Page 39 of Break You

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Good.”

I hung up and threw myself backward on the bed, grabbing my throbbing cock. There was no way I was going to make it through the day without breaking something, or someone, if I didn’t deal with my colossal hard on. I came quick and hard, but it didn’t provide the relief I was looking for. I knew that would only come from fight-fucking a certain stubborn, angry Rollergirl who had a trailer-load of secrets I was determined to uncover.

Rocky

I bolted out of Psych, before Dr. Reylton had finished passing around handouts and explaining our next assignment. I’d only waited that long, because I hadn’t wanted to cause a commotion and have the whole room stare at me as I fled. I definitely didn’t want to have to answer questions from her, or worse still, Xavier Cross, so though I had to fight furiously to gulp down the bile and vomit rising steadily in the back of my throat, I’d made my move only after everyone else had started shifting around the room.

After shoving my aged laptop into my bag with little care for whether it was secure, I took the stairs two and three at a time, and sped down the hall toward the bathroom. I didn’t even make it to a cubicle before the dam of my lips burst its banks, and I was spewing chunks into one of the handbasins, much to the disgust of whoever had the misfortune of walking out of the stalls moments later.

I didn’t blame her—it was totally gross, but I figured that the basin was better than the floor. I didn’t look up to see whose day I’d ruined, just yelled out “Sorry!” as I turned on the faucet and furiously tried to wash away the mess I’d made. I got an unexpected and definitely unwanted flashback of the millions of times I’d had to clean up after my mom the same way, but for very different reasons, and was filled with sadness. When the basin was empty, I rinsed my mouth a few times, then splashed the cold water on my face, hoping to bring some of the color back to my cheeks. It didn’t work, but did feel comfortingly refreshing.

When I’d done all I thought I could do to make myself feel somewhat human again, I headed back out into the hall.

“Something wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Jesus fucking Christ! You scared me half to death, that’s probably why.” I’d never wanted to throat punch someone quite so much.

“Why so jumpy?”

“Why so stalky? Yet again you seem to be everywhere I turn. You can’t keep claiming it’s coincidence. I don’t even fucking believe in them. If it carries on, I’m going to report you to campus security for threatening behavior.”

His laughter rang out around the hallway as he leaned his forearm against the wall, then rested his forehead on it. “Threatening? Oh, you mean like yesterday when I told you that I was going to make you forget what day it was? You were there. You know as well as I do, that it was wasn’t a threat, but a promise. One I totally delivered on, might I add.”

I truly hated his smug face, but I hated even more that he was 100 percent correct. I’d come so hard I barely knew my own name.

“Listen. We fucked, but the deal was it was one and done. The whole point was to do it and get whatever crap there was between us out of our systems. If I’d known you were going to obsess about it, I’d never have suggested or gone through with it. I’m really over this stupid tango we’ve been doing.” I scrunched my face up as though it was a gruesome ordeal. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I have places to be.”

I made to duck under the arch he’d created with his arm, not realizing my mistake until it was too late to do anything about it. Like we were dancing, he brought his arm down onto my shoulder and leaned in to speak into my ear.

“Nice try, Angry Girl, but you’re not going to distract me from the fact that you ran out of Reylton’s class like the devil was on your tail. What spooked you?” I tried to ignore the surge of sensation that pulsed through my body as his warm breath tickled the skin of my neck, hoping he’d miss the way my body tensed as a result.

“Seriously? If you must know, I pigged out on jalapeño poppers at work last night, and now I have a burning ring of fire. Okay, Sherlock?”

He laughed again, though this time it was a gentle chuckle.

“Here’s the thing. You can say what you like with your mouth, but around me, your body doesn’t lie. I’m not buying that diarrhea crap, no pun intended. So, I won’t ask you again. What’s wrong?”

“And I won’t tell you again. Back the fuck off. There’s nothing wrong, but even if there was, you’d be pretty much the last person on earth I told, after Satan’s sister. Excuse me, please, we’re done here.”

He pulled back a little and the look on his face told me that in his mind, we’d be done when he said we were. I was beginning to think he was delusional.

I pushed his chest to escape his grasp.

“Why did you lie to me about the scholarship?”

I knew he was out of his mind.

“Excuse me?”

“The. College. Scholarship.” The stucco delivery grated on my nerves, and jokes aside, I was truly starting to wonder if there wasn’t something seriously wrong with him. Like, of the smoking crack variety. “Why did you let me believe you’d received one?”

Now it was my turn to laugh. I tilted my head back and let the hysteria take me over, aware that he was probably thinking that I was the one who was high or insane. When I’d regained control, I brought my gaze back to meet his, matching the severity of his icy-blue stare.

If you think you can out-staunch this girl, Loaded Boy, you have another think coming. “Let’s get something straight, right now. I don’t care how other people relate to you, but I for one am not scared of you, or in awe of your colossal bank balance. I’m not on your payroll, or in any other way beholden or indebted to you, apart from to complete this godforsaken assignment. I literally owe you nothing—” I didn’t miss the strange look that swept across his face, so briefly, it was barely there. What was that about? “—except for my participation in the aforementioned project. Furthermore, that is a reciprocal obligation, as unlike in other areas of your life where you call the shots, we’re actually equals in this.”

“Yeah, well, the fact is, whatever the situation, some of us are more equal than others.” Ain’t that the truth. “And you didn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you tell me?”

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