Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91299 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91299 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“Let me see.” He bends down to take a look at my feet, and my breath hitches.
“I’m fine,” I say, still overdoing the accent, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
He comes back up slowly, his eyes tracing my curves, lingering on my breasts before rising to my face. He stays there a long time, looking at me over the rim of his Solo cup. “Hmmmm. Nice shoes, by the way.”
“Why did you come if you thought it would be ridiculous?” I ask, surprised at the question coming from me. I shouldn’t invite conversation. I should get my ass out of here, but it’s him, and my body has other ideas. I want to draw this moment out, talk to him and pretend we don’t have a past. I really do, so much.
He huffs out a laugh and leans in. The music has gotten louder, and the only way to talk is to stand close. “Thought it might be fun if no one recognized me. Plus, there’s this girl. Thought she might show up.”
“Did she?”
He lowers his gaze on me in the dark room, searching my face. His lips curve up. “I don’t see her yet.”
Ah. I swallow. “Maybe any girl would do. No need to wait for just one.”
“Hmmm, you think? I really want to get to know her better. Crazy, right?”
“What makes her special?”
“She’s hot. Like fucking amazing.”
“There’s a plethora of those around.” I wave my hand at the darkened room.
He laughs. “Who says words like ‘plethora’?”
“Smart girls.”
“This girl…she’s smart. Smarter than me. She’ll be somebody cool someday.”
“Good. You should lock that down.”
His eyes flicker with a penetrating look as he reaches out and touches the corner of my mask. I stand immobile, letting him trace the outline. “Thought about it. Wasn’t worth the pain.”
Wasn’t worth the pain.
He drops his hand when Penelope shows back up, looking harried. She comes to a halt in front of me, does a double take at Blaze, then leans over and whispers, “Came out of the restroom with Margo waving at me. She’s cornered. Theta inquisition time. You good if I dash over and help then come right back?” Her eyes sweep from me to him. “I can’t leave her. You know how she mouths off when it comes to them, and we don’t need a war with these girls.”
I send her a pleading look—to not leave me or leave me, I don’t know—then she pivots and quick-steps it away from us.
“She ran off fast. She seemed super familiar too,” he muses, smiling.
“She’s a freshman. I doubt you know her. She doesn’t get out much. Neither of us do.”
“Ah, I see. You gonna leave too?” he says.
“No.”
He mulls that over. “Thought you might.”
“Well, I’m not.”
It feels as if our words are layered with more meaning, but I brush them off.
The DJ switches to a faster song and a strobe light kicks around the space, flashing over his face before bouncing off. It’s a funhouse on steroids, and the buzz from the tequila warms my blood.
People squeeze by us, and he maneuvers closer to me, pressing a hand on the wall behind me to keep a few inches between us. Shit.
He stares down at me, and I avoid his gaze.
“Man, this place is nuts,” he murmurs in my ear. “It’s better upstairs. You want to go?”
I lick my lips. “What about this girl? Are you like, in love with her?”
My breath holds tight in my chest, and I don’t move a muscle as we stare at each other.
“I don’t know what love is, actually.” He tucks his hands in his pockets, straightening and pulling away. “Do you?”
“I think it’s when you can’t think of a person without aching to see them.”
“I see.”
I nod. “The person you love can hurt you, though. You have to be careful.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be careful anymore. Sometimes you just have to let go, right?”
“Maybe.”
He leans in closer, and my body trembles.
He looks down at me and whispers in my ear, his lips barely touching the top. “I don’t want to be careful tonight, babe. Are you with me?”
Several seconds pass as neither of us speaks.
I should walk away. I really, really should.
He gestures to the drink I’m holding at my side. “You gonna drink that or just stare down at it all night?”
“Why do you care?” I laugh, looking up at him, my mind circling back to his comment about love.
He doesn’t know what it is.
How is that possible? Hasn’t he ever been in love? He wasn’t with me, but surely at some point…
He touches a piece of my hair from my ponytail. “I want to dance. Finish it. Let’s see how good a dancer you are, freshman.”
I drink it down. “I have skills that will blow your mind.”
“Oh, I bet you do. ” He takes the cup from me, his fingers touching mine, and puts it on the floor next to my feet along with his own.