I pull my hair up and start piling it into a ponytail. I hold it with one hand as I reach into my bag and search for a hair tie. I am fumbling around to no avail before a black bobble is held in front of my face from behind.
“Here,” His voice is gruff, and it sends a shiver down my spine at how close it is.
I turn and wrinkle my nose in disgust.
“No thanks,”
He chuckles. “Why, you need one don’t you?”
“Not one that has any essence of Darcy on it thank you very much,” I snap.
His face drops. “It’s not Darcy’s,”
I snort. “Sure,”
“It’s not,”
I stare at him.
“Just take the damn bobble Rue,” He snaps back.
Rue. He called me Rue.
Not Ruella, not little Vixen and not dirty money.
It feels better than it should.
I snatch the tie from his fingers and make quick work of wrapping it around. I try my best to go back to ignoring him while I burn hotter and hotter.
It turns out impossible when I feel him wrap his feet around my chair legs and drag them closer to his row behind me, his position slightly higher, giving him a dominance I enjoy.
I suck in a breath when I feel his hands around my ponytail as he half’s it and pulls, making the tie squeeze tighter to my scalp.
“Do I make you nervous?” He whispers in my ear so only I can here.
“Not at all,”
“Then why can’t you stop that hand from tapping your thigh?” He smugly asks.
I freeze before I pull my hand away from where it was, in fact, tapping away.
“Sorry,”
He pulls back and frowns. “Why would you be sorry?”
I clear my throat at the conditioned response I have from so many years of slaps for doing that same action.
“I know it’s annoying,”
“I don’t find it annoying. It shows me the real you beneath all that tough outer shell you try to bullshit everyone with,”
I turn my head to inspect him, yet this time he isn’t being playful. It’s the same genuine boy who sat with me in the billiard room. The one who laughed and danced around to make me feel better. The one who listened and opened himself up. To me. Not Darcy. Me.
The moment is shattered.
“Miss Griffiths,” Mr. Chapman shouts from the front of the hall as Asher leans back into his row.
“I need to speak with you after class,”
