Impetuous (Victory Lap Book 1)

by Mercedes Jade

  “Cain? I thought your name was Kade,” she said, a much quieter whisper than the rest, meant for him. “Or am I pronouncing it wrong?”

  “Why Bluebell?” he asked, instead of telling her they meant the biblical Cain. No point scaring her off if his rough appearance hadn’t done it.

  Heck, the circumstances of their first meeting would have sent Cara crumbling to the floor—after a screech pitched to shatter his eardrums—but Tess had tried to shrug him off and take on the criminally insane guy on her own. He still wasn’t ready to test just how tough the little firecracker could be, yet.

  He was going to have to discuss her further with the guys first.

  “Your hair,” Tess said, reaching up as if she wanted to touch it, but lowering her hand just as quickly. “And it’s a flower. Since we were talking about bees and wax and I was thinking-” She cut off with a suddenness that disappointed him. Her train of run-on thought had been building steam and he found it cute.

  “How about ‘Blue’ instead?” he suggested. His sad life in the last few months could live up to the moniker.

  “Can you come up with something better than a fat, orange squash for me?” she rejoined, a little merriment in her eyes that really lit them up.

  “Something seedier?” he teased.

  “Kade. Tess. Class,” Mr. Williams said, clearing his throat. “Are you done with your mating dance, or should I pause class for a few more moments? Anyone else wants to help initiate the newest member of our tribe with inappropriate comments?”

  Pumpkin could blush like a tomato.

  “Sorry, Mr. Williams,” Tess said. Nobody else bothered to apologize to their teacher but the new girl.

  “Perhaps we should start this unit off with a pop quiz. Close your books and get out a pencil,” Mr. Williams said in response.

  This got a round of groans.

  “That’s not fair,” Cara whined.

  Tess got off her stool and bent over to unzip her bag, digging into the front section for a pencil case. Kade got a glimpse of black shorts with pink kitten paws as her kilt rode up into dangerous territory. Again, he wasn’t the only one to notice.

  “She sure isn’t Mother Teresa,” Aaron whispered. Somebody laughed, and another classmate whistled.

  Tess straightened, reaching back to smooth down the kilt into place. She hopped onto her stool, the blush returned to her cheeks, staring down at the desk. The dainty hand holding her pencil was fisting it white-knuckled.

  Kade shifted on his own stool, uncomfortably aware that this was only the beginning of a fifty minutes class he was going to have to spend next to the sexy kitten, although he at least had a new nickname for her if she insisted on something other than Pumpkin.

  “No wandering eyes. Remember scientific notation. And wrong answers will result in a deduction, so no guessing. Shade the bubbles on your answer sheet fully.”

  Mr. Williams delivered the test instructions in a dry monotone as he started handing out piles of test sheets at one end of the classroom and answer sheets at the other end. Tess didn’t bother to look up at the teacher as he talked, still studying the scratches on the black, shiny surface of her side of the desk.

  “Nothing like a pop quiz to start your first day?” Kade said to her, feeling guilty that he had been checking her out as much as some of the regular classroom creeps. Normally, he wouldn’t put himself in the same category as them, but she had bent over right in front of his eyes.

  “Don’t try to cheat off of me,” Tess replied, finally raising her gaze to give him a flushed, kind of angry look.

  “I’m not one to let my eyes wander where they’re not wanted. Just don’t shove your answer sheet under my nose and we’ll be fine,” Kade said, watching her eyes narrow at him. He decided to make sure she was aware his glimpse at her shorts was mostly her own fault, in case that had been too subtle. “I suggest a little discretion by keeping your... test... covered up if you don’t want any of the rest of these assholes to look.”

  “I’ve never worn one,” Tess said, turning sideways to grab the stack of test papers. She took one and handed the rest to him.

  “One what?” Kade said, taking a test for himself.

  “Kilt. My sister said everyone wears it short and it was so—even letting out the hem didn’t help but they said it was the only one in my size. Barbie has skirts with hemlines longer than what they call a uniform here. My legs are freezing and they didn’t have black leotards at the store...”

  She trailed off as Kade chuckled. Definitely cute. She got more flustered and looked back down at her test paper. It wasn’t going to do her much good without the answer sheet to record her responses.

  “Wear sweats under your kilt on the way to school to keep warm,” Kade suggested, having seen a few girls do the same. “Or buy pants.”

  The image of her curvy butt in pants was not helping the uncomfortable fit of his own pants, especially when he imagined what she would look like bent over in them.

  Mark dropped the stack of answer sheets on Kade’s desk with a thud.

  Focus. He better concentrate on this quiz and tease Tess later. He got a mumbled thanks from her as she took an answer sheet and handed the rest of the stack to the next person, her eyes scrolling her test sheet, obviously reading the questions over.

  Kade sighed and prepared himself to write his quiz while his dick was hard as stone.

  Five minutes later, Tess had her hand up and Mr. Williams came over. Kade was in the middle of a calculation, so he didn’t pay much attention at first, figuring she had a question about something on the quiz.

  It was about thirty seconds more when Mr. Williams left, test and answer sheet in hand, that Kade figured out the new girl had finished before the rest of them. He looked over, seeing her tapping her pencil on the desk and staring at the classroom doorway.

  Pumpkin hadn’t sounded stupid earlier, so this could only mean Kade had real competition. He looked back down at his answer sheet and finished his own test a couple of minutes later.

  She was still staring at the door.

  He put his hand up and waited for Mr. Williams to take his test up as well. “The class has more than half an hour left,” Kade whispered, talking sideways out of his mouth.

  “No talking, Kade,” Mr. Williams said. “The test isn’t over.”

  Tess put her hand up. Their teacher came over.

  “What do you need?” he asked Tess, tone a bit nicer than he had used on her earlier. She must have done really well on the quiz to get Mr. Williams to change his tune so quickly. Maybe Tess was a bit of a brown-noser.

  “How much longer is the test?” she asked, keeping her voice down. The pencil kept tapping on the desk, flicked between her fingers to alternate the eraser end and the lead tip.

  “Ten more minutes,” Mr. Williams said.

  Most of the class would need all that time. Their chemistry teacher was infamous for difficult questions that required multiple steps, and this particular quiz had probably been intended as a mid-unit test because it had material on it that they hadn’t covered yet in the new unit like chemical groups that Kade had only known from last year.

  “I would like to visit my locker and come back,” Tess said. Her foot was tapping on the lower bar of her stool, in rhythm with her pencil. She was practically vibrating energy. Kade saw a few of the other students shoot her an annoyed glance.

  “The break between classes is meant for going to your locker,” Mr. Williams said, denying her request.

  Why hadn’t she asked to use the washroom? Girls used that excuse all the time. Tess looked like somebody jonesing for her next hit—probably a smoke, although he didn’t know her well, so it could be something harder. The thought disappointed him. A smart girl like she seemed yet risking that potential over an addiction.

  Kade could tell her all about how much there was to lose. He had hit rock bottom and was only now slowly climbing up with determination to reach his previous perch. He had a few months left t
o accomplish what he wanted, and nobody would be paying attention to his skyrocketing grades by the time they flew back up.

  “Where’s your chemistry textbook?” Kade asked.

  Mr. Williams looked over to him.

  “I don’t have one. The academic counsellor said I could pick it up from the library at the end of the day,” Tess answered. “She said they wouldn’t keep them in the classrooms this late into the semester.”

  “You will need it for the homework tonight,” Mr. William said.

  “Let me show Tess where the library is and we’ll be back before the test is over,” Kade offered, figuring Tess was still figuring out where everything was in the school. He could also ensure she didn’t get into trouble with whatever she was really trying to do. It might be only one cigarette, but he cared enough to try. And if he found a pack of them on her, he’d convince her to toss them in the trash.

  His friends had yanked his socks up last semester. This would just be passing on the favour.

  “Okay,” Mr. Williams allowed. “No side trips. No lockers. No smoker’s corner.”

  Yeah, their teacher must have caught all of Tess’s nervous energy as well and interpreted it as the same cause as Kade had.

  Tess hopped off her stool, bending right over to pick up her backpack.

  Mr. Williams had turned back already to return to the front desk, but Kade was given another close-up eyeful of the cutest shorts. He groaned.

  “Hey, kitty, your tail’s showing,” Rob whispered from the desk just beside Tess. She had already started straightening back up when Rob reached over and grabbed a loose thread from her ragged hem, yanking it.

  She tried to rival Cara for a high-pitched response. It was a squeak of surprised, followed up the quick retrieval of her abandoned pencil from her desk to stake it down through Rob’s test.

  This time Rob was the one to scream. “You almost stabbed my hand.”

  She hadn’t come that close, punching the lead tip of her pencil through the top of his test and through to the answer sheet he had half underneath it, but it had gotten Rob’s attention off her ass, as Kade was sure Tess intended.

  “What is going on here?” Mr. Williams asked, voice rising with the rest of them.

  “Fight, fight!” some of the class started chanting.

  “Is Rob going to hit a girl?”

  “Bet she likes it rough.”

  “How about from behind?” Rob said, feeding his ego with the inane comments from the peanut gallery around him. He whispered to keep it from their teacher. “She keeps bending-”

  Kade grabbed Tess by the shoulders and pulled her back, then he stepped in front of her, slamming both of his hands down on Rob’s desk.

  “Keep your eyes on your test, dumbass. Tess is only going to give you one right answer since you broke her pencil,” Kade said. He picked up one of the three pencils Rob had sitting at the side of his desk and broke it in half, then the next, then-

  “Kade. Tess. To the principal's office right now,” Mr. Williams ordered.

  Rob swallowed thickly, eyeing the last unbroken pencil in Kade’s hands.

  “See you later, Peter pecker,” Kade said and snapped the last pencil, letting the remnants drop to the desk.

  Kade turned around to see Tess standing there and staring at the broken pencils with something like horror on her face. She was stiff as the over-starched shirts his mom used to make him wear to church and looked just as uncomfortable. He was pretty sure that the last thirty seconds had convinced her he was as crazy and violent as the guy she’d seen in a white jacket at the hospital.

  “I’ll get your bag,” Kade said, not ready for her to even try bending over again.

  Tess didn’t say anything in response, turning on her heel and marching out of the classroom, head held high.

  The troublesome kilt marked her exit with a little swing each step.

  This semester was definitely looking more interesting, as long as Kade survived it.

  Chapter 4

  Tess

  TESS HAD MADE A SCENE.

  It was the first at school. She had never been sent to the principal’s office in her life. A few times, she had been called in because of something that happened at home, but that was different than doing something herself to earn the humiliating trip.

  It didn’t matter that she was technically an adult now. As long as she wore this ridiculous uniform, they would treat her like the rest of the students here.

  “Well, Pumpkin, I would say your first class was a smashing success,” Kade called from behind her as he tried to catch up to her furious pace.

  Smashing Pumpkins? Her brain latched onto the wordplay, starved of the caffeine it needed to focus on the anger she should still be expressing over her current situation.

  Instead, she snorted a laugh.

  “Take your bag. Unicorns don’t suit me,” Kade said.

  There were no unicorns on her bag. How old did he think she was, eight?

  “It’s plum coloured,” she said. “Honestly, I would expect someone that sees the inside of a salon as much as you to maintain that blue edge would recognize your purples better. Unicorns are violet, along with a few other rainbow shades.”

  “The keys have a unicorn horn on them,” Kade said and handed her back her backpack.

  She turned it around and saw he was right. The house keys that Ashley had given her had a little unicorn horn fob on them. She hadn’t even paid attention.

  “That’s not mine,” Tess protested.

  “Well, I don’t need any tiny, spiral phallus symbols on my keys, so you can have them back,” Kade said. “If Rob tries grabbing your butt again, bite the unicorn horn and tell him to keep his pecker in his pants.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Kade laughed. “For breaking peter’s pecker?” he guessed.

  “For getting yourself in trouble over your unwanted partner,” she said. “I’ve never had anyone stand up for me like that. You’re starting to make rescuing me a habit. I—I should have thanked you for the first time, at the hospital.”

  Kade seemed to stand taller beside her. She had noticed he slouched over a bit in the classroom, looking dark and unapproachable when she first entered the chemistry room. Walking beside him now, she remembered how tall he was compared to her.

  “I don’t think getting us both in trouble with the principal is something you should be thanking me for, Pumpkin.”

  “I thought we agreed to call me something outside the squash family?”

  Kade turned the corner, seeming to think about it. He looked over at her, eyes dropping to her lips. “I could just kiss you every day—for research purposes, of course—and determine which flavour of nickname to call you for the day?” he proposed.

  Her heart skipped a few beats.

  Kade laughed. “Just kidding, Pumpkin. I’m kinda stuck on your spicy first taste anyway. Thought about it the whole time Doc Mike was counselling me, sipping on some Starbucks. Is that PSL any good?”

  Her brain heard him—her brain heard everything and processed a million things all at once, all the time—but her eyes were on his lips and not because they were forming words. Nope, she was imagining what a real kiss would feel like instead of the indirect kiss Kade had given her at the hospital.

  Kade frowned and stopped walking.

  “Uh?” Tess said, tripping over her own feet as she belatedly tried to halt as well. He caught her, hands grabbing under her arms and hauling her upright, and closer, much closer.

  “Tripping over your tongue or your feet?” Kade said, a little smirk on his lips.

  Had he been wearing a lip ring at the hospital? She couldn’t remember, although he had on all the ear cuffs and piercings on both his earlobes and a paired double ring on his right eyebrow.

  She never dated anyone with piercings before, wondering what it would feel like to lick his ear over a piercing. Would it be more sensitive? She only had one stud in each lobe, traditionally place, and done
when she was too young to remember the pain.

  “Tess? Are you okay?” Kade said. “Did you really bite your tongue when you tripped?” he asked, sounding guilty. “I’m sorry, I distracted you. I wouldn’t do it, you know?”

  “What?” Tess said, blinking. She needed to focus on the guy in front of her, not that fantasy. And she really, really needed coffee. It has been three days since her last decent cup. This was not a record to brag about.

  “I wouldn’t kiss you, not unless...” Kade paused. He looked a little flustered, with a tint of warmth to his cheeks, and then his eyes met hers and there was no mistaking the seductive look he gave her.

  “Not without my permission?” Tess finished for him.

  “Something like that,” Kade agreed. He straightened her up and gave her some breathing space. She needed it.

  “Are you flirting with me?” she asked once she had her feet under her again.

  “Is that okay?” Kade asked.

  “Now is not a good time for me to be... I’m not myself,” Tess said, internally groaning. Could she screw this up more? “I mean yes, no—flirting is nice.”

  Kade’s eyebrows went up.

  “Confused much?” She said with a laugh. “I’m trying to sort things out myself,” she added.

  “Well, I’ll flirt unless you slap me. Even I can’t mistake that signal.”

  “Okay, it’s a deal.”

  Kade smiled. “I didn’t even know you were going to come to our school when we ran into each other at the psych. Not my usual girl meeting place.”

  “Yeah, about that, I’ve got some other stuff on my mind,” Tess said, lowering her gaze to her shoes.

  Now she could add her first trip to the principal’s office for acting out to her list of too much stuff going on. Maybe she could ask Kade how this kind of thing worked. Not to be too judgy, but he did look like the kind of guy that had ended up in trouble a time or two, especially with the way he had handled that guy grabbing at her butt.