Page 28 of Reckless
Bobbi studied me, a knowing look on her face, as if those hazel eyes could see right through me. Her brown hair was straightened today, its highlighted lengths pulled to one shoulder. “You still like him,” she whispered.
The bell had rung, but Ms. Haber was still in her office, as she often was when class should’ve technically begun. We still had a few more minutes to talk.
Bobbi’s words echoed in my head, and I felt my lips purse. I shouldn’t, that’s for damned sure. It wasn’t like I was lacking for physical contact, having three undefined relationships with Vaughn, Dante, and Jacob. I didn’t need more dick to add to the roster, but…but I did. I still liked Archer Vega, despite it all.
Hmm. Speaking of undefined relationships—maybe that should be something we talked about.
“I think I do,” I muttered. “I don’t know why.” That was the question of the week, apparently. Why did I still like Archer Vega, even after everything he did? Why did I want to start new with him? He didn’t deserve another chance.
But, even though he was a liar who tended to jump to conclusions, he wasn’t that bad of a guy. Archer could’ve walked away when he found Ryan and his friends about to rape me in the locker room. He could’ve closed his eyes and walked away, or even joined in. No, he’d stepped in, saved me.
“The heart wants what it wants,” Bobbi spoke, sighing. “Sometimes you can’t help it.”
If that was true, then my heart was a greedy little bitch. I had feelings for them all, as weird as it sounded, and I’d come to depend on them all in different ways, for different things. Vaughn, Dante, Jacob…even Archer.
How the hell did I wind up in this mess?
Dante and Vaughn were not happy to hear about Archer. They were pissed that he’d come to my house to talk to Ollie, and that he’d talked with me afterward. Both guys looked like they wanted to kill the blonde; Dante wore a wistful look that told me he’d stab him if he had his switchblade on him, while Vaughn looked like he was busy calculating in his head.
It wasn’t too long ago that I’d joined up with Vaughn to figure out the dirt on him, after all, so I knew cooling these two’s heads would take some work.
“I want to try to let things go,” I said, earning myself a scowl from Vaughn and a skeptical smirk from Dante.
“Let things go?” Dante repeated, dark brows raising. The sides of his head had a bit of brown stubble growing on them; he needed to shave it soon, if he cared about showing off the tattoo that wrapped around the back and sides of his skull. “He’s a dickhead. You can’t just let things go. I’m telling you, he killed her—”
Vaughn sighed, not for the first time saying, “If you look at the cut wound on the finger—”
Dante waved him off. “Enough about the fucking finger. You’re not doing it.” That last part was spoken directly at me, since I was sitting next to him.
I prickled. “You can’t tell me what to do, Dante.”
“Uh, yeah, I totally can,” he said. “Those mischievous eyes, that long, black hair, that pretty mouth with those full lips—” Dante leaned closer to me, lowering his voice to add, “The other lips you’ve got between your legs, all mine.”
Vaughn glared.
“Ours,” Dante corrected himself, although it was begrudging. “Not Archer’s.”
I resisted my urge to push him away from me. A part of me liked the possessiveness Dante held—a possessiveness I knew was similar inside Vaughn, although he usually stuck to his silence—but right now, that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted some support; was that too much to ask?
“You don’t get to control me,” I told him, shooting a glance Vaughn’s way. “Neither do you.”
“Babe,” Dante said.
“You both think you own me, but you don’t. Ultimately, I decide what I do and who I spend my time with…that includes Archer and Jacob.” Neither one looked happy to hear that, but I couldn’t stop myself. “Things have been crazy in Midpark since I got here, and I need you two to understand that I need all of you.”
The table was silent, though the rest of the cafeteria was frigging louder than hell. The gossip of the school had moved away from Ryan’s funeral and was now officially back on me. Lucky me, I know.
Dante’s blue eyes, normally icy and wild, examined me in unusual silence, and Vaughn’s dark gaze was almost emotionless, his face devoid of anything that might tell me what he was thinking. Now would be a good time for one of them to talk.
Finally, Dante spoke, “Are you saying you want this—” He stuck a finger between him and Vaughn and gestured to all three of us. “—to be a permanent thing?”
God, could I really handle more than one boyfriend at a time? Two psychotic ones…one who probably would refuse to be called a boyfriend since he was so grumpy all the time…
You know, I never had a boyfriend to begin with. Sure, I saw a few boys behind my mom’s back, but we never really went out. Not exclusively. But the boys in my past were nothing compared to the men in it now. These guys, that’s what they were: men. Not boys.
I was in so much trouble when it came to them, besides the whole being a murder suspect thing.
“Am I crazy if I say yes?” I asked, watching as Dante’s lips slowly curled into a full-blown smirk that sent my insides tumbling.
