Page 54 of The Pawn

Before I can decide what to do—plunge in or pull out—I hear a giggle. High heels clacking against the aged hardwood floors. Cruel whispers. Mean girls.

Jerking back, I push Tanner away, my shirt pushed up where his hands have been, skirt twisted around my hips and barely covering my thighs. Cheeks flushed, breath heaving, wild and frenzied, I cast my eyes towards the culprits.

Georgia and Piper have their phones out and are recording us, cruel laughter in their eyes.

"Brenna Cooke," Georgia calls out, my lie of a name in her mouth the only reprieve i get from her rich girl cruelty. "How does it feel to be the Whore of Coleridge? Like the Whore of Babylon, only worse."

"Shut up, Georgia." I smooth my outfit as much as possible, wiping my mouth off with the back of my hand. "Slut shaming is so passé. We left it in the '90s along with the Rachel haircut and those low-rise jeans you're wearing."

She scowls, hand on her hips, and cuts her eyes over at Tanner. "Are you going to let her talk to me like that?"

I let myself look his way for the first time since the terrible twosome crashed our party. There's heat in his cheeks, desire in his eyes, and he's adjusting what's most definitely an erection in his pants, which he quietly zips up with a wince. I don't know if he called Georgia here, but if he did, I find myself wild and uncaring.

My reputation doesn't matter, after all. I'm not here to be the good girl. The only thing Georgia will prove by posting that video of us on social media is that she can't keep his attention without her petty little games—and a girl she calls trailer trashcan.

I try not to think about how I'll feel if my mom, or Wally, or anyone else back home sees me making out and nearly dry-humping a boy with more marks on his bedposts than I can imagine.

Tanner tells Georgia, "I don't care how she talks to you." Looking over at me, he smirks, then glances back at the other girls. "Say whatever you want. Hell, fight in front of me—it's the hottest thing I can imagine. I'll fuck whoever wins. Or both of you, if you want."

As Georgia stares at him in open-mouthed outrage and horror, he runs a hand through his hair and leans up against the bookshelves, barely even trying to hide his obvious arousal. "You shouldn't have fucked that dumbass last week if you wanted me to choose you. Now you've given me an excuse to screw around."

"But withher?" She can't hide her disdain and doesn't try to. "That girl probably only wants you for your money. She's probablyinbred.Or some out-of-wedlock whatever."

"A bastard," Piper helpfully reminds Georgia. "They call them bastards when their trashy dads screw around on their trashy moms without a condom."

"Exactly!" Georgia snaps her fingers together, as the fire inside me turns from the gentle warmth of desire to the hot, roaring flame of rage. "She's probably going to trap you with her loose lips. I bet she's not even on birth control—girls like her basically beg for it bare back, because a teenage pregnancy is their only way out of their hell holes they grow up in."

Tanner shrugs. "So? You act like you've never drunkenly ridden me without latex. That's what the Plan B under your sink is for, Georgia."

I can't keep from scowling and telling all of them, "I havezerointerest in getting pregnant with his spawn."

"Oh, whatever." Georgia flicks her fingers at me. "The only hope you have of any kind of life worth living is taking somebody's husband by being easy and fertile. Thing is, whores don't get far. Men like him and his father don't marry the first girl they get pregnant. You'll be forgotten and discarded like all the trifling mistresses you came before you."

"Enough!"

The roar of a command is impossibly loud, full of venom and rage, and comes not from my mouth, but from Tanner's lips. He advances on Georgia, suddenly angry beyond all reason, his hands forming fists. She takes a step back, shock on her face as he prowls towards her.

"I should've seen you for what you were sooner. Delete that video and shut your mouth, Georgia, or I'll take that snap you sent me of you giving someone else a blowjob straight to your father and mother."

"You wouldn't!" She clutches on Piper's arms, shrinking back. The blonde, for her part, looks like she's regretting coming along for this sick and twisted ride. "That snap shouldn't have even been savable."

"Yeah, well, I found a way to keep it. I had the feeling you might try to blackmail me one day, just like you blackmailed Tommy Franklin last year." My eyebrows go up at this particular accusation; I didn't think Georgia was capable of machinations like blackmail. "Leave me the fuck alone, Georgie, because if it's not a quick lay you're offering, I'm not interested. The amount of drama you bring to the table isn't worth what it."

Fierce victory fills me at the sight of hurt and pain in Georgia's gaze. She stares at Tanner, tears shimmering—and then cuts her eyes at me, expression suddenly filled with anger and hate.

Vitriol in her voice, she promises, "You'll pay for this, your gutter trash whore."

Then she grabs Piper's arm and pulls her out of the library in her wake, heading through the back door. As soon as she's gone, it's like the air has lifted and the library feels lighter somehow, free from her presence.

Turning to me, Tanner arches a brow and asks, "Care to make a wager, Fire Girl?"

I'm about to ask him the details when my phone buzzes. Normally I wouldn't answer, but some instinct of mine drives me to pull it out and glance at the screen.

The notification sends anticipation and anxiety alike rushing through me.

Subject:I've got dirt on George Connally Jr

Looking back into Tanner's eyes, I wonder why it is that I suddenly feel like a traitor. After everything he's done, he should be down on his knees in front of me, begging for my forgiveness. Whatever is waiting in my inbox, he deserves it—and then some.

---