Page 128 of Crew Princess
I wound my arms tighter around him. I couldn’t talk. My throat was full with emotion, so I moved my hips. His hands grasped under my thighs, and he began to move with me. We rode each other until both of us came, and even then, I didn’t want to release him.
“Cross,” I whispered, not able to speak again.
His head was buried into my neck and shoulder. He shook it, just hugging me to him. “Not yet. God. Not yet.”
We stayed.
Long after the water was turned off, long after both our bodies grew cold, long after the air began to dry us.
We stayed.
Then we heard the doorbell ring, and I knew the world had come back to us.
Groaning, Cross let me back down, and without speaking, we both dried and dressed. I was combing my fingers through my hair as we walked out into the hallway.
I could hear Tabatha’s voice and Sunday’s laugh. Race. The gang was here. All of them.
I headed for the door. Cross was right behind me, then I opened it and heard Cross swear behind me.
Blaise stood there. A few steps back stood Zeke, with more of them waiting in vehicles on the street. I saw a few girls, but mostly the same guys we had fought with before.
Cross stepped around me, taking point. “Are youfuckingkidding me?”
“Just wait.” Blaise stepped back, his hands in the air. “Wait. Please.”
Zeke jerked forward.
“You take one more goddamn step, and I’m coming out there to remove your head from your body,” Cross said.
Blaise turned. “Stop. I believe him.”
Zeke lowered his head. “I believe him too. Doesn’t mean I’m leaving my best friend up there alone.”
I cocked my head.
Zeke had a submissive air to him, but he was still defiant. I believedhim. If Cross took a step out, Zeke would be coming in, no matter how much of a beatdown he was certain to get. He was loyal. I hadn’t seen that one coming.
“Look. Let me talk, okay? Just a minute.” Blaise still had his hands in the air. He lowered them and shifted to look behind us, into the house, but Cross moved to block him. “Okay. Okay. I didn’t know. Okay? I didn’t know about who you were, who—” He jerked his head up, indicating behind us. “About her. I had no clue.”
Cross was rigid, tension seeping from every pore.
I moved closer, leaning against him, and I placed my hand on his back. He sucked in a breath, releasing it slowly. Some of the tension left him. Some. Not enough.
But he was listening.
Blaise spoke faster, wetting his lips. “I was always told I was an only kid, that my dad was some jackass who didn’t give a shit about me. I had no clue. Honestly. Then my folks are suddenly getting a divorce. We’re moving back here where my mom grew up, and she’s got some random dude coming around.”
Cross growled.
“No offense, but can you see it from my point of view? My momjustdivorced my dad. My dad doesn’t give one iota of caring any-fucking-thing about me anymore, and this new guy is coming in and acting all fatherly. It pissed me the fuck off. Who’s this guy? I wasn’t told shit. Nothing. Nada. Then I know Zeke from way back. We reconnect. That’s great and all. My old best friend is still here, so things aren’t great, but they’re decent, and thenbam. He tells me about the crews in Roussou. You guys blew up some of our buddies’ cars out of nowhere—”
“You sent two of your assholes to burn our school down.”
Zeke took two steps to the side—not toward us, but onto the lawn for a better vantage point. “Wereallyweren’t behind that. Swear to pussy. We weren’t. Those two assholes don’t go to our school. We don’t even know who they are.Youguystold us about them. That was the first we’d heard about it. So yeah, we beat your boy down, but we knew you were close by. We knew you’d intervene. We wouldn’t get too bad on him. That’s what we were thinking, and it worked. You guys showed up. You beat our asses. And then that was going to be it for us. You exploded our cars. We beat your boy down. It was done, as far as we were concerned.”
“Then you guys came to our school,” Blaise said.
Zeke made a frustrated sound. “Yeah. I mean, fine. You show up at our school? Our campus? Our girls are there? You bet your fucking ass we’re going to fight. You brought the fight to us, man.”
