Page 81 of The Teacher of Nothing
Dempsey mutters something under his breath.
“What’s that?” I growl.
“I said you don’t have to be a dick,” Dempsey snaps.
“This dick just saved your asses from a media frenzy. This dick just saved your dad’s campaign.” I poke a finger at Spencer. “The least you four could do was act appreciative.”
I hear Willa’s thank you muttered softly among Gemma’s crying and Dempsey’s huffing. Spencer is quiet, but I can sense his anger in the way he keeps fisting and uncurling his hand. I bet he’d like to punch me in the throat. I’d like to see him try.
As soon as we pull up in front of Dad’s house, I make a motion for them to get out of my car. Gemma stomps over to Hugo’s house, our brother and Spencer on her heels. I put the car in reverse before Willa can decide to join me up front. With her in the back seat, it’s easier to stay pissed at her.
“Callum…”
Her voice is soft and barely reaches me in the front seat. I pretend not to hear. Ignoring her futile attempts to speak to me, I focus on the road and my anger. Not the nervous rushes of her breathing or the occasional sniffle. It’ll only weaken me and I need to stay pissed.
I will not beg someone to be loyal to me.
When we’re near her house, I put the vehicle into park and drum my fingers on the steering wheel in an impatient way that says, “Get the fuck out of my car already.” She doesn’t move.
“Callum—”
“Get out.”
I meet her eyes in the mirror. They’re round, clearly shocked at my words and the venom behind them.
“W-What?”
“I said get out of my fucking car, Miss Reyes.”
She leans forward and curls her fingers around my bicep. “Callum, can we talk?”
I jerk my body away from her grip and scowl over my shoulder at her. This close, I’m tempted to get lost in her pretty, innocent features. I crave to kiss her supple lips and pretend this is all a damn nightmare.
“I can’t talk to you,” I clip out. “Not now. Not…ever.”
She sucks in a harsh breath. “What? Why? Because I went to the party?”
I grit my teeth and wince at the pain that shoots through my jaw before relaxing slightly so I don’t break my teeth. “Because you’re a liar,” I snarl. “And a fucking cheater.”
A shocked gasp escapes her and then she’s scrambling out of the car. The door slams behind her. I can’t help but fixate on her barely clothed ass—an ass that Spencer was grinding against this evening. She stops mid-step and then whirls around. Like a storm of fury, she charges my way. She beats her fist on the glass until I lower the window.
“You’re an asshole, Callum,” she spits out, tears welling but not falling. “You didn’t even give me a chance to explain myself.”
I scoff and sneer at her. “Explain yourself? The pictures explained it all. I saw how you were five seconds away from a fucking threesome with my goddamn brother and nephew! For fuck’s sake, Willa, you had to have known how this would destroy me.”
Her bottom lip wobbles and a tear leaks free. She hastily swipes it away and her nostrils flare.
“I’m notherand yet you keep comparing me to her,” she hisses, reaching into the car and poking me hard on the arm. “I am not like Jamie, and deep down you know it, but you’re just too stupid to see it.”
“Youliedto me,” I snap, glowering up at her through the open window. “You said you wouldn’t go to the party and you went anyway. I didn’t even get as much as a courtesy text.”
She blinks at me several times, her expressions a constant war of hurt and anger. What the hell does she have to be angry about? I’m the one who was wronged here.
“You clearly don’t trust me and probably never will.” She tears her gaze from mine to stare up at the sky. “I guess it’s not going to work out after all.”
She’s so damn beautiful with the moonlight shining over her silky hair and highlighting her pretty face. I ache for what could have been between us. Up until tonight, everything felt so real. So perfect. And now it’s ruined. Once again, I got lulled into a false sense of security by a beautiful young woman.
An ugly villain in a lovely package.
