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A short but unmistakable laugh leaves his mouth as he shakes his head. “You assume too much, Mo.”
“Really? Then that performance you and TRIGGER were supposed to have tomorrow suddenly vanished into thin air?” I reply, folding my arms.
He laughs. “Yeah … except it got canceled at the last minute.”
Well, fuck.
He leans back in his seat and gazes at me with a puzzled but amused look on his face. “I’m impressed. You actually checked out our schedule?”
My body turns stone cold, and my face probably shows it too.
“Interesting,” he adds, making it even harder for me to recover from my embarrassment. “Anything else you want to admit to? Or is that all the stalking you did?”
“Jesus.” I make a face at him. “I am not stalking you. Please, as if I don’t have anything better to do.”
“Like what?” he leans forward, gazing at me with that same devious look that predicts trouble. “Tell me … I’d love to know.”
Cole
“As if I’d ever tell you,” she replies, obviously upset that I hit a chord.
She knows as well as I do she’s thought about me. After the way I touched her, it’d be hard not to.
I lean in so close my lips are almost on her ear. “Let me guess, you can’t because it’s too inappropriate for the rest of the class to hear.”
She gulps. She knows what I’m insinuating, and the thought has probably crossed her mind several times. But she won’t admit that to me, of course. Not yet.
“You wish, Cole Travis,” she spits back. “Stop messing with me.”
I cock my head. “Now why would I do that?”
“You just love it, don’t you?” she rebukes, leaning away from me with disdain. “Everything is a game to you.”
She’s right. I love this game. I love seeing her break. And I love picking up the pieces that fall. Because it’s interesting. Exciting. New.
Girls normally fall at their feet for me, but not her.
She refuses to give in, doesn’t lose her resolve when I try so hard to make her yield.
Maybe that’s what makes me come back for more again and again, despite knowing it’s bad for both of us. But I just can’t stop myself.
I need more.
I need to know what makes her who she is.
“Tell me the truth then,” I say. “Tell me you don’t like me. That you don’t want me. And I’ll stay out of your way.”
She blows out a breath, but it takes her a while to form a response. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“That’s not an answer to what I asked, and you know it,” I reply, gazing at her. “You can’t say it, can you?”
She makes a face, smothering her lips together in that cute, angry way she always does. Like she wants to punch the shit out of someone but won’t because she can’t. Which is exactly how I feel when I’m around her.
“Fine. Yes. I felt something that night at the lake. Happy now?” she retorts, clearly on edge. “Go on, add me to your long list of conquests. I don’t fucking care anymore.”
I frown. Is that why she pushed me away that night? Why she called me an asshole? Or is there more?
“Is that what you think about me?” I ask.
“It’s what everyone told me,” she says with a serious face. “And you’ve proven it too.”
“How? What did they tell you?” I reply. “Where’s the proof?”
She stutters. “I … well … all those other girls …”
“What other girls?” I reply. “The ones that tell you what … that I collect girls like prizes? And you believe them?”
“Oh, stop feigning innocence. You know damn well what you do. You treat girls like your personal playthings,” she says, her fists balling. “But I’m not going to be one of them. Not anymore. I won’t let you ruin my heart, Cole.”
She grabs her earplugs and phone, plugs them in, and stuffs them into her ear, blocking me out. I continue to stare at her, wondering how long she’s going to keep this up.
At least I got closer to the truth. She may not like it, but she loved what I did to her at the lake. She hides her needs behind a veil of lies, but I see right through it.
I pluck her earbuds from her ear and say, “You can hide all you want, but that won’t keep me from finding out the truth.”
“What truth?” she says with furrowed brows.
I shift in my seat and bite my lip. “You’re hiding something.”
Her lips part, but nothing follows, except the look on her face, which turns darker and darker by the second. “Who told you that?”
I cock my head. “I don’t spill my sources. It’s bad for publicity.”
Her nostrils flare. I’ve never seen her this upset, not even after I told her I won the dare. Her body stiffens as the harshness settles on her face unlike ever before.
