Page 10 of Hush, Hush

“Careful,” she smirks. “Your jealousy is showing.”

I can’t hold back the laugh that rips from my throat. One thing I’ve never been jealous of is the way Keegan uses girls. I’ve carefully planned our relationship out. When we finally do get together, he’s with me and only me. I won’t even remember Anne-Marie’s name. “Not a chance,” I tell her.

Striking, hard blue eyes meet mine. Jaw clenched and shoulders stock still, he glares straight into my eyes. The tension between us thrums with electricity. “I’ve got another word.” He dangles the carrot in the air like we’re puppets waiting on his every word. “Virgin.”

My ears ring, tuning everything out except for the very word that just came out of his mouth. I shift my gaze to Anne-Marie who has her hands over her mouth, round, stunned eyes crinkling at the corners, clearly betraying the fact that she’s laughing.

“Keegan, what the fuck?” Devon barks. He places his coffee cup down on the table with a bang.

Keegan doesn’t pay attention to him. He snickers after watching my reaction. Mortified doesn’t even begin to cover it. Our world is built on secrecy, and he just took the most private part of me and laid it bare. What twenty-one-year-old is a virgin nowadays? Especially someone who—on the outside—has everything.

The worst part? I know for a fact that he loves that I’m a virgin. Why is he trying to use it against me?

“Thanks for inviting me for coffee, Keegan,” Anne-Marie simpers. “This has been super entertaining.”

She’ll make me the laughingstock of the school now, which was probably his goal all along.

“Hey.” Devon reaches over to squeeze my leg. “You okay?”

Behind me, a rough voice permeates the tension ping-ponging between the four of us. “French vanilla cappuccino?”

I turn. A guy in a stained barista apron stands in front of me. Stubble dots his cheeks until it disappears into cocoa-colored hair that curls around the outer edges of a dark green cap. He looks like a local. Not to sound catty, but there’s a difference. Everyone that attends school here looks like they ate caviar for breakfast, yet he looks down-to-earth and normal as he balances a white, ceramic cup on a matching saucer.

Instead of answering him, I turn to Keegan. “You know, glad you brought that up. I should take care of that, shouldn’t I?” Standing abruptly, I inadvertently force the barista back with my drink order in his hands. I take it from him and set it down on the black coffee table at my back before facing him again. “You’re good looking.”

Burnt crimson highlights his cheeks. The same rough voice comes out. “Thank you.”

“And...you look like you could help me out with a problem I’m having.”

The guy squints, turning his head like he doesn’t catch my meaning.

Of course he doesn’t understand what I’m doing. What kind of crazy girl propositions their barista before their morning caffeine fix?

“Don’t you dare,” a dark voice threatens from behind me.

I don’t know if Keegan is talking to me or my new friend, but I don’t care. He wants to humiliate me, I can retaliate. After all, that’s how business is done. “What’s your name?” I ask my new friend, ignoring the male testosterone building behind me. If his hormones were a physical object, they would be a spiked battering ram aimed straight at me, I’m sure.

“She doesn’t care,” Keegan snaps.

The barista shifts his gaze over my shoulder, but I regain his attention by placing my hand on his jaw. His thick stubble tickles my palms. I’m an asshole for doing this, but I forge ahead because the embarrassment is all too real right now. I breathe out, making him look at me. “I actually do. I may go to this school, but I’m not a dick like everyone else.”

The last comment was definitely for Keegan, and it must have hit my intended target because he comes up behind me, bringing his anger with him. Wrapping his arm through mine, he tugs me away. “What are you doing?” he growls.

“Keegan,” I protest as I’m being dragged toward the café door like a child. He holds on tight, not giving me an inch of space. I can’t stop us so I just go with it. Looking back, I watch as Devon talks the barista out of following me, and I make a note to apologize to him later. I shouldn’t have brought him into it. “Keegan, let me go,” I demand as we step outside.

He doesn’t free me until we’re on the opposite side of the building. Forcing me against the stone wall, he leans in, seething. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I lift my chin in the air. “What amIdoing? You just told everyone I’m a virgin. That’s private.” The backside of my eyes heat. Tears pool in the corners. I’m desperate to erase what just happened. Call me an idealist, but I really was waiting for the perfect opportunity to share myself with Keegan, and here he’s gone and thrown the one thing I kept sacred in my face.

“Everyone? Spare me the dramatics.”

“You know Anne-Marie won’t keep her mouth shut,” I grind out. “It’s why you did it. You want to humiliate me.”

He licks his lips. Those same eyes that stared down at me with so much concern when he pulled me out of the water when I was four now stare down at me with an emotion so contrasting that it nearly takes my breath away. “What if I don’t care if everyone knows? I’m stakingmyclaim. Everyone is aware of our situation. They’ll all realize you’re saving yourself for me.”

“Maybe I won’t after this, Keegan.” I’m exhausted. It shouldn’t be this hard to be with someone. “You’ve taken it too far. You can’t bully me into having sex with you.”

“I don’t need to bully you into doing anything. You want it, Dee. Tell me you haven’t thought about my cock pumping inside that sweet pussy of yours.”

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