Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
“She’s positioned in a way that she could lay her head down and go to sleep,” he points. “She’s completely in his care. Her thighs hugging, not holding, and there is a difference, Dylan.”
Arlet’s legs, bare in shorts, even though it’s only in the sixties today, press against mine, and I watch Dylan’s eyes trail along our bodies.
Farrow’s gaze rises a little. “Her breasts are pressed into his back, her pussy into his body.”
I blink long and hard. Arlet lets out a quiet laugh.
And now that’s all I feel—how warm I am between her legs—and I don’t like it. It feels like I’m tied up. Or constricted.
“He moves, she moves, he leans, she leans,” he goes on. “He rides the bike, she rides him.”
My gaze lowers to Dylan’s thighs in tight black jeans. Images of the other night and what she looks like underneath flash in my mind.
He stands opposite of her and grabs her handlebars, pinning her with a hard look. “This bike is your fucking boyfriend. Throw your thighs around it and let it move.”
Dylan looks at him, unfazed.
“Everything ready?” Farrow looks to Arlet.
“They’ll be there when we arrive,” she tells them.
I don’t know what they’re talking about, but I assume we’re going wherever Coral went.
Dylan pulls on her helmet, eyeing the girl behind me. “You’d be safer riding with me,” she tells Arlet as she fastens the strap under her chin. “What is this, your second time on a bike, Hunter?”
“You want to ride with Dylan?” I ask Arlet over my shoulder.
She hugs me tighter. “No, I’m good here.”
I ask Farrow, “So where are we going?”
But it’s Dylan who answers. “Helm’s Field.”
She starts her new bike and flies off, the three of us following.
Back to the Falls.
What is she up to now? And what did Arlet mean about ‘girls only?’
Cruising into my hometown, I see the shops on High Street just waking up. People arrive to work, unlocking offices, and vendors move their sidewalk displays out from their stores. We pass Frosted, and I take in the expanse of bare brick wall between my aunt’s bakery and Rivertown, the bar and grill next door. She was hiding in the walls the other night.
And I doubt she’s the only one who knows about it. It feels weird if Hawke, Kade, Dylan, and Quinn are in on something I’m not.
But I guess it’s fair. I left. My choice.
It’s only after nine in the morning, but everyone will be at school by now. It’s a short trip through town, and I follow Farrow and Dylan around the back of Helm’s Field, the football stadium, just before we reach the parking lot. Coasting alongside the wooded area to our right, we come around the other side of the field and park, the school’s two stories rising just over the other side of the field and the track that surrounds it.
Coral’s car is already there, along with another one carrying a small flatbed trailer. Canisters of fireworks sit on top.
“We should wait for the end of the day,” Coral tells Dylan. “Then they can chase after us.”
“This isn’t supposed to be fun for them.” Dylan unwraps each cylinder, exposing the fuses. “Let them simmer for the rest of the day in class. It’ll give us time to get ready.”
“Us?” Mace repeats, grabbing her and taking a long look at the jacket Dylan’s wearing. “Who do you think you are now?”
“Who am I?” Dylan asks her. “I’m a girl. Sick of boy shit. This rivalry isn’t just between the teams, is it?”
I hold back my smile. All the Pirates and Rebels should be allowed to have fun.
“Today, we play together,” Dylan tells her. “In ten days, when I’m back on the other side, you can try to kill me again.”
Mace hoods her eyes, clearing her throat. “We weren’t trying to kill you the other night. That was mostly the Pirates. Farrow scratched up his own truck trying to run one of them off the road before they ran you off.”
She narrows her eyes. “He did?”
She looks impressed. She won’t be when he tries to send her the bill for all these damages.
Arlet climbs off to help them with the fireworks, but I rev the bike, starting to inch away. I don’t need to be here for this.
“Wait,” Dylan tells me. “I need you.”
For what?
But she turns to Mace. “Give me ten minutes. If I’m not out by then, go ahead and light it.”
Dylan charges over and pulls my arm.
But I resist. “What are we doing?”
“Hurry,” she says. “We have to go now, before the next bell rings.”
She pulls me, and I relent, turning off the bike, pressing down the kickstand, and throwing my leg over, following.
She scales the fence, and I climb over as well.
“What are you doing?” I bark, walking across the field with her.