AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Now,” Alix sassed him, as she reached for the first aid kit. “Let me see about that cut.”
He had a feeling, truce or no truce, conditions or no conditions, deal or not, she wasn’t going to be gentle.
CHAPTER 5
Alix
Making a deal with Ross was like making a deal with the devil. She couldn’t go back on it and save face. She’d stood there and demanded that he kiss her. Gave him conditions and accepted his. Spat on her palm and joined it with his.
That was three days ago. Ross hadn’t called, hadn’t texted, and hadn’t stopped by.
She’d slept terribly since then. She’d barely eaten anything. She’d spent most of her time in her room, even when her parents actually tried to engage her to go for a walk or play a board game, watch TV, go to some show… the usual. She turned them down.
She was a mess. She wanted to take back that crazy truce, jam it so far down her throat that it got trapped in her stomach and got digested out like the shit it was. What the hell had she been thinking?
Ross probably thought she was crazy. That she was trapped in the past. That there was something seriously wrong with her that she hadn’t moved on. That she held a childish grudge. He’d always called her a diva. She’d acted like one, so she probably deserved the title. She’d always worn it like a badge of secret honor, that he’d noticed her enough to give her a nickname of shorts, even if it wasn’t complimentary.
She picked up her phone a thousand times to text him. To tell him it was off. That she forgave him. That she was out of sorts and seeing him again brought out the worst in her because she freaking cared. He was the only one. He’d always been the only one. And he’d never given her a second glance. She’d hoped she could meet someone and get over him. Forget. Reinvent herself into a version that was condiment and sexy and didn’t give a shit about Ross Rivers.
Yeah. That hadn’t happened.
She’d returned home the same pathetic, lost little girl that she’d left. The same one who had a few slivers of a heart left and those slivers, each and every single one, were owned by Ross. He could break her, smash her, or make her fly with a single glance.
She’d wanted to hurt him like he’d hurt her. She’d never got over it. Was it childish? Probably. Pathetic? Hell yeah. Had she stooped about as low as the lowest of the low in basically blackmailing him to kiss her? Absolutely. Did she regret it? Yes, with a big, shiny cherry on top. In reality, would she go back and make all the same demands now that she finally had him backed into a corner and he owed her for saving his life? Yes. Yes, she would. That was probably the most pathetic part of it all.
Ross was always her weakness. She’d never been logical where he was concerned.
Then again, most beings with a va-jay weren’t either, so maybe there wasn’t anything so special about her.
Alix had nearly talked herself out of having anything to do with Ross Rivers. She was going to text him and tell him that it was off. They could be civil to each other without the crazy deal. She never should have said anything like that in the first place. It was a combination of being in shock that he could have drowned, combined with a heck of a lot of jetlag, some green-eyed monster jealously over the welcome home party not even being about her, and a healthy dose of not being over the past. It was a recipe for something shitty. A sure-fire disaster.
She was actually reaching for her phone to make the text, to tell Ross she was overtired and in a state of shock two nights ago, to tell him to disregard everything she said, there was a very good chance that he wasn’t the only one with a head injury. That she’d move on and they could be friendly towards each other for everyone else’s sake, when her phone buzzed on the nightstand.
Alix really hoped it was a message from her ex-roommate, Penny. She lived in New Jersey but stayed in a dorm since she wanted to get away from living at home. Like dorm life was so much better. She actually enjoyed it and Alix admitted that if it wasn’t for her bubbly, red headed roommate, she probably would have gone insane well before she actually graduated.
Her stomach churned and her heart kicked into overdrive when she read the text.
Coming over in ten. Be ready. You’re about to get the authentic Ross Rivers experience that you asked for.
Panic soaked through her bloodstream and fizzled in her veins. She hurriedly typed back a reply.
