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Ava looked at me as if just noticing I was standing there, and that pissed me off.
“Yes?” she responded politely.
I rolled my eyes. “Can I talk to you?”
Ava looked unsettled and nervous. She darted a quick look at Hannah. “Well, um, Hannah and I made plans for after school, so-”
“Nope. I’m taking Hannah with me,” Nikolai cut in as he pulled Hannah more tightly to his side.
“Okay, Ava, would you prefer I talk to you out here? In the hallway? In front of everyone?” I asked, spreading my arms wide to gesture to the hallway full of people.
Ava’s jaw dropped in surprise but remained unmoved.
I smiled. “Ava, I’m sorry you think I rejected you for se-”
Ava’s embarrassed squeak cut off the rest of my words as she slapped both of her hands over my mouth. She quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard what I was starting to say. “Jesus, Jack, are you crazy?” she whispered.
I raised my eyebrows. Of course, I’m crazy.
Ava rolled her eyes, and while still keeping her hands firmly over my mouth, turned to Hannah. “I’ll call you later. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to talk about.” Ava dropped her hands from my face, grabbed my arm, and dragged me down the hallway.
****
Chapter 9
Ava
I pulled Jack down the hallway until we reached a janitor’s supply closet, the same closet I saw him go into a couple of weeks ago with Britney Carstens. I was not thrilled to be making that connection as I pulled the door open, lightly pushed him inside, and slammed it closed.
I felt my ability to resist him at a record high with the memory of him and his former hook-up on my mind. I flicked on the dim light and crossed my arms. “Okay, what the hell do you want to talk about so badly?”
Jack leaned back against the shelves and tucked his hands in his pockets. His body language was the picture of nonchalance, but his expression was anything but. His brows were furrowed, and his dark green eyes bored into me. “Why have you been avoiding me all day?”
I flushed. I had no desire to explain to him that I had been humiliated by his rejection. I thought he would take note of my avoidance and move on to some other girl. “I was…” I cleared my throat. “It was…we…” I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t tell him how embarrassed I was.
So, I lied. “I-I figured we just hooked up. I know how you are, so I assumed one night was pretty much your standard. I was just making it easy on you.”
There. That sounded pretty reasonable.
He cocked his head and looked thoughtful, as if he was rolling my words around in his head in order to determine their truthfulness. “You were avoiding me, so I wouldn’t have to feel bad for avoiding you because when I hook up with someone, in your opinion, they are essentially dead to me the day after?” It was hard to miss the sarcasm.
I swallowed and stared at a bottle of bleach on a shelf behind his head. “Look, Jack, I don’t usually ‘hook up’ with guys. In fact, I’ve never hooked up with a guy like that before. I don’t know how this all goes, so I did what I figured you’d want me to do.”
Was he buying this? I darted a quick look at his face and saw that he was not buying this. Not at all. His expression was extremely dubious, as though I just explained to him why I thought the world was flat.
He pushed off the shelves and slowly started closing the small distance between us. “So, you were doing me a favor? Not speaking to me, not standing near me,” he said as he reached me and put his hands on the wall on either side of me. “Not even making fucking eye contact with me was done for my benefit? Well, aren’t you considerate.”
It had been much easier to lie to him when he’d been standing across the room. Having him so close, breathing in his scent, feeling the heat of his body, made it impossible to concentrate on anything, much less come up with a convincing explanation for my behavior that did not reveal my humiliation.
At my silence, he continued. “Well, allow me to let you off the hook, Ava. You don’t need to avoid me because I have no interest in avoiding you. In fact, I’ve put a lot of thought into what you said in the car.”
My pulse started to climb as he pinned me down with his seductive green eyes. What was he talking about? What had I said in the car? My brain was like a shorted car battery.
Jack moved his mouth to my ear, his hand sliding to my waist as I waited breathlessly for him to continue. “I suggest we do exactly what you wanted. You said you wanted to forget that other guy, and I definitely still want to fuck you,” he murmured hotly, pressing hot kisses on my ear and neck. What he was doing was so hot, I almost didn’t register what he’d said.
I processed his words, and they hit me like a needle scratching a record. I pushed him away from me. “What did you say?”
Jack’s face looked frustrated and flushed, most likely aggravated that his seduction had been thwarted. “Look, you mentioned that you wanted to forget some other guy.” I wasn’t sure if he realized how his jaw clenched and his brow pinched as he said this. “So, I suggest we do just that. I’m willing to let you sleep with me in order to forget that other guy.”
