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“Xander, I would never—”
“It doesn’t matter. If Principal Kiln chose to make an example out of us, it wouldn’t end well for me. Not to mention what it would do to your reputation.”
“I don’t have a reputation in Rixon.” Not a good one anyway.
“You really want to be that girl?” His expression softened but I saw the frustration in his eyes. “The girl who is dating a twenty-eight-year-old guy with no prospects?”
“I don’t care about any of that. Besides, you forget that I’m living with my friend’s family because I have nowhere else to go.”
A shadow passed over his face. “Bryan saw us, and I panicked, and I realized I needed to do the right thing by you and walk away.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. I’m old enough to make my own decisions.”
“I realize that now.”
He did?
I startled. “I’m still angry with you.”
“I know you are.”
A beat passed while I tried to process what he was saying.
“So you don’t want to… stop this?”
Hope bloomed inside me. But hope was a dangerous thing. Too many times, I’d given my mom another chance… and another, and every time, she disappointed me. She hurt me over and over until my hope became a sharp jagged thing I resented.
“No.” A faint smile traced his lips. “I knew the second I let you walk out I’d fucked up.”
“I know it won’t be easy, but nothing in my life has ever been easy, Xander.”
“Yeah, I get that.” He reached for my hand, tangling our fingers together. “Is this okay?”
I nodded, relishing the feel of his thumb moving back and forth over my skin.
“I’m going to talk to Jase as soon as possible. The sooner he knows I’m not taking the job, the sooner we can figure out how to tell everyone.”
“Okay,” I whispered. It was what I wanted—to be acknowledged and not secreted away—but I also wanted to enjoy him without the scrutiny and judgment of our friends and family.
“After the holidays,” I blurted. “Can we wait until after the holidays? I didn’t tell you yet, because I’m not sure if I can, but I asked Mya about graduating early.”
“You what?” He went rigid.
“Don’t worry, it’s not something I’m doing because of… us. I’d already decided I want this. I need my independence, Xander. I need to stand on my own two feet. If the school board says yes, I could graduate as early as the end of January.”
Indecision flickered in Xander’s gaze, but then he nodded. “Come here.” He gently pulled me over the center console and onto his lap. My thighs cradled his legs as I straddled him.
Xander slipped his arms around my waist and held me. “Three days,” he leaned in, whispering the words against the corner of my mouth.
“Does it really matter?”
His lips trailed over my jaw and down the column of my neck. Pleasure trickled through me as I arched into him.
“Consider it foreplay,” the words formed against the hollow of my neck. “So fucking beautiful.”
Xander’s fingers drifted over the curve of my breasts, expertly dragging his thumb over my nipples. A moan caught in my throat as I gently rocked my hips, seeking out more friction.
I could feel him, thick and hard, pressed up against my stomach as I moved above him, imagining a much different scenario. One involving less clothes and more skin.
