His hand lands on my leg and he shoots me a crooked smirk. “Don’t be like that.”
“Like what, dude?” I keep quiet, but an irritation edges into my tone. His fingers tease the bottom of my dress and I smack his knuckles. “Knock it off.”
“I’ve been thinking. We should try again.” He tips his chin down—what is that, puppy eyes? “I don’t think you gave me a solid chance. We only got to go on one date before you broke it off. I can’t get you out of my head.”
“That sounds like a you problem. Sorry, but I’m not interested in anything more than friendship with you.”
“What’s wrong, baby?” Sam’s voice gets harder and he leans in to mutter in my ear so no one but me can hear. “You need a party atmosphere and an audience? Aren’t there enough people in here to put you in the mood?”
Stiffening, I realize he means Jenna’s party. I can’t believe I thought this guy was nice.
Annoyance slides right into rising anger. “You weren’t there. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He scoffs, twirling a piece of my hair. “All I need are the rumors. You pretend to be all innocent, but we both know you’re not. Otherwise you wouldn’t have had ‘easy’ spray painted on your locker. Quit playing hard to get because it’s not cute anymore.”
Now I’m really pissed off. “Sorry, Sam. That’s not how I let my friends talk to me. We’re done.”
Slamming my hands down on the armrests, I get up and stalk out of the theater. He follows and it makes me grit my teeth. I’m vaguely aware of the rest of my friends—my real ones—trailing after us. They’ve got my back.
“Maisy, wait—” Sam puts his hand on my arm, but he’s interrupted when someone grabs him.
“I don’t think so. That’s enough,” Devlin bites out in a dangerous undertone, reminding me why he and Connor had full control of our school when they were seniors last year.
Connor closes in on Sam’s other side. He has a terrifying gleam in his gray eyes that matches Devlin’s. Blair and Thea come to my side, Thea taking my hand and squeezing while Blair levels Sam with a cool stare.
“Uh, hey,” Sam says, losing some of his confidence. “I don’t think we’ve met, I’m Sam. Maisy’s boyfriend. If I’d known we were doing a group thing tonight, I’d have been here earlier.”
Connor snorts, but there’s nothing amused about it. “Yeah, no. I was watching the whole time. You ain’t shit, touching her when she said not to. That isn’t gonna fly, is it Dev?”
“Fuck no.”
Despite what led to this, I’m fighting back a grateful smile. These guys treat me like I’m family. Like I’m someone they want to protect. This is what family does for each other, what my real one used to feel like before everything changed.
“Thanks for the backup, guys,” I say, stepping forward to stand in front of Sam. “Listen, dude. You and I aren’t happening. I don’t know how much clearer I can be.”
He clenches his teeth, nostrils flaring. “You’re taking this slut’s side? She’s just a cock tease.”
“Yo,” Blair snaps.
“Slut shaming, wow,” I deadpan, blinking slowly. “Cool. So hurtful.”
His words don’t sting at all, but now I’m glad I broke up with him. I knew I didn’t like his vibe.
“Only a coward tries to tear a woman down with derogatory terms,” Thea says.
“Just calling it how it is. She can fuck around at a party, but acts too good for it from her boyfriend.”
Connor whistles low. “Look at that attitude. Don’t you know who we are?” Sam jerks against Devlin’s tight grip and Connor grins. “Girls? Meet us down at the bakery.”
Thea takes my hand again and pulls me away.
I rake my fingers through my hair. “I don’t need you to fight battles for me. He’s not worth wasting your time on. I can do it myself.”
Devlin glances at me. “We won’t break him, but there’s no avoiding this lesson. Want the first punch?”
Sighing, I shake my head. There’s no saving Sam from his fate after he was such a dick. My gaze meets his.
“We’re done, got it? There’s nothing between us. No feelings, no friendship.” I put my hands on my hips. “And definitely no fucking. I don’t sleep with anyone who tries to use a woman’s sexuality against her.”
A deep laugh leaves Devlin as he and Connor drag a struggling Sam around the corner into an alley. The girls come to my side again.
“Are you okay?” Thea asks.
“Yeah. He’s just an asshole. I thought he was nice, but… Guess not.”
“The nice ones are always surprise douchebags because they hide it to get their reward,” Blair says. “At least when they’re a bastard up front, you know what you’re getting.”
“Right. And he had my parents so into him.”
“They should’ve dated him then,” Thea says.
We start to walk toward her bakery a few blocks away and I tip my head back to peer at the night sky. The early summer air is warm.
“So,” Thea says, pulling out the sound. “Everything’s fine at school?”
With a wry smile, I squeeze her hand. “Yes, Mom. The rumor mill is always looking for something juicy to tear someone else down, but it doesn’t mean anything. You know that. People like Sam can be shocked I hooked up at a party, but that was my choice.”
“Who with?” Thea leans close. “You didn’t tell me this.”
The growl of a motorcycle coasts down the street and I almost laugh. Impeccable timing. Fox drives by and it’s like my whole body feels it when he turns his head our way. The helmet is blacked out, but I feel the sweep of his gaze.
“I hooked up with Fox.” My heart is in my throat. More than once, but I don’t add that. “Fox Wilder.”
“What?” Thea gasps. “Oh my god. For real?”
“Yes.” The memories flicker through my mind. The rich scent of leather, woods, and the tang of oil. The peek of his tattoos. His hands on me, rough and demanding, familiar and new. “It just sort of happened.”
“Called it,” Blair murmurs. “That dude is always looking at you like you belong to him and him alone.”
“Hah, right. He still has a grudge against me.”
Blair smirks secretively. “Hate sex is a wonderful thing.”
I swallow. She’s not wrong.
“It won’t happen again,” I say, staring down the street as his bike turns the corner.
Not until I fight my way through his misplaced anger.
It figures the first detention Fox shows up for is the final one of our sentencing for fighting in class. The teacher said nothing when he followed me into the room after the final bell, hooking my curiosity. The faculty never challenge him. They let him get away with everything.
The thoughts are short lived when Fox takes the chair next to me, surrounding me with his distracting masculine scent.
All week I’ve sat alone for detention, but now I can’t escape his gaze as it locks on me. He watches me, tracking every move of my hand as I write out an essay explaining the school policy. He doesn’t do the essay and the teacher isn’t paying attention to us.
We don’t speak, but it feels like he’s saying a lot with the way he’s focused on me. If he thinks it scares me, he’s wrong. I’m done letting him intimidate me. Raising my head from my essay, I lift a brow. The corner of his mouth kicks up into an arrogant smirk.
“Such a good girl,” he rasps, leaning into my space. “Perfect little daisy.”
He can call me whatever he wants. I refuse to let his jabs hurt anymore. At first they were a shock, but they’ve lost their power over me once I decided I was stronger than he thought. I’m not a crybaby—never was. Unaffected, I turn back to my task and pretend he’s not even there.
But he doesn’t like me ignoring him. Bullies always get frustrated when their efforts are wasted. It’s how to best them. I can feel his restlessness as he shifts in the seat next to mine, brooding gaze boring holes in the side o
f my head.
Which is it, I want to ask. Cold shoulder or not. He can’t have it both ways.
Without warning, he snatches my wrist, making my pen drag across the essay. I turn a scowl on him, then freeze. His attention is zeroed in on my bracelet, tracing the braided aged leather and poking the stones woven into it. The stones he found for me on the beach.
My breath stutters out of me. “What are you doing?”
This time it’s his turn to ignore me. His thumb slides beneath the bracelet, tugging the material taut. My heart clenches and fear tears through me, worried he wants to take it from me or break it.
“Don’t!”
Slowly, those volatile dark blue eyes lift to me and his mouth tilts into a heartless smile. “Chill. You can keep your stupid rocks.”
“You don’t scare me anymore,” I whisper, cradling my bracelet safely out of his reach. “No matter what rumors you spread, or what nasty pranks you pull, or the degrading names you spray paint on my locker.”
Fox huffs sardonically. “That’s what you think.”
Going back to the essay, I don’t take my attention off the notebook in front of me. “Shaking in my boots.”
“You will be when I’m through with you.”
I turn to him and smile sweetly. “Does it involve cornering me in a bathroom again?” I bite my lip. “I don’t know, that turned out pretty good for me.”
His jaw clenches, accentuating how sharply chiseled his features are while his gaze drags down my body, lingering on my lips when it travels back up. “Tch. What is it about looking danger in the face that gets you so hot?”
“Must be those handsome eyes of yours,” I sass.
He swipes his fingers over his mouth and I hide a smirk. Some of the teasing nature leaves him as he leans closer, the harsh threat clear in his tone when he murmurs, “Watch it, or the next time you’re alone in the dark in your yoga studio, I won’t stop at a single touch.”
My lips part. Abandoning the essay, I put down my pen and turn in the chair to face him.
“So that was you. I could report you for that.”
“You don’t have shit on me that would stick. And even if you did, I’d make it go away. You might have powerful parents, Maisy, but I’m no good boy. I like to live in the shadows.” He grasps my chin and angles my face up. “I’ll do anything to get what I want.”
I swallow, steeling myself to keep from shying away from the ice in his dark blue eyes. Hearing him say my name in that cold, detached way drives a spike into my heart, leaving me bleeding out all over him and the table. I thought we were making some progress, but the banter from a minute ago has disappeared.
Leaning closer, Fox’s voice drops lower with a chilling promise. “Or maybe you should be more careful of the roads you take.” His mouth curves without a trace of humor. “You wouldn’t want to get in an accident. You could get hurt…or worse.”
“Are you threatening me to scare me?” I hiss, my eyes widening.
He squeezes my chin harder, bringing his face inches from mine. A tiny inkling of fear skates down my spine, followed by a spark of excitement. My body has its wires crossed.
“If you got in an accident, you could lose everything. The good grades, your perfect life, your future. How would that feel, to have that ripped away?”
My heart beats wildly as he pulls away. For several minutes I sit there trying to get my breathing under control. The danger in his gaze is burned into my brain. I feel his stare as I gather my composure.
I still don’t know why he hates me so much. I have to find out before he crosses a line he can’t come back from. So far his bullying and lashing out at me have been tough, but a storm I’ve weathered.
My mind shies away from the thought of him actually hurting me. That’s not the Fox I know. No matter what people say about him, I don’t believe he’d do it.
“All right. You’re free to go,” the teacher finally announces.
After I gather my things, he pauses in the door before he lets us leave. “I’ll expect the behavior of model Silver Lake students from now on. Especially from you, Miss Landry.”
I ball my fists against the unfair bias. “Yes, sir.”
“I mean it. This is not the kind of thing we expect from you, like we do—” He glances at Fox warily. “Anyway, don’t allow your personal differences to bleed into your time here on campus.”
Fox huffs behind me, the strong lines of his chest practically pressed against my back. If he takes another step forward, we’ll be touching.
Once the teacher moves out of the way, I hurry past. Fox passes me with a grunt, striding ahead with his phone pressed to his ear. Suspicious of who he’s always talking to, I try to stay close to listen, but I can’t keep up and he easily loses me.
On my way out, I remember that I don’t have a ride home. I take out my phone and text Thea.
Maisy: Can you give me a ride? Detention just ended, but Holden has the car today.
Thea: Sorry, babe! We’re both busy.
When I try the others, they’re also unavailable.
“Crap,” I mumble, glancing up from my phone when I reach the parking lot.
Fox straddles his bike, helmet in his hands. He cuts his gaze to me, then looks away. He’s going to strand me here, too.
As I turn to head back up the steps to the school, his voice stops me.
“Get on,” he growls.
“What?”
He can’t be serious. The whiplash is killing me. One minute he’s threatening me, the next he’s barking commands at me.
“Too scared, crybaby?”
The corners of my mouth turn down. “Like hell I am.”
Not when he tries his best to intimidate me, not in the yoga studio, and not now.
Fox narrows his stormy blue gaze and holds out the helmet. “Get on the bike.”
His voice brooks no argument, demanding I do as he says. To get on his motorcycle with the one person in this world who claims he hates me. I breathe out slowly and rub my lips together in consideration.
I will not be afraid of Fox Wilder.
Mind made up, I close the distance between us and accept the helmet. He stares at me for a moment once I have it on, eyes drifting down to my skirt. A throb of heat pulses between my legs. Is he remembering my secret little rebellion?
He tears his attention away while I swing a leg over the rumbling bike behind him. It’s more powerful than I imagined, vibrating through my legs and making a gasp rush out of me. I think he laughs, but I’m too busy thinking about where I have to put my hands.
Fox angles his head, giving me another challenging look over his shoulders. So today is one of the days he’s fine with touching? Fine. I’m not backing down. He should really get that by now. Setting my jaw, I wrap my arms tight around his waist, our bodies melded together from hip to shoulder.
It feels…right. Like that warped piece I’ve been missing finally found a new way to fit us together.
“When you get wet from this, try not to get it all over the leather,” he drawls in a sultry tone.
“I’m wearing underwear today, you ass.”
A little scream leaves me as he revs the engine and takes off like a shot. I hold on tighter, riding the buzzing thrill that zings through me. The longer we drive, the more I drop my guard, enjoying the ride.
It’s exhilarating, calling to my adventurous heart. I want to reach out and coast my hand along the sharp waves the wind creates as the bike moves fast around the bends in the road, but that would mean taking my hands off Fox.
Instead of taking the road that would lead to my house faster, he takes the side of a fork that heads higher into the mountains. I release an excited yell into the sky and feel his shoulders shake with amusement.
I’m struck by the urge to tell him about the road trip I want to take, even though he was a dick in detention. He’s the one who gave me the idea in the first place, back when our families took a vacation to California together. He and I found
a roadmap and plotted out the way from Colorado to the coast, coming up with all these plans for how we were going to go on adventures when we were older. We were going to do it together.
Other than Thea, he’s the only one who might understand why it’s important to me.
The memories of our friendship always outweigh his actions of the present, reminding me of what we once had. Of who he can be when he’s not hating me.
Riding on the back of his motorcycle, I press a smile into his leather jacket and wish it could be like this always.
This is how we’re supposed to be. Just like this. Free and untethered, an open road ahead of us.
The exhilaration of being on the motorcycle clinging to Fox ends abruptly once he pulls up to my house. A line of tension stiffens his back as I step off and I freeze when I find Dad and Holden watching from the front step beneath the arched stone portico.
Dad’s expression shifts from surprise to something I don’t understand when he looks from me to Fox.
“Thanks for not leaving me stranded,” I say, handing the helmet back.
Fox doesn’t answer, just studies me for a beat before revving the motorcycle and speeding off.
I don’t make it in the front door before my brother and father are in front of me.
“What were you doing with him?” Dad demands.
He’s always been overprotective, it’s why he often goes along with Mom’s strict parental decisions, but he doesn’t raise his voice like that to me. Between the two of them, Dad’s remained more himself than Mom, but the weird edge in his voice has my steps faltering.
“We had detention. Remember?” I make to move past them, but they both plant themselves in front of me. “He just gave me a ride home. I didn’t think you were here.” Lifting my brows, I glance between them. “Um, can I go inside now? Seriously, you’re giving me double vision with this whole ‘grr men of the house’ vibe.”
“Don’t give me the attitude, young lady,” Dad grumbles.
“My maiden virtue is perfectly intact.” I make a show of bowing. Holden coughs to cover a snort while Dad’s graying brows flatten. “Chill, guys. It was just a ride.”
Savage Wilder: Dark New Adult High School Bully Romance (Sinners and Saints Book 4) Page 10