“Marnye, that’s enough.”
My lips purse and I set my fork down, leaning back in my chair with my arms crossed over my chest.
“I’d like to never see her again, to be honest with you. I’ll be declining her summer invitation. Unless her invitation means I’d get to meet my sister, then I’ll consider it.” The way Dad’s looking at me, I’m guessing not. “Then the answer is no. The woman’s a coward who’s denied me a relationship with the only sibling I’ll ever have.”
Charlie grimaces.
“Fine then, Marnye, don’t go. But I’m a grown man, and if I want to have a relationship with your mother—”
“Jennifer,” I correct, and he sighs.
“—Jennifer, then I will. And you don’t have to like it, but you can at least be respectful of it.”
Neither of us talks for the rest of the meal, and when I get home, I lock myself in my room and play my harp until the sun comes up.
Screw Jennifer.
She didn’t want to be my mom when I needed her, so I’m not interested in having her around now.
There’s so much tension in the house after that, I’m almost relieved when Andrew picks me up in his limo, and we head back to Burberry Prep.
I hit the ground running when I get back, diving into my studies and making sure my grades stay sharp. I also put extra effort into spending every spare moment with one of the Idol guys. Tristan … is complicated. We had a great time in Paris, and I felt like we were actually making progress, but now that we’re back on campus, he’s being standoffish and weird.
Creed and Zayd are much easier to come by, and even though I think they’re a tad shocked to see me open and forgiving, they start to grudgingly seek my company out, too. At the end of the week when I text Lizzie and tell her about Tristan, she’s strangely quiet. She gives me a few short, clipped replies, but that’s about it. Her feelings for him seem to be as strong as ever, and for some reason, that bothers me. I don’t know why, but it does, and I don’t like it.
Miranda, too, is acting a bit strange, asking me all sorts of questions about what I’m doing with the guys. She’s not dumb enough to think I’ve actually forgiven them, but to her credit, I think she may be a tad worried about what I might do to her twin. I give her the best answers I can, and hope she can forgive me when the time comes.
The following weekend, Miranda tells me that Creed’s stolen the key to the athletics center, so he can use the hot tub. Technically, it’s just for student athletes who need the heat to soak sore muscles, and its use has to be approved by the school nurse.
When I find him in there, he’s just lounging in the bubbles with his eyes closed. I say nothing, tossing my towel onto the steps, and climbing in. He hears the splash of my foot hitting the water, and groans.
“Miranda, I said you could use it later. What part of—” He stops talking as he opens his eyes and sees me there, submerged to my knees and standing on the circular bench seat. I lower myself into the heat as Creed’s lids droop to their usual half-mast status. “Well, hello there.” The guy sounds so relaxed and cavalier, like he hasn’t a care in the world. I wish my life were like that. Pretty sure his isn’t either, but at least he puts up a good front.
“You don’t mind if I join you, right?” Creed shrugs his pale shoulders, and I can’t quite keep my gaze from tracing down to the fine planes of his chest. He really has a beautiful body. “You’re not dating anyone right now, are you?”
“What would you care?” he replies smoothly, but not in a cruel way. This is just how he is, insouciant and lazy and haughty.
“Just curious if there might be some angry Blueblood girl after me for being half-naked in a hot tub with her boyfriend,” I say, and one of Creed’s brows goes up.
“Half-naked?” he says, narrowing his eyes to slits. “If you think I’m only half-naked under all of these bubbles, you’re more naïve than I thought.”
My mouth gapes as Creed smirks at me, and my eyes immediately drop down to try and catch a glimpse … Guess he decides that vague references aren’t enough, and stands up, flashing me his full, um, glory. Holy freaking crap, I think as Creed moves around the bench to sit close to me. We’re not quite touching, but it feels like it, especially knowing he’s not wearing anything at all.
“And if you get caught in here by a staff member?” I choke, trying to avoid thinking about the nice, hard length of his dick … No. No, no, no. Forcefully, I yank my mind from the gutter.
“Then I’ll stand up, flash them, and they’ll be so uncomfortable at seeing a student’s cock, they’ll let me off with a mark or two.” He’s so full of himself, it makes me want to pick. But that’s not what I’m here for. I’m trying to rebuild the relationship we had last year. “What I want to know is why you’re here, and your boyfriend isn’t.”
“Boyfriend?” I ask, and I think of Windsor a split-second before Zack. Why or how that happens, I’m not sure, but it pisses me off. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“You just kiss Zack Brooks for fun?”
“I kissed you for fun last year,” I say, and it’s the wrong subject to bring up because Creed goes immediately silent. We sit there together in the heat and the bubbles, both staring in different directions. When he looks back at me, he tucks his fingers under his chin and stares me down like he’s interrogating me.
“Why are you talking to me anyway? You said you missed me. Fine. But don’t pretend you’re over what happened.”
“I punished you,” I tell him, and he cringes. He knows I’m talking about the journal, and about the email to his mother. “We’re even now. I want to move on, Creed. Your sister is my best friend, and your mom is my sponsor, and … we had a lot of fun together, didn’t we?” He says nothing, just stares at me. “What I’m trying to figure out is when it changed for the three of you. At first, I could tell you truly hated me for who I was and what I stood for. But I think that after you made that bet and started spending time with me, things changed. Now I’m wondering if you three are pushing me away this year to protect me.”
Creed snorts, but he doesn’t respond, and I’m feeling suddenly worked up, like I’m onto something.
“That’s why you’re being standoffish and weird and mean, but it’s also why you haven’t come at me with everything you’ve got. Some part of you, even if it’s buried deep down … maybe doesn’t hate me quite so much as you want to?”
He ignores me, but I’m suddenly shaking and sweating all at once. It’s true, isn’t it? As hard of a time as I’m having feigning interest without feeling true feelings, they had the same problem last year. This fucking sucks. If my dad’s health weren’t on the line, if my career at Burberry wasn’t … would I stop the bet with Harper now? It suddenly feels like overkill. I’m almost glad there’s no way to back out of it. These boys need their lesson to come full circle.
“The girls aren’t going to stop until you’re irreparably damaged,” Creed says, sighing. He glances over at me and his lids open more than usual, exposing those gorgeous blue eyes of his. He takes me in appreciatively. “You’ve caught the attention of the Infinity Club, Marnye.” Oh god, he just called me Marnye. “Leave, and stop torturing us.”
Us.
He just said us.
“Torturing you, how?” I ask, and then Creed’s moving with lightning speed, dropping that lazy prince act for the unstoppable nightmare he is when he’s defending Miranda. He yanks me onto his lap, and I’m suddenly just straddling his hardness with my arms around his neck, his hands on my hips.
Our kiss is sudden and fierce, and it makes me forget that any time has passed since the last moment his lips were on mine. I forget the pranks and the bets and the torture, and I’m just grinding on him and kissing, small moans escaping us both.
Creed is the one who pushes me back, blue eyes sparkling. This time, his heavy-lidded gaze is anything but lazy. All it says to me is sex.
“How far do you want this to go?” he says, voice sharp w
ith need. I swallow hard, and exhale, curling my fingers around his muscular shoulders. We press our foreheads together, and I feel like I might die. Despite everything, I missed this piece of shit. All I want is an … an I’m sorry.
“Are you filming it this time?” I whisper, and Creed goes stiff beneath me. I mean, stiff in other ways, less good ones.
“No.”
“Are you …” I lift my eyes up to his, and I can’t help but think about Zack. This feels somewhat like a betrayal. I told him we weren’t dating, that I could never be with him, but … “Do you take pleasure in what you did to me?”
Creed wraps his arms around me and pulls me close.
Please say it, I think. Please.
“If you think I’m going to tell anyone about this, I won’t.” He exhales, and there’s the first genuine bit of emotion I’ve seen from him in a long time. “You need to leave the school before it’s too late.”
“I’m not afraid of Harper and her bitch friends,” I snap, and Creed grits his teeth.
“Maybe you should be.” I sit down harder on his crotch and he groans. “Jesus, Marnye.”
“You destroyed me,” I choke out. I don’t mean to, but the words just fall from my lips. My body is still pulsing hot, my nipples hard, my lips aching from our kisses. “Why? Why, Creed? Was it fun?”
“I’m fucking sorry!” he roars, and it’s so outside his usual scope of self-expression that I’m beyond shocked. “I’m sorry I did it. But why did you have to pick him and not me? What the fuck, Marnye?” Creed grabs the back of my head and kisses me with so much heat and want that my head spins. This could all be a trap. For all I know, Valentina or Ileana is hiding around the corner and filming us.
My body moves of its own accord, rocking against Creed’s lap while our kissing reaches a crescendo. He shudders underneath me, groaning, his muscles going taut, hips bucking up towards mine. It takes me a moment to realize what just happened, and then I’m rearing back, cheeks flushed, mouth tingling.
“Did you just …”
“You were grinding on my bare crotch,” Creed whispers back, eyes closed, breath coming in heavy pants. His right hand sweeps down my back to cup my ass, and I’m pretty sure he’s looking to see what’s under my swimsuit …
I jerk back, scrambling to the opposite side of the hot tub.
That’s about when Miranda, Andrew … Zack and Windsor all appear.
“Oh.” Windsor says, sounding far too perky for the amount of tension in the room. I have no idea what I look like, but I catch Zack’s dark gaze, and I see the fury there. He looks like he might kill Creed. “Have we interrupted something? You’ve most definitely had sex now, haven’t you?”
“No,” I blurt, but I suppose it was as close to sex as I’ve ever gotten … “No, we … no.”
Miranda looks like she wants to puke. I’m a little surprised considering I thought she wanted me and Creed to be friends again.
“I’m gonna go,” Zack says, turning and striding off, his towel thrown over his muscular shoulders, his shorts riding low on his hips. I can’t look at Creed, and Windsor’s satisfied smirk is infuriating, so I stand up and climb out of the hot tub, snatching my towel as I pass Andrew. He just looks embarrassed, and confused. Guess I would be, too, if I thought my friend was out for revenge and ended up making her tormenter orgasm in a hot tub.
“Zack, wait,” I call out, padding after him, cheeks red, body flushed. He makes it outside before I grab hold of his arm and get him to whirl on me.
“Did you just screw him?” he shouts, but I’m shaking my head and then covering my face with my hands. “I thought you didn’t believe in these stupid Infinity Club bets? I get what you’re trying to do, but to go so far? To fuck a guy you hate? How could you, Marnye?”
“He … we were just kissing, and he …” I have no idea what to say, and I end up dropping my arms by my sides. Zack just stares at me and swallows hard. When he kisses me, I let him. I let him sweep my wet body up against his, and I love being in his arms so much that I’m … confused.
Did I cheat on Zack with Creed? Or am I cheating on Creed with Zack? Did I cheat on either of them when I kissed Tristan? Oh god. I’m not a cheater. I hate cheaters. Jennifer is a cheater. I can’t be.
“How are you going to choose?”
Miranda asked me that question last year. I hated it then. I hate it even more now.
I push Zack away from me, wrap my towel around my shoulders, and run all the way back to my dorm.
“Whatever you did,” Miranda says, as I eat my food as fast as I can. I just want to finish my meal and get out of The Mess before Tristan, Zayd, Creed, Zack, or Windsor shows up. Is that too much to ask? “Creed is now obsessed with you.” I choke on a cherry tomato, but I can’t ignore the slight accusation in her words.
“Are you okay?” I ask, and she sighs, putting her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her palms.
“You must be up to something. There’s no way you’d forgive my brother quite so easily.” I stab another piece of lettuce and bring it to my lips. “I believe you when you say you didn’t sleep with him, but whatever happened … I don’t think you even understood it. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“I told you,” I whisper, keeping my voice low. There are other students eating in the restaurant with us, but they’re all Plebs. We’re relatively safe, but I don’t doubt any overheard conversation will make it back to Harper. “He just … came.” Miranda wrinkles her nose and looks at me in horror.
“Please stop saying that. It’s so freaking gross. That’s my brother. My twin. I don’t want to hear about his … eww. Just no.” She sighs and sits up straight, pausing as the door opens and … Zack walks in. Oh fantastic. He spots me right away and makes a beeline straight for this table. Would it be wrong if I just got up and ran?
He sits down next to me, and awkward silence descends.
“Can we have a moment alone?” Zack asks, and Miranda rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, sure. Babe, come find me later and we’ll all watch RuPaul in Andrew’s room, okay?” I nod, and she takes off. I stare at my salad while I wait for Zack to talk.
“Are you mad at me?” he asks, and my head jerks up and around. My brows are crinkled, and I’m so beyond confused I don’t quite know what to say.
“Aren’t you mad at me?” I ask, and he sighs, jaw clenching as he looks away. “I … did that with Creed, and …”
“I already told you, we can’t be together. I don’t fucking deserve you, Marnye. It was wrong of me to react like that. I know there’s no future for us.” My heart drops, and I want to scream. There could be a future for us, you idiot! Fight for me. But at the same time, I feel like a cheater who doesn’t deserve Zack. I feel like my mom.
“I cheated on you,” I choke, and he spins to face me with his eyes wide.
“Cheated? You can’t cheat on someone you’re not with.” He stares at me with so much longing that my heart begins to pound, and I feel like I might pass out. Things only get worse when the Idol boys stroll into the room and spot us there in the corner.
Tristan’s nostrils flare at the sight of Zack, Creed immediately makes his way over to me, and Zayd gives a cute, little wave.
Crap. Crap, crap, crap.
I shoot up from my chair, heart pounding, as Creed puts an arm on either side of me and pins me to the wall.
“Avoiding me won’t do you any good,” he says, and I think I forget my own name for a minute there.
“I wasn’t avoiding you,” I whisper, wondering how much he’s told Tristan and Zayd. The other two look a bit confused, to be honest. “I just … I have a lot going on, okay?” Creed narrows his eyes on me and then glances at Zack like he’s garbage.
“Why don’t you get lost, so Marnye and I can talk?”
“Marnye, and I were talking, so how about you fuck all the way off?” Zack snarls. Tristan pretends like he doesn’t give a shit and heads straight for the Idols’ table. He is engag
ed, after all, and I make a mental note to push harder with him. April is already coming to a close, and what have I accomplished this month besides … spending time in a hot tub with Creed.
Putting my palm on Creed’s chest, I push him back a step and move away from the two guys. Zayd watches me carefully, tucking his inked fingers in his front pockets. He’s clearly interested in whatever’s happening between us.
“What the hell is going on?” he asks as Creed and Zack look at each other like they might come to blows. As if my day isn’t shitty enough, Windsor chooses that moment to walk in. He makes his way right over, grabs me by the arm, and levels one of those fantastic grins of his at the other boys.
“Do you mind if I borrow Marnye here for a moment? Mentoring duties and all that.” He drags me away, and I breathe a sigh of relief as soon as I get out of the room, bending over and putting my palms on my knees for support. Windsor rubs my back in gentle swirling motions. “There, there. I know what it’s like to juggle several girlfriends at once. I recognize the panic on your face.”
“Do not compare me to you,” I whisper, forcing myself to stand up. “I do not have multiple boyfriends. I’m just … juggling my own interests against … other things.” Windsor stares at me for a long moment, hazel eyes mischievous.
“Other things?” he asks coyly, and I can just feel the truth resting on the back of my tongue. What it is about him that makes me want to spill the beans, I’m not sure. It’s infuriating, to be quite honest. “You mean like this mysterious bit of revenge you won’t talk about?”
“Look, I …” I look at Windsor, and I just feel so full of emotion, I want to choke. “I need to get the Idols to go to the graduation getaway with me.” That’s all I have to say, and then it clicks in his mind. I can see the second that it happens. “They bet they could make me fall in love, so …” It sounds pretty freaking lame coming out of my mouth right then.
“I see,” Windsor drawls, tapping at his chin, like all the pieces are falling together. “You’re throwing yourself at those idiots to win a bet?” I nod, and I feel ashamed. I don’t feel like a badass, revenge seeking missile anymore. I feel like Marnye Reed, a girl who’s gotten herself in over her head. I actually like Zack. And I like Creed. I like Zayd, too. And Tristan. They’ve been trying to protect me from the girls all year; I can see it now. It doesn’t make their behavior right, but it does make me want to know more. More about them, their feelings, more about what could happen if I spent more time with them.
Bad, Bad Blu Bloods Page 25