Page 21 of Serpentine Valentine
Humiliation and anger joined forces inside me. “Shut up, Beckett.”
“What she said,” Pierce snapped, tugging me even closer to his chest as if he could shield me from his teammate. “There’s no winning with you, man. A girl is either a slut or a prude. Which would you rather?”
It was a good point, one that made me like my boyfriend even more, and I liked him plenty before.
But Beckett was the kind of man who’d been fed small doses of misogyny his whole life. Just little things like: girls are ruled by theiremotions, not their intellect; girls aren’t as good at sports; girls shouldn’t show too much skin or flirt with too many boys,butif a girl isn’t attractive to boys, she doesn’t exist positively in the male mind.
So it wasn’t surprising when he waggled his brows and said, “I’d rather a slut, of course.”
“Oh yeah, you want some sloppy seconds or sixteenths like Lex Gorgon?” Potter asked, his lip curled into a sneer.
That surprised me. Potter was usually a quiet, nice guy. He struggled with acne, and his curly hair was beyond his control. I’d never seen him with a woman before, and the guys teased him about it.
Maybe that was why he said what he did. Because deep down, he hated Lex a little for not giving him the possibility of her affections when he thought she was otherwise so indiscriminate.
My stomach hurt, cramped around the unfairness of the conversation. I thought I might be sick.
“Dude, a guy could get herpes after just looking at her for too long,” Beckett joked, and the rest of the table laughed.
Words sat on my tongue alongside the bile that rose from the back of my throat.
I should say something, I thought desperately, wanting to.
But I didn’t.
And why didn’t I?
Sure, I didn’t know Lex, not really. What the guys said could have even been true, but still, shouldn’t I defend her? Whether she was promiscuous or not, she didn’t deserve to be talked about like that. Like an object on display. Like their criticism somehow determined her worth. Especially after she’d been assaulted and left like garbage tossed in the forest.
It was wrong. I felt that in my gut and knew it in my head, but I didn’t say anything.
It made me realize that I wasn’t drawn to Lex because she was defiant.
I was drawn to her because she was courageous.
Maybe I wanted to be in her orbit in the hopes some of that would rub off on my regular ole cowardly heart.
“You okay, babe?” Pierce asked, bumping my shoulder with his forehead to draw my attention to his tender smile. “It’s like I’m holding a wood board in my arms instead of my girlfriend.”
I smiled weakly and tipped my head against his. “I think I’m just tired. I’m going to head back to my apartment for an early night.”
Lies.
“You want company?” he asked immediately, handsome brow creased. “I’ll even watchPride & Prejudicewith you for the four thousandth time.”
I almost choked on my startled laughter. “You’re so good to me, you know that?”
“I do,” he agreed with that easy charm Pierce Argent was known for throughout campus. Combined with his rich brown hair and long-lashed eyes, the flecks of cinnamon dusted across his cheeks, and the physique that made him captain and leading scorer for the Acheron U hockey team, he was the most popular guy on campus.
And he was, somehow, mine.
It still caught me off guard sometimes. Watching him across the cafeteria laughing with his jock buddies, seeing women swarm him like moths to a vibrant flame, hearing people cheer his name in the stands at games.
People said we were a perfect match. Mr. & Miss Popular Jock.
But there was an intangible quality to our relationship. Something missing. No, not something…me. Every time he touched me, I felt like a ghost, his fingers passing through me, his passions as easily ignored as mist moving over my skin.
Which killed me because Pierce was the best man I’d ever known. He was sweet and thoughtful without losing that edge that made him cool. He remembered everything about me, even things I often forgot, and he loved me. Our relationship wasn’t fiery or overly physical, but hanging out with Pierce was one of the only times I felt like I wasn’t going insane.
