“We’ll all get ready at Harley’s,” Poppy announces, still unable to claim our house as her own.
“I’ve got some stuff to do after school,” Stella says. “But I’ll be there.”
We clear away our trays and all head in different directions for our classes.
Ruby excuses herself to meet Ash and I make my way alone, crossing to a different building to our English lit class.
I’m almost there when a storage closet door opens beside me and someone wraps their hand around my arm and drags me inside.
“What the hell are you doing?” I hiss as Kyle crowds me against the wall. There’s a dirty bulb hanging overhead that gives out just enough light to see each other. His hand skims up my body before it finds its home around my throat.
My heart thunders in my chest but I must admit that I’m starting to get used to him ‘abducting’ me when I least expect it. Hell, I’m starting to enjoy it.
“I needed something.”
“Oh yeah. That’s a coincidence because I need something too.”
“Yeah?” he growls, pressing me harder into the wall. “Ow, what was that for?” he asks, rubbing the side of his head where I gently hit it.
“It’s your fucking birthday. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shrugs. “Not important.”
“Ky, you’re eighteen. It’s really important,” I argue.
He shakes his head at me, a soft smile playing on his lips.
“I got to wake up and sink inside you, what could be more important than that?” he murmurs.
“Oh, I don’t know, how about... tell me about your party?” I pin him with a look.
“How’d you… Ruby.” He correctly guesses.
“Yeah, so am I not invited then, or what?”
“I don’t know what Kane’s got planned and I didn’t want…” He trails off.
“How about you let me decide that?”
“I’m assuming he’s invited the Creek group and…”
“Still you thought it was okay to decide for me?”
The truth is, I don’t really have any intention of hanging out with his Creek buddies. After that night, I turned my back on that place, aside from visiting my dad.
He smiles at me and damn him because it makes my insides melt.
“Kitten,” he breathes, making my insides quiver. “Would you like to come to my party?”
“I think I might be busy tonight, thanks for the invite though,” I deadpan and he throws his head back and laughs.
His gaze is so intense when it comes back to mine that it makes my heart skip a beat, I swear.
“W-we should get to class.”
“Yeah, in a minute.”
His lips find mine and his hand slips under my shirt so he can wrap his hand around my waist, skin on skin.
The second his tongue slips into my mouth, I sag in his hold, grateful that he’ll hold me up.
“I really want to fuck you,” he admits after kissing across my jaw, his lips brushing my ears.
“B-but English,” I force out, making him laugh.
“I know, Kitten. Is there anything I can do to make you skip with me?”
A million and one things that he could say to make me agree run through my mind, but I don’t say any of them because I know I can’t allow it to happen.
“Nope.”
“Everyone else thinks you’re such a good girl, don’t they?”
“Ky,” I warn, his deep voice and desire-filled words making my refusal to stay locked in here for our entire class harder and harder to stick to.
English lit was hell after I finally managed to slip out from Kyle and escape the storage closet.
I can’t deny that I’d have been more than happy to stay in there for the entire time, but I can’t risk missing class, and I certainly can’t risk the chance of Mom finding out. She might let us get away with a lot when it comes to parties and drinking but school is another matter entirely.
She’s not stupid, she knows from experience the kind of upbringing we had in the Creek, and she knows the things we got up to way before we were old enough to be doing them. Hell, she is a Creek girl. But she also got out, and education is the only way to make that happen. And she wants better for us. I totally understand that.
Kyle’s touch barely leaves my body throughout the entire class while he sits there trying to prove that what I did was wrong.
My skin tingles with awareness, my panties still damp from his kiss.
I know I probably made the wrong decision but it’s too late to go back on it now.
“Come home with me now,” he growls in my ear as he stands a little too close to me besides my locker as the rest of the students make a beeline for the exit to start their weekend plans. “We can start the party early.”
“You’ve got a conditioning session,” I say, poking him in the chest a little harder than necessary. “And I promised the girls that I’d get ready with them.”
“What are you wearing?”
“I have no idea,” I say honestly because I haven’t even thought about it.
“Wrong answer, Kitten.”
“Okay.” I pause trying to come up with the right answer. “Something sexy?”
“Bingo.”
“I’m assuming Zayn is coming?”
“Fuuuck. I’m just going to have to tell him that I’m banging his hot as fuck sister,” he says with a shrug and my heart rate picks up a few notches.
“And get your ass kicked on your birthday?”
“Ow,” I complain when he reaches out and twists my nipple through my shirt. “I can take your brother, Kitten.”
“Riiight. Sure.”
He stares at me with his brow furrowed.
“Okay fine. But not tonight. You’re supposed to be enjoying yourself.”
“Exactly, which means I need a free pass to your pussy.”
“Jesus, were you always this insufferable?”
“Yep, you just never noticed.”
“Not sure how because I spent a lot of time looking,” I mutter but instantly regret it when an intrigued smile lights up his face.
“Oh really? Tell me more.”
“I’d love to,” I say, looking over my shoulder and finding the perfect excuse why I can’t. “But I think your new team has come to collect you.” I nod in their direction and he turns to find Jake, Ethan, Mason and Zayn heading this way.
“More issues with your homework, Legend?” Zayn asks suspiciously, his eyes flicking between the two of us.
“Yeah,” Kyle mutters. “Something like that.”
“Right well, as fun as this has been. We’ve got somewhere to be,” Jake pipes up. “And just because it’s your birthday, don’t think that means I’m going to go easy on you. You’ve got a reputation to uphold, Legend,” he warns.
I narrow my eyes at Kyle.
Was I the only one who didn’t know it was his birthday?
“Let’s go then. Seems I need to remind you of just how good I am.”
“Arrogant much?” I mutter, feeling Kyle’s eyes on me as I stare into my locker to get my books.
“You know you love it.” I don’t need to look over my shoulder to know he’s got a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Let’s go, asshole,” Zayn mutters. “Before you make her want to claw your eyes out more than she already does.”
A smile twitches at my lips at the hope in that statement. My brother isn’t stupid, he knows something is going on here. I’m just hoping he’s happy enough to live in denial about it a while longer. I’m not ready for the shitshow that would ensue when he finds out the truth.
Hopefully by the time that happens, Kyle will have had his fun and we can all return to our normal lives where he hates me and can barely look at me, and I can go on pretending that I want to screw any other member of the team just to piss off my brother.
My stomach twists painfully, reminding me that my head and my heart are already at war with this situation.
>
29
Kyle
“Whoa, cover your tiny cocks boys, there’s a lady in da house,” Ethan barks as we’re all getting dressed after Jake’s brutal session.
Glancing up after buttoning up my jeans, I find Stella walking through the boy’s locker room as if it’s normal. Her eyes flick around all the guys in the room, a small smile playing on her face.
“Afternoon boys. It’s so good to see you,” she jokes.
Once she’s happy she’s got her fill, her eyes land on me.
“Me and you need to talk,” she states matter-of-factly.
“Err… we do?”
“We do,” she confirms. “Get your shit together.”
“Looks like Legend’s getting a birthday treat,” someone shouts behind me.
“Woohoo, get in there, boy,” someone else jeers.
I flip them off over my shoulder because despite how this looks, I already know that isn’t why Stella is here.
“He should be so lucky,” she sasses, throwing her white-blonde hair over her shoulder and batting her eyelashes.
After another second, her eyes find me again.
“I’ll be outside. Don’t make me wait too long.” With that said, she spins on her heel and marches back out as fast as she marched in.
“What the fuck was that?” Zayn asks as Ash’s curious eyes drill into the side of my head.
“Fuck knows, but I think I’m about to find out.”
“Need company?” Ash asks. “There’s something kinda scary about her.”
“I’m pretty sure I can handle her.”
“Wish I could fucking handle her,” someone shouts.
I shake my head, laughing to myself. I might be in a better part of the country now, but the banter in the boy’s locker room never changes.
“I’ll see you later, yeah?” I say to Ash and Zayn.
“You got it, man,” Zayn agrees. “Gonna party like we trailer park trash,” he jokes.
I haven’t invited the rest of the team, although I have my suspicions that they might just turn up anyway.
I’m assuming that Kane has invited some of our old crew and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about my past and my present colliding. Not to mention that the Harriers are loose rivals of the Bears. I say loose because the Bears would smash the Harriers even in their sleep so they’re not exactly a threat to the Bears’ success.
After shoving everything into my duffel, I throw it over my shoulder and head out to find out what Stella wants.
“Alright?” I nod at her as I approach.
“I guess that all depends on what you’ve got to tell me.”
“Um…”
“Your car?”
“Uh… sure.”
She pushes from the wall she was resting back against and marches toward the exit, leaving me to follow her.
The guys were right in the locker room. She’s got a banging body, but she’s not doing it for me. The girl I suspect she’s come to talk to me about, on the other hand, is very much doing it for me right now.
I shove down the little voice in my head that tries to tell me that it’s not just about the revenge it started out as because I’m not ready to deal with any of that.
I’m just going to get my fill of her. Get her out of my system and hope that I can then move on with my life.
She’s been in my head since that night, and not for all the right reasons, it’s time to purge her back out.
I press the unlock button for my car and Stella wastes no time in dropping down into the passenger seat, after throwing my bags in the trunk, I join her.
“So to what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Gray,” she says, and my blood runs cold as her blue eyes hold mine.
“W-what about him?”
“Harley told us what happened that night. She said the drugs you got busted with were his.”
“Right…”
“He’s why you were freaking out about not knowing where Harley was the other night, wasn’t he?”
My chin drops but I don’t find the words to confirm her suspicions.
“Yeah, I thought so. So, what’s the plan? What are you going to do about this motherfucker?”
My lips part like a fucking fish as my head spins.
“Who are you?” Is the question that finally falls from my lips when I manage to form some words.
“A girl who’s worried about her friend. You’re worried, which means she should be worried, but from what I see, she’s no fucking idea he’s even a threat. Why is that?”
“I don’t want to worry her.”
“Okay, I get that. I do. But she needs to know. If you think he’s as big a threat as you seem to, then don’t you think she deserves the heads up so she can keep an eye out, keep herself safe?”
“And if he’s bluffing? Then I’ll scare her for nothing.”
“Is he bluffing?”
I blow out a long breath, twisting back into my seat and resting my head back.
“I don’t know,” I admit quietly.
Just saying the words makes me feel physically sick. The thought of him catching up with her and forcing her to pay my debt.
My stomach turns over.
“What are you doing about it?” Her stare burns into the side of my face while I keep my eyes focused on the license plate of the car in front of us.
“Umm…”
She groans in frustration. “Umm isn’t an answer, Kyle. Not if she’s in danger, which I’m assuming she is.”
“I don’t know what to do, okay?” I bark in frustration. “I don’t want to scare her. I don’t want her to think I’ve put her in danger. I don’t want him anywhere near her.”
“Huh,” she says, sitting back and staring out the windshield.
“Huh, what?” I ask, more curious about the one small noise than anything else she’s said during this strange conversation.
“You really like her, don’t you.” It’s not a question. She’s stating a fact and it makes my heart race and my palms sweat.
“N-no,” I stutter.
“Right. So you’re really going to sit there and tell me that all of this is just to get back at her for what happened? If you really wanted me to believe that you truly just want revenge then you wouldn’t be so concerned about this. You wouldn’t care what he might have in store for her.”
My lips part to respond but I soon realize that I have no words.
The silence in the car is almost deafening as blood rushes past my ears so fast it makes my head spin.
I was quickly becoming aware that Harley was wriggling her way in deeper than I wanted her to, but it was easy to lock down when it was just my own crazy thoughts.
But being so obvious that others are noticing my feelings. That shit is scary.
“I can’t let him get to her, Stella. I can’t. What he was going to do that night, it…” A shudder rips through me at the thought. “It can’t happen.”
“I agree. But what I need to know is what you’re doing about it. I’ll help with whatever you need but I—Oh, don’t give me that look, I’m more capable than you think.”
“Are you about to tell me that you’re a black belt in some martial art I’ve never heard or something?”
“Or something.” She laughs. “Look.” She turns to me. “Whatever you need to make this go away, just tell me. I’ve got… contacts who can help.” I narrow my eyes at her, getting more and more confused as the conversation progresses. “Is he coming tonight?”
“I fucking hope not.”
“If he is, point me in his direction.”
She turns away and reaches out for the handle.
“Oh and Kyle?”
“Yeah?” I ask, wondering what on earth she might have to add.
“Tell her how you really feel.”
Before I get a chance to respond, she’s out of the car and the door slams closed behind her.
“Wow,” I breathe, resting my head back and closing my eyes.
>
The rumble of an engine vibrates through me and when I open my eyes, I find Stella flying past me in a matte black Porsche 911.
“I didn’t think you were going to come back,” Kane mutters from his spot in the kitchen where he’s arranging bottles of alcohol.
“I took the long route home,” I say, swiping one of the bottles of beer and knocking the top off.
Truth is, I just drove. I didn’t have any destination in mind. I just needed to clear my head and the best way to do that is to turn my music up, drop the windows down and floor the gas. Before I knew it, I was on the other side of town on roads I’ve never driven before.
“You all ready for tonight?”
“It’s just a party.” I’ve been to plenty.
“Maybe but it’s not every day that it’s your eighteenth.”
“Why are you making such a big deal out of this?”
“Because, lil’ bro, we’ve had a shitty twelve months and it’s time to put it all behind us and look toward the future. You’re a man now and you’re here. All the fighting I did to get you here paid off and now we can do as we wish without social workers breathing down our necks. It’s time to live, bro. It’s time to enjoy ourselves. Here,” he says, bringing his little speech to an end and passing over a small wrapped box.
“You didn’t have to do this.”
“I did,” he insists. “Go on then, open it.”
I eagerly rip at the paper. I kinda assumed I wouldn’t be opening anything this year, so it’s quite a nice surprise.
“Holy shit,” I gasp when I see the logo on the leather box in my hand. “Tell me this is fake.”
“Just open it.”
I do, and I find the most stunning timepiece staring back at me. “Kane. Tell me this is fake.”
“Bro, I’m not going to fob you off with a fake Rolex. Is it still the one you wanted?”
A lump climbs up my throat as I remember pointing out as a kid and telling him that one day I’d own one. That I’d get out of the Creek and make something of my life.
“How’d you—I don’t deserve—”
“Stop, Kyle. The words you’re looking for are thank you.” He lifts his brows and I take a step forward until I crash against him. We share a brief brotherly hug before I pull back and stare down at the watch once more.
LEGEND: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rosewood High Book 7) Page 27