Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“I know.” She badgers me with mocking laughter again. “Until you realized Milo is a far better catch than Gabriel Sutton.” She gags out Gabriel’s name like Cash always does. “So you thought you’d drag him home and try to make your ruse real.”
“I didn’t drag him home. Cash offered to come with me.”
She gags. “Puh-lease. Milo hates the country as much as he does whiny little geeks who don’t know their place.”
Confident of my place in Cash’s life, I say, “You should leave before Cash arrives. He hates when roaches creep into his room.”
My snapback doesn’t keep her down for even a second. “Roaches who love him enough to step aside to ensure he can play the season. Roaches who’ll watch a woman fawn over him even when she knows he is way above her league. A roach who just helped celebrate his pass by sucking his cock like you’ve never been given the chance to do—”
Her reflexes aren’t quick enough to stop me from slapping the words out of her mouth. I slap her hard, and I only feel a smidge of guilt about it.
After righting her head to its original spot, Vivienne sneers out, “If I’m lying, how do I know about your deal with Milo?” She has me stumped, which leaves her to fill in the gaps with nasty taunts. “I know because he told me after he declared to you that Gabriel wouldn’t be interested in you without his help, after promising your cred will improve just being associated with him, and after you made so much of a fool of yourself in front of Gabriel, you had no choice but to accept Milo’s offer. I know everything because he came to me to make sure it was okay with me.”
“That’s not true.” I’m too stunned to think up a better response. How does she know about our conversation if Cash didn’t tell her about it? We were the only two people in the room. “Cash belittled you in front of everyone.”
Vivienne shrugs like the pain in her eyes at the poker tournament last week was nowhere near as obvious as it was. “You’re not the only one studying drama.”
“If anything you’re saying is true, why would you do this? Why would you agree to let your boyfriend…” The word tastes bitter in my mouth, “… date someone else? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Date?” She laughs like I said a joke. “You were not dating, Milo. You were his pawn. His toy.” With a sneer, she drags her eyes down my body. “His tutor. Nothing more.”
Before I can deny her false claims, the bathroom door behind me cracks open, and steam fills the room along with a remorseful-looking Cash.
His eyes widen when they dart between Vivienne and me, but before a single word can spill from his lips, my eyes zoom into a large red welt on the side of his neck.
It looks like a hickey.
“McKayla,” he shouts with a grunt when I shove him so hard he topples into the bathroom with a thud before I hightail it out the door.
Since I dumped my backpack onto the floor along with Cash’s ass, I clear the first flight of stairs and am racing down the second when Cash catches up with me. “Whatever she told you isn’t true.”
His denial makes me angrier. Not at him, but myself because try as I may, nothing Vivienne said was a lie. I agreed to tutor Cash to help him pass so he can play.
I did that. He passed, so now our ruse should be over, shouldn’t it?
My hurt catapults when the tormentor from earlier pops back up. “Oh no… Milo got busted.”
When I shoot my eyes to Cash, he darts his to the man at the back of the group watching our exchange like it’s an annual boxing match. “Shut the fuck up, Beanz.”
With his focus on Beanz, I continue my dramatic exit. This time, I make it to the footpath outside before Cash reaches me again. “McKayla, fucking stop. Use your damn head. She’s playing you.”
He’s right. She is. But this hurts. Knowing our ruse could be over hurts.
“Did you go to her?”
“What?” He holds his towel in close to his body as his eyes search mine for the rest of my question.
“Did you go to her? After we agreed to our ruse, did you go to her?”
My heart falls from my stomach when I spot the truth in his eyes.
Vivienne wasn’t lying.
Oh god.
Before I can formulate an appropriate response, it dawns on me how many people are viewing our exchange. Cash’s frat brothers have spilled out of his frat house, and almost all the houses surrounding his have twenty or so spectators.
I’m being humiliated like Janice was at the harvest dance the night she lost her virginity. Arthur’s friends threw condoms at her feet in front of her parents before asking how booked her schedule was. They embarrassed her in front of the whole town, which I didn’t know at the time she should be grateful about since the town is so small.