Beautiful Defiance: Cambridge High Mayhem (Kiss Starter: Cambridge High Book 1)

by Ashlyn Mathews

  “Seven, I’m not in the right place to give you advice,” I admit. “What your parents are going through, it could be as simple and complex as one person still in love with the other and the other wants out.”

  Without looking at him, I reach inside my pocket and pull out what I never had a right to let someone else take from him.

  “Here’s your lucky coin.” I stretch out my hand. “You’ll need it Friday.”

  “How—”

  “Red is my friend. He understands how important this coin is to you. He’s doing it for me and not you.”

  He takes the coin from me.

  I turn and, over my shoulder, say words that end whatever it was we had.

  “See you around, Seven.”

  32

  LEIGH

  The sun is bright, and the sand is soft beneath my bare feet.

  Maddox brought me to St. Thomas, one of the Virgin Islands, on his private jet. We arrived early Thursday morning, was picked up at the airport and taken to his house that sits a few feet from the beach.

  I drape my towel over the back of the lounge chair, sit, and stretching out my legs, I tug the wide-brim straw hat down over my eyes. A large figure looms over me.

  “Get in the water, Leigh.”

  “It’s too early.”

  “It’s noon.”

  “I’m tired.”

  “You’re in need of cheering up.” Maddox knocks the hat off my head, ditches the sunglasses that take up half my face, and picking me up under my arms, he slings me over his shoulder.

  “Put me down.”

  “No. You have a dark cloud of sadness over your pretty head, and I intend on dunking the doom and gloom off you.”

  “I don’t need cheering up. I like the doom and gloom. Put me down.” I pound on his back.

  He laughs.

  “Jesus, M, you can be such a jerk.”

  “Am I, Leigh? Who jetted you off to paradise?” He marches farther out into the water with ease. The ocean should be resisting his body. His body is built of solid muscles.

  “Answer the questions, Leigh.”

  “No, you’re not a jerk. You’re my friend.”

  “You’re damn right I’m your friend. Never forget that.”

  He dumps me in the water. I land with a loud plunk. Closing my eyes, I take in the warm water on my face and the tendrils of my hair floating around me. The sun high in the sky is a change from the cold and the rain back in Cambridge.

  Smiling at how good the heat feels, I come up for air and run my palm over my face. Thick fingers tuck my hair behind my ears. I open my eyes. Blink. Look up into the most gorgeous blue-green eyes. He smiles at me. I smile back, and pushing off the sand, I throw my arms around Maddox’s neck.

  “You’re a good friend. Thank you, M, for bringing me here.”

  His arms wrap around my waist, and he tugs me close. “If you want to cry, I won’t judge, Leigh.”

  “I miss him.”

  “It gets better. The feelings will fade.”

  “I’ll see him at school for the next eight months. He lives next door. I’ll see him driving by in his truck. The truck he let me stay in during his practices to keep me from freezing my ass off.”

  “I understand, kiddo. You don’t want to forget. You want to remember how he made you feel wanted and special.”

  “Is that bad?” I bury my face in the curve of his neck.

  “It’s never bad to be wanted. Or to feel like you’re important to someone, a part of their life.”

  “It hurts. Him. My parents. In my eyes, they were the perfect couple. The princess and her bad boy, the one who would do anything to make her life easier. They were each other’s best friends too.”

  “Just because you’re wrong about them doesn’t mean you have to be wrong about love. Kiddo, you have the rest of your life to fall in and out of love.”

  I blow out a breath. “Why do you keep calling me kiddo? We’re only six years apart.”

  He walks us farther out. His hands on my waist, he hoists me up. I wrap my legs around his waist.

  “You know why? You are a lot like my little sis. Tough on the outside. Soft on the inside. Doesn’t break for no one, but when she does and she gets hurt, that outer shell is difficult for anyone to get past the next go around. I don’t want that for you, Leigh. I don’t want this guy Seven to mess it up for other guys. You get where I’m coming from?”

  “You don’t want me to fortify my shell with layers and layers of steel. You don’t want me to be cynical and bitter.”

  “Yes.”

  I smile. “Why couldn’t you have just said, stay strong, Leigh? Keep your chin up, Leigh? Keep being a tough cookie, Leigh?”

  “That would be too easy. Speaking of cookie, you hungry?”

  “Is there a place we can get pho?”

  “If not, I’ll have it flown in.”

  I hug him tighter. “If I could have anyone as my big brother, it’d be you, M.”

  “Aw, shucks, kiddo, that means the world to me. But promise me something?”

  “Sure.”

  “If you’re gonna steal one of my rides, go with the least expensive one, okay?”

  Staring into bright blue-green eyes, I laugh. “I promise.”

  “Thanks again for whisking me off to paradise, M.” We’re sitting inside his private jet, headed back to Washington state. By the time we arrive, it will be close to midnight.

  “Feel better?”

  “Yes.” I do. I really do.

  The sunshine, the shops, the nightlife, all of it lifted my spirits and gave my mind a rest from facing Seven, the upcoming “Spirit Week,” and the homecoming dance I won’t be going to but he will with his new girl, Ginger.

  On the table between us, Maddox’s cellphone rings. He takes the call. His mood goes from happy to high-in-the-stratosphere pissed off.

  “What the fuck? You’re telling me someone bypassed my security system and blew up my garage?” He shoves his fingers through his hair. “You think it has something to do with what’s on TMZ? Fuck sakes, I don’t keep up with that shit. Send me the link.”

  He ends the call. His phone beeps. Maddox opens the link and drops a string of f-bombs.

  “What is it?”

  He slides his phone over to me. I pick it up and look at the screen. There is a short article in TMZ, a tabloid news site, with the headlines, “The Billionaire and His Newest Girlfriend Frolicking on the Beach.”

  There are pictures upon pictures of me and Maddox in the ocean with our arms around one another. With my face buried in his hair. Him planting a kiss on the top of my head, my forehead, my nose. His arms under my ass as he walked us out of the water that second day at the beach.

  “Frolicking. That’s a dumb word.” I set his phone on the table. “We lived it up, that’s what we did.”

  He doesn’t answer. He stares straight ahead with his hands tented over his mouth. I place my hand on his knee. “Are you ashamed that they made me out to be your girl? You can have your PR person get ahold of them and deny it. I won’t be put out, M.”

  “I don’t give a shit that TMZ claims you’re my girl. What I give a fuck about is someone destroyed my cars. Should I make your guy pay? Or should we celebrate his show of affection for you, kiddo?”

  “Seven blowing up your precious collection doesn’t mean jack shit.” I cross my arms.

  Maddox pulls me into his lap, grabs my chin, and forces me to look at him. “His father’s family is dangerous. They have the means to fuck me up. Shit, Leigh, they destroyed property, going unnoticed. That is power. They don’t wield it without cause. Love is enough cause for them to do this for him. Accept his declaration.”

  “Destruction is never the answer. Destruction isn’t love.” My throat tightens. My voice is scratchy. Crap, I am going to bawl.

  “Promise me you’ll listen to what he has to say? Give him another chance if he asks for it. Will you do that?”

  “For you losing more cars becaus
e of me, I will.”

  33

  SEVEN

  The first thing my father did after hearing of what I’d asked of my cousins is to sit me down and demand I talk to him.

  “What the fuck is going on, Seven?”

  I pace, refusing to open up to the man who ruined a good thing. Why did he give up on Mom so easily after she put up with his drinking for years as he wrestled with the darker side of his job? Why did he put himself in the position of getting caught with another woman? Shit, why put himself in that position in the first place?

  But the more he looked at me with love in his eyes as he followed my movements, the words spilled from me like a dam broken by too much pressure placed on it.

  I start with my anger over him messing things up with Mom.

  “Did you fall out of love with her?”

  “None of that.”

  “Did you cheat on her?”

  “Never.”

  “Then what the fuck is the problem?”

  “Fuck sakes, Seven, watch the fucking language.”

  I smirk. Yeah, sure, I’ll watch it when he curbs his love for the f-bomb too.

  “Your mom’s changed, Son. She’s been withdrawn. Hasn’t opened up to me the way she used to. I went to see Marianne, hoping she could shed some light on why. Marianne, she and I, we were engaged. She was your mom’s best friend.”

  “Wait, what? You were caught half-naked in a hotel room with a woman you were planning on marrying?”

  What the fuck?

  “What Marianne and I had was an arranged marriage, the joining of two powerful families. But when I met your mom, all bets were off. She was all I thought about. The thing is, your mother is the purest of heart, too kind for this damn world. She’s a force for good, and I’ve done nothing but wrong her, keeping truths from her.”

  He sets his elbows on his knees and drops his head in his palms.

  It takes a lot for my dad to open up to me like this. What he told me, about my mom withdrawing from him, goes beyond the normal father-and-son talk. I give him my truth.

  “Dad, you haven’t wronged her. There’s nothing wrong with loving someone the way you and Mom love one another. What is wrong is you working so much we barely see you. What is wrong is you not involving Mom in your line of work anymore.”

  They fought about that part, very loudly. Mom used to help with the “family” business of this foreign trade thing of Dad’s until Dad told my mom to stay out of it. That his line of work is getting too dangerous for her.

  “Mom has a degree in computer science. Large companies come to her to hack their systems for flaws. Use her skills. Mom wants to be useful, to make a difference, to help.”

  I take a seat next to him.

  “Does Mom know the marriage was arranged?”

  “No.”

  “You should tell her the reason Marianne was in your room.”

  “She set me up.”

  “What?” I ask, the agony in Dad’s voice threatening to have me send my cousins after this Marianne chick.

  “She’s still in love with me. Can’t forgive your mom for agreeing to marry me. Hates me for ending our engagement. She had a photographer take the picture. I didn’t know she was in the room until it was too late. We were supposed to meet in the hotel’s lounge.”

  “Tell Mom this.”

  “I’d have to tell her the rest. How I set up the assault. Me rescuing her. Me seducing her. Destruction and manipulation are all I’ve known growing up under the heavy hand of my dad, your grandfather Sean McCabe. Your grandmother gave me her name. I pass on the Shanahan name to you, but we will always be a McCabe, my father’s name. The name and power you used to destroy Maddox Stassi’s collection of exotic cars.”

  I hear every part of his speech but focus on the one thing that’ll lighten the mood.

  “Fuck sakes, Dad, I don’t need to hear how you got in Mom’s pants. Confess. Let her decide the next steps.”

  “How’d you get so wise?” He ruffles my hair. I smack his hand away, the heaviness in my chest lifting. My parents have another chance to get back what they lost. I’m crossing my fingers my mom believes my dad is worth a second chance.

  “I’m far from wise, Dad. I hurt a girl I like. Am misleading a girl for the sake of making the other girl hate me more.”

  “How about we both take your advice, then regroup here tonight unless I get lucky and your mom invites me to stay over.”

  I stick my finger in my mouth and make a gagging noise. Dad laughs. Smiling, I stick out my fist for a fist bump. “Deal. Good luck, Dad.”

  “You too, Son. If everything goes well, invite her over. I’d like to meet the girl who got my son’s panties in a bunch enough to destroy another man’s expensive toys.”

  “Ha-ha, old man. Will do.”

  34

  LEIGH

  There’s a knock on my door. Huh. That’s odd. Well, it’s not. Ever since that TMZ article blew up on the internet, there’s been a line of people at my door.

  First, Thomas. He insisted he give me the birds and the bees talk. Awkward. Next was Eleanor and Hannah wanting the scoop on my hot billionaire boyfriend. After that, Red, Rue, and Shay stopped by. They brought Winslow. He had demanded he meet the newest addition to their “crew.” Nice. I liked him instantly, pairing him in my mind with Sorrow.

  With his light-blond hair and her raven locks, they would be day and night. The dark knight climbing the tower to rescue his princess. I’ll have to show Sorrow a picture of him when I go over later tonight. It’s her birthday, and I have a gift, plus I’m baking a cake.

  I hurry to the door and yank it open, thinking it’s Miles. His father is closing the diner tonight, and Miles was stopping by with shakes. Cake and shakes for Sorrow’s birthday. Yum.

  Except it’s not Miles. It’s Seven.

  “Seven, what are you doing here?”

  When Maddox dropped me off at my place and insisted he walk me to my door, I knew there was an ulterior motive. He wanted to try, for the fifth time, to convince me to go speak with Seven. Uh-uh. It wasn’t me who ended the friendship. Seven did. If he has something to say, he can do it to my face rather than blow up Maddox’s cars.

  “I brought you these.”

  He tips his head at the ground. I step forward and peek around the door. The outside lights are on, and they highlight the rose bushes in these cardboard planters as though to say, “Ta-da, he comes bearing gifts.”

  “They’re ready to plant. Tell me where and I’ll dig the holes.”

  I straighten and cross my arms. “It’s six and I have somewhere to be.” Nonchalant. Not affected at all by his gift.

  “Where?”

  But goodness, those puppy eyes. Jesus.

  “A friend’s.” Oh, thank God my voice is steady.

  “A guy’s?”

  I tip my chin. Am ready to tap my feet on the floor. “It’s none of your business. Again, why are you here?”

  “Can I come inside?” He shoves his hands inside his pockets and pulls his shoulders inward, looking broken and defeated.

  “Seven, it’s not a good idea.”

  “Leigh, please. Give me five minutes of your time. That’s all I’m asking for.”

  “Five minutes.” I step aside and wave him through. He plops down on the couch and stretches out his long legs. I offer him soda or water.

  “Water’s good. Thanks, Leigh.”

  I bring him a glass of water and pop open the tab of my can of soda. I sit on the far corner, opposite him.

  “Smells good in here. Whatcha baking?”

  Small talk is good.

  “Angel food cake. It’s my friend’s eighteenth birthday.”

  “Cool. That’s nice of you.” He wipes his palms on his pants. Up. Down. Up. Down.

  Is Seven nervous?

  “You owe Maddox an apology, Seven.”

  “I don’t owe him jack shit. He had his hands on my girl. My girl, Leigh.”

  Oh, no, he did not.
I stand.

  “Yours? You dare say I’m yours when you hurt me? Broke my heart when you ditched me and found someone else to take my spot?”

  I ball my hands at my sides. He stands and reaches for me. I back up. He advances. The anger and determination on his face . . . I skirt around the table. He stalks after me. I make a mad dash for my bedroom. He chases me, and before I can shut the door on him, he barges his way inside my room.

  Grabbing me by the shoulders, he pushes me onto the bed. He climbs on the bed and traps me in place with his thighs straddling my waist.

  “Seven.” I growl out a warning. “You have no right. No right to be here. To insert yourself in my life again. I have friends. Guys who are interested in me. All I have to do is give them the word and they are mine.”

  “Do it, Leigh. I’ll fuck them up.”

  “Seven.”

  He stretches out his legs, and sliding his body over mine, he shifts us until I’m looking down into his dark eyes.

  “Leigh, I’m sorry. I fucked up. Got scared of what I feel for you.”

  He’s sincere. Honest. Broken. But I’m not ready to forgive him. I was sincere and honest too, and he left me broken when he sent me the roses only to slip a note in my locker telling me he’s done with me.

  “I hate you.”

  “You have every right. Let me tell my side, Leigh. Please.”

  Again, more begging.

  “Tell.”

  As though he thinks I’ll bolt, he swaps our position back to him on top of me. He keeps his weight off me with his arms alongside my head. Pieces of hair brush his forehead. I have this crazy urge to swipe aside the strands. I lock my arms against my sides. There will be no touching the jerk. He hurt me, and I’m not done hurting or hating on him.

  “Leigh, it was my idea to get you to tutor me. My grades were in the shitter, like you said. Coach told me he was benching me for the next game. I went to the principal. He suggested a tutor. I gave him your name in the hopes I could mess with you more. Get your ass in the cold and the rain. Break you of your defiance. Get you to fall for me during our time together. Then when I knew you’d fallen for me, I’d drop you and break your heart.”