Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 104501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 523(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 523(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
He was watching me.
Our eyes caught and held, and I frowned.
There was no hostility, not like the other night, just a slight flicker of amusement—like he was finding me funny, or the situation funny. I glanced behind me, but there was nothing comical there. Wait—I started to look back at him, but whipped around again.
There was nothing behind me at all. The girls were gone.
Shit.
I had no idea how to get back to the dorm. I started back to the front of the house. The girls weren’t there. They weren’t in the living room, kitchen, or bathrooms. They weren’t upstairs or downstairs. I went back to the backyard for one last futile attempt, and again, nothing.
Then I felt him.
He came to stand next to me, his hands in his pockets, and looked over with those eyes that could see through me. “They took off while you were glaring at me.”
“I wasn’t glaring.” I didn’t think I was, anyway. A headache formed behind my temples. I lifted a hand to rub at my head.
One side of his mouth curved up. “You were, but that’s fine.” His eyebrow raised. “You need a ride back?”
I sighed. “We had a buddy system.”
The other side of his mouth lifted, and the distinct feeling that he was laughing at me washed over me again.
“Come on.” He gestured toward the street. “I’ve had one beer. I can drive, and I’m heading out anyway. Trust me enough for a ride?”
I held my breath. He’d been laughing at me earlier, now he was outright making fun of me? I weighed my options. I could call a cab and hope the driver knew where my dorm was, or walk and try to find it myself. A third option was calling Kevin. A part of me wanted to do that, and I reached for my phone. What if he didn’t answer? I let go of my phone. I didn’t want to test that theory.
My last option stood in front of me.
I nodded. “After you.”
Caden/Asshole drove a Land Rover.
I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.
And it was clean. I paused after I opened the door and could only stand there. It was impeccably clean.
He’d already gotten inside. “Please don’t tell me the leather offends you.”
“It’s so clean.”
“Yeah?”
I had no clue what came over me, but I broke out in a “Ta-daa!” and my arms lifted like heaven’s gate had been thrown open. A full choir and orchestra played out in my voice. “Behold the gloriousness!” Then I dropped my arms and was met with silence.
He tilted his head. “How much did you drink?”
Yeah, maybe it was the booze. Shrugging, I got inside. “Sorry. I’m just surprised,” I explained as he pulled away from the curb. “Kevin’s car is always a mess. The floor of the front seat where my feet are supposed to go is his personal garbage can. He throws everything there. I always have to move a bunch of junk aside so I can get in.”
“He doesn’t clean it for you?”
I shrugged again. “He cleans it for his dates.”
“Not even for his mom?”
“If they go anywhere together, they take her car. Nope. Just his dates.” I was rambling. I sat on my hands.
He noticed. “What are you doing?”
“I do this when I feel like I’m saying stuff I shouldn’t, and I’m only doing that because I’m nervous.” I blinked a few times at him. “You make me nervous. Though that’s better than being enraged.”
“I enrage you?”
I nodded, then thought about it, and my head bobbed down as my shoulder jerked up. “You did earlier, but I don’t know why. I think it’s just you. I call you Asshole in my head.”
“You what?” We stopped at a stoplight, and he looked fully at me. “I didn’t do anything to you.”
I bristled, remembering the first time we met. I echoed his words from my memory, “‘Something wrong with you?’ That’s not the nicest thing to say to a girl. Especially one that just got her hear—” I clammed up.
Oh dear God. I’d almost spilled the beans to him.
“I mean…” I had nothing to cover that up. It really was the booze speaking. I couldn’t even attempt a redirect, so I just sat in humiliating defeat.
The light turned green, and we started forward again. He threw a sideways glance my way. “You mean that wasn’t a nice thing to say to a girl whose heart was just broken? Did I get that right?”
“No.” Yes. So much yes.
He grunted, taking another turn, and I saw the top of my dorm approaching.
“That’s what I thought,” he said.
He knew I was lying. He knew a whole lot more than what I’d just lied about. And I couldn’t do anything. Panic rose in me as I imagined how upset Kevin would be. I’d covered for him. He was counting on me, and I just blabbed to the guy who seemed to be one of his enemies, or rivals, or something. Or the brother to one of his rivals/enemies/whatever. Kevin always had those.