fallen for Zack. His attention, any attention, was more than she got at home. If she let me, I would show her how much she deserved to be loved.
    She glanced at the window. "Where do you think he is?"
    "I don’t know." Splayed out on the bed beside her, I tugged her down next to me. Zack needed to bow out of the picture instead of stringing her along. She deserved better, but I didn’t want to be the one to make her suspicious. I couldn’t be the one to make her sad. "How about I stay until he shows up?"
    "Okay." She snuggled into me, resting her head on my shoulder, and began to flick through TV channels. "How about Vampires?"
    "And Slayers?"
    I wrapped my arm around her and forgot about Zack, while we watched episode after episode, and she fell asleep nestled up against my side.

Chapter Six
    "C lo tutored me in English, and I taught her what I knew about cars. The more time we spent together, the closer we got. I loved every minute, and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. I tried not to want more. All I wanted was for her to be happy."
    March 2005
    I wiped the dipstick on a rag, and put it back. The GTO ran smoother than it had since Dad bought it. Over the past six months, I’d spent a lot of time working to get it running the way it was supposed to. Resting my hands on the chassis, I leaned under the hood. "Hey, come here."
    Clo got up off the floor and discarded the Chemistry book she’d been studying. Dusting the seat of her pants, she made her way over to me.
    "You see this?" I ran my hand over the engine. "It’s a Bobcat 400."
    She stared at the innards of the car before examining her fingernails. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."
    I chuckled. "Basically, it means it goes fast."
    Hitching a leg on the bumper, she leaned against the chassis. "I’m never going to understand it when you talk about cars."
    With the backdrop of my prize possession and her hair cascading down over her shoulders, her beauty forced me to take a step back. It was either that or wrap her leg around me while I kissed her, my hands tangled in her hair, but I couldn’t put her in that position. I couldn’t be the one to break her and Zack up, even if he deserved it. "Do you want to take it for a spin?"
    She glanced over her shoulder at the car. "Maybe one day you could take me for a drive, and we could have a picnic out near Red Dog Hill."
    The idea appealed to me, but I didn’t think she knew that Red Dog was where everyone went to make out. Still, I wouldn’t say no to taking her up there. "I’d like that."
    "We better get to studying. Zack is picking me up in an hour."
    I’d almost forgotten him; I wished I could. Wiping my hands on a fresh rag, I went to the fridge to get a couple of sodas. Clo gathered up her books, and we headed into the backyard.
    "What are we studying today?"
    "Chemistry for me," she replied, "You have an English paper due Monday. You need to finish it." She snatched the book out of my hand.
    "Is that a challenge?" I took a seat at the table. When I read and wrote, the words on the page often got jumbled and backward until I couldn’t make sense of them. Until Clo had started studying with me, I’d often gotten so frustrated I’d give up, but since we’d started working together I found myself needing to live up to what she believed I was capable of.
    "You’re doing a lot better. Come on, get organized," she said over the top of her chemistry book. I’d picked it up once out of curiosity, but I hadn’t understood a word of it.
    Letting out an exaggerated groan, I leaned down to get my books from my bag. We played this game each time we studied together, and I’d never admit to how much I enjoyed it, or how much my