He presses his lips together as he watches me. “Fine,” he groans before sliding the cigarette back into the packet and tucking it into his pocket. “But for the record,” he says as we continue walking behind Jesse. “I can read your body like a map, so I know you enjoy kissing me no matter what I taste like.”
I force myself not to grin as I look up at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He rolls his eyes as a smirk takes over his handsome face. “Liar.”
“Would you two quit trying to make babies and hurry up?” Jesse calls. “I want to fuck shit up.”
“What’s he talking about?” I ask.
“You’ll see,” he tells me.
We take off after Jesse and the boys manage to somehow get me over the gate before we find Maxen waiting around the corner. We all pile in and the music is turned right up.
Jesse is giddy and excited and can hardly sit still while Nate looks as cool as a cucumber. Maxen pulls up at the party ten minutes later and kills the engine before turning around to look at me. “You should know,” he says. “Everyone is talking about what happened today.”
I nod my head as Nate watches me with concern etched all over his face. “I had figured as much,” I tell them, letting them know I’m good.
“Alright,” Jesse says. “Then let’s get this party started.”
Chapter 22
We walk through the door of the party and I instantly look around. I haven’t been here before and I’m completely lost, though, Nate takes my hand and leads me through the house as easy as if it were his own.
As usual, the second people realize that the Ryder brothers are here, drinks are thrust into their hands and people are swarming from everywhere to say hello. Girls begin throwing themselves at Jesse while others narrow their eyes on me, wondering what makes me so special to have stolen Nate’s attention.
The crowd seems to part for them as they make their way through the house which I’m thankful for as I search out a familiar face.
“Is Brooke here?” I call out to Maxen who walks in front of us.
“Yeah,” he says. “She was with Bec and Courtney when I left.”
“Thanks,” I say as I release Nate’s hand and go to search them out, only he latches onto my elbow and pulls me back into him.
“You’re not going anywhere. They can come to you,” he tells me. “My dad was right. If Josh is here, he might want to finish what he started and I’m not about to let that happen, so you’re not leaving my side the whole night.”
“Seriously?” I question. “I’ll only be gone for two seconds.”
He scoffs at me. “I’m sure that’s what you said right before Josh attacked you.”
I narrow my eyes on him and cross my arms over my chest, seeing that he means every last word. “So, I’m your prisoner tonight?”
A smirk rips across his lips as he pulls me in and brings his lips down into my neck. “I didn’t know you were into roleplay, but I’m sure Jesse has some handcuffs somewhere.”
“Ugh,” I groan as I push him back. “You’re such an idiot.”
“You love it,” he laughs before a serious look crosses his face. “Just, please. Ok? Don’t go anywhere.”
I watch him for a moment and the look in his eyes has me melting. “Fine,” I groan.
A beautiful smile takes over his lips and I can’t resist pushing up onto my tippy toes to kiss it. As he pulls away, he looks over the top of my head at Maxen. “Can you find the girls?”
Max nods and a moment later, he takes off.
“Come on,” Jesse says as he takes my hand and drags me towards the drinks table. “It’s time to get fucked up.”
“I don’t want to get fucked up,” I laugh.
“Tough shit,” he says. “You’re going to want a drink in your hand to celebrate what I’ve got planned for tonight.”
My eyes narrow on his. “What are you going to do?”
“Tsk, tsk,” he says, holding up a finger. “I’m not about to ruin the surprise.”
I roll my eyes and go with it. I pour myself an orange juice with vodka and lemonade and put a tiny little straw inside my cup before making my way back over to Nate.
Some girl is busily trying to throw herself at him while he studiously ignores her and watches me. I laugh at the sight and practically bowl her out of the way as I come up next to him. The girl huffs and walks away before finding one of the guys on the football team to rub herself against.
Nate puts his arm around me and gets lost in a conversation with Parker when Brooke, Courtney, and Bec show up. They squeal as they see me and I dash forward. Brooke instantly throws her arms around me and pulls me in tight. “Are you ok?” she questions as she sways me from side to side.
“I’m fine,” I tell her.
“Everyone’s talking about it,” she warns me. “There are so many different versions of the story going around and a few of them aren’t very nice.”
“I bet,” I say. “The truth will come out sooner or later. Everyone will see what kind of guy Josh really is, and if they don’t, I’m sure Nate and Jess will beat the crap out of them until they do.”
“Oh, geez,” she laughs. “What I wouldn’t do to have my own Nate and Jess.” I roll my eyes but the two of us can’t help but look back at the boys to find both their eyes on us. “It must be intense being their special little girl,” she murmurs.
“Don’t get me wrong,” I grin. “It certainly has its advantages.”
“You’re such a whore,” she laughs.
I can’t help but laugh as well as we fall down into some chairs and get lost in our conversation. As the party goes on, Jesse keeps me well hydrated with Vodka and soon enough, all the boys spot someone across the room.
Jesse rubs his hands together with a grin and looks to me. “It’s show time.”
“Huh?” I grunt as Nate pulls me to my feet. “What are you talking about?”
Jesse indicates across the room with a nod of his head and I turn to search out whatever he’s looking for. Elle stands around a bunch of cheerleaders and my brows pull down in confusion. “What do you want with Elle? She backed off.”
“She may have backed off,” Nate says. “But it was her who put the idea in Josh’s head. She’s just as guilty as he is and needs to be punished.”
“But…. What are you going to do?” I question as we start making our way over there.
Jesse grins back at me and the excitement he’s been holding on to all night is right at the forefront and he looks as though he could explode. “I’ve got a secret to spill.”
“Oh, shit,” Brooke laughs as the curiosity hits me like a freight train. “Is this the secret?”
“Sure is,” he laughs.
I find myself hurrying up, desperate to not miss a single word. I feel kind of bad for Elle. She doesn’t know what‘s coming her way. After all, she backed off, but the boys are right, she gave Josh the idea and it’s because of that I was assaulted. She needs to pay for what she’s done. And I mean, what kind of harm could one secret really do?
As we get closer and the group of cheerleaders become our obvious target, people start crowding around. Elle’s back is turned on us and her best friend, Phoenix, points us out. She turns around and grins with delight as she watches us approach, but that grin quickly disappears when she sees the twisted excitement on Jesse’s face.
Her head starts shaking and she goes to back up but there are too many people behind her. She has nowhere to go. “No,” she says to Jesse as we reach her. Her eyes flick to me before finding Nate’s and then going back to Jesse. “I stopped. I didn’t do it.”
“I warned you,” he tells her. “I thought I made it pretty damn clear that if something were to happen to Tora, that I was coming after you.”
She shakes her head again. “But… I didn’t do it. I told him to stop,” she says with wide eyes as Nate’s hand finds the small of my back. “Jesse, please. You’ll ruin me.”
Jesse
’s eyes darken as he steps forward into her. “It will ruin you the same way it would have ruined Tora had he raped her?”
Her eyes flick back to me. “He didn’t though.”
“No, he didn’t because she got away. It was his intention though, and that’s because you put the idea in his head.” She continues shaking her head and looking around for some kind of way out of this. “You need to pay for what you’ve done,” Jesse tells her.
Her face goes ghostly white as she looks around at her friends. “What’s going on, Elle?” Phoenix asks her with narrowed eyes.
“Nothing. Nothing,” she says, frantic.
Phoenix turns on Jesse and raises her head to him. “What’s this all about?” she questions.
Jesse grins down at her and winks, making her cheeks flush and I laugh knowing how easily these guys can play these girls. “Your head cheerleader messed with one of ours, and now we’re going to mess with her,” Jesse explains.
“And how do you plan do doing that?” she says, acting as though her group of cheer skanks are untouchable.
“Oh, I’m not going to do anything,” he tells her. “You are.”
“What?” she grunts.
“All of you are,” he says. “Every single one of you is going to turn your backs on her.”
“I don’t think so,” she scoffs.
“But I do,” he says. “You see, it’s just how things work around here. You’ll turn your backs the second you find out that Parker fucked her.”
Elle gasps and looks as though she’s about to be sick while Phoenix’s eyebrows pull down. “What’s wrong with that? Half the girls on the team have already screwed Parker.”
Jesse grins and looks across to Elle before turning back to Phoenix with a wicked excitement. I see it in his eyes, this is Jesse Ryder going in for the kill. “But did they do it while Tyson was already buried balls deep in her ass?”
Holy shit.
Both Brooke and I gasp at the same time as the cheerleaders. Nate laughs while Jesse looks proud as fuck. Max double’s over, trying to control himself as Parker and Tyson high five over the top of him.
Elle looks as though her whole world has come apart, especially when all the other cheerleaders gape at her. Jesse watches her through calculated eyes. “Like I said, Elle. You mess with one of us and we will mess with you.” He then turns to Phoenix. “Let that be a lesson,” he warns.
She nods her head in understanding and with that, we turn and walk away.
As we leave, I can’t help but look back over my shoulder and watch how the cheerleaders turn on Elle, just as Jesse had predicted. Elle walks away with her head down and tears in her eyes as the cheerleaders look to Phoenix. And just like that, Broken Hill High has a new head cheerleader.
“That was incredible,” Brooke laughs. “Though you know as soon as she gets over this, she’s coming for you. She’s going to blame this all on you.”
“I know,” I sigh. “Let her. I’ll be ready. Though, I feel kind of bad for her,” I admit.
Jesse turns around and looks down at my empty drink. “That just means you haven’t drunk enough of those,” he tells me before he steals my cup and thrusts it towards some awkward bystander and demands he refills it. Naturally, the guy scurries away and barges through the line, desperate to get the cup filled in record time.
Jesse’s excitement is contagious, especially when he climbs up onto the table and screams out for the real party to get started. The music is turned up, drinks are passed around, and bodies begin grinding.
I stay by Nate’s side the whole night and at four in the morning both he and Jesse are laughing as they try to haul me back up onto the roof of their house. We creep along the tiles while I try my best not to fall and finally get back to Jesse’s window. Though I must say, I feel a lot braver doing this with alcohol going through my veins than I did when we were leaving.
Jesse slides the window open, gives us a cheesy salute, and literally dives through before landing with a thud on the other side. I slap a hand over my mouth to stop the giggling and watch as Jesse groans and gets to his feet.
He returns to help me through the window and I scurry out of his room as he walks to the bathroom while pulling his junk out of his pants. The next thing I hear is the sound of him peeing and groaning in relief while I hurry down the hall.
I get into my room and pull off my jacket and boots and when I turn around, Nate is right there, crashing into me.
A desperate need is slammed through us as his lips come down hard on mine. We scramble to get one another undressed. I pull his shirt over his head before flinging it across the room. It crashes into a photo frame on the wall and the frame tumbles down to the ground. I work on his belt as he grows tired of the buttons on my shirt and just tears them open.
His pants go and I wrap my fingers around him as my own get pulled down my legs. He grabs a condom and instantly slides it on before lifting me and walking us over to the bed.
He falls back onto the bed with me in his arms and a moment later, I lower myself down on top of him before riding him all night long.
When the sun finally peeks in through the window, we both crash down into the pillows and I fall into a deep sleep in the arms of the man who I’m quickly falling in love with.
Chapter 23
The sound of my phone blaring to life has me bolting upright in bed. What the hell? My head aches and I know instantly that I probably shouldn’t have drunk quite so much last night. I reach over Nate and grab my phone off the bedside table and find a text from Brooke.
Brooke – MAX ASKED ME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!
A grin rips across my face as I pull the sheet more firmly up under my arms.
Tora – Holy crap!! Wow! Congratulations!!!!
Brooke – I know! I can hardly believe it. Where’d you stay last night?
Tora – I’m at Nate’s. We’re all still in bed. Come over later and tell me all about it.
Brooke – You’re on!!!! Can’t wait!
I throw my phone back down beside me and squish myself into Nate’s side. His arms come around me before they start trailing up and down my back. I smile into my pillow, loving the feel of his skin on mine. My eyes close and I relax into him, but he has other plans for our morning.
Within the blink of an eye, he grabs my waist and roll us until I lay on top of his chest. “Stop it,” I laugh before a yawn is ripped out of me.
“Geez,” he laughs. “You’re really not a morning person.”
“I am,” I argue. “I just didn’t get enough sleep because some idiot kept me up all night.”
“Hey,” he defends. “That was all you, babe. I was just along for the ride.”
I can’t help but grin as I nuzzle my face into his strong chest. He’s right, I screwed him until I physically couldn’t screw anymore. It was great, though I’m a bit sore now.
He runs his fingers up and down the length of my back and I close my eyes as I listen to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. “You know,” I murmur into the quiet room. “You called me your girl yesterday… twice.”
“Aren’t you?” he questions. “If you were any other girl, I’d deny it, but not with you. No matter how much you hate it, you’re my girl and you’re just going to have to get used to it. No refunds or exchanges.”
I sit up and look down at him as his hands come to a stop on my waist. “Are you sure?”
He doesn’t reply just keeps watching me until he rolls us back over and hovers above me. My legs wrap around him as he props himself up on his elbows and looks down at me. “It’s about time I let you in on the secret,” he tells me.
“What do you mean?” I ask as I search his dark, dreamy eyes.
“I don’t know if you remember it, but when we were twelve, you came over here with your parents and it was a really hot day so we were swimming,” he says with a cringe.
The memory hits me like a lightning bolt. That was the day it all started. “I remember,” I tell him. “That was the day
you first said you hated me.”
He nods and hangs his head as he takes a deep breath. “Yeah,” he says, full of regret. “Do you remember what happened before that?”
I think back but come up with nothing. All I remember was running around the pool with the boys, having a great time and then all of a sudden, things changed. I shake my head as my hands roam up his arms.
Nate lets out another breath before looking back at me. “We were playing some stupid game in the pool and you’d stopped to get a drink. I came over and you smiled at me and it blew me away. I’d had a crush on you all summer and I thought maybe you were liking me the same way, but instead, you wanted to tell me how my best friend Simon had asked you on a date to the movies. That was my first heartbreak,” he tells me.
I gasp as I search his eyes and hold onto him a little tighter. “I didn’t know,” I tell him as my eyes pool with tears.
“I know,” he says as he wipes the tears away. “I was angry at you and I wanted to hurt you like you’d hurt me. So, I was mean, I told you nasty things and you went home crying. You didn’t talk to me for days.”
“Then you went on your date with Simon and I hated it. It made me furious and I didn’t know how to handle it. I was a dick to Simon and I refused to be his friend, which is why I lost my shit when you tried to use Parker against me,” he explains. “I was a dick to you. Every single day, I would do something to hurt you and eventually, you started to hate me.”
“I did,” I whisper.
“I know,” he says. “I hated that you hated me but it made me feel better. I never got over you and eventually, you refused to talk to me at all. Once I got over the hurt, I’d realized that I’d fucked up and lost you as a friend, but you were done with me. There wasn’t anything I could do that would have made what I did alright.”
I watch him, unsure of how to feel or what to say. “I-”
“No,” he says, cutting me off. “There’s so much more. You need to hear it all.”
I nod my head and wait as he takes another slow breath. “By the time we were thirteen, I missed you so bad. I hated that you weren’t in my life anymore and I was still so caught up on you that Jesse had worked it out,” he says. “I needed to be around you but I’d already done such atrocious things that I didn’t stand a chance at making it up to you. So, I became a twisted version of a bully.”
Broken Hill High: The Broken Hill High Series (Book 1) Page 20