Mason was feeling daring and bold this morning. “You sure have a lot of fucking rules about where we can’t put our lips.”
Maddox coughed, covering a laugh.
Mason just grinned.
Kreed shook his head, his foot easing back onto the gas, and handed me back my coffee. Our fingers brushed as I took it.
This was what every morning was like on the drive into school.Weirdly, I liked it. I enjoyed the chaotic banter between the three of them.
We were only a few miles from school when I got a prickling sensation at the base of my skull, spreading slowly up the back of my neck. It was an instinctive hum of awareness I’d become far too familiar with over the past several months. It wasn’t a good feeling. It never was.
The problem was pinpointing the source. I sipped my coffee and stared out the window. Was it possible we were being followed? I twisted slightly in my seat, trying to make the movement look casual as I glanced through the rear window. The tinted glass made it difficult to see clearly, but I could make out the familiar shape of Evan’s black sedan following at the usual discreet distance. Of course, we were being followed. My assigned security detail was doing exactly what Donovan paid him to do.
I took another sip of coffee, forcing myself to draw a slow, controlled breath.You’re being paranoid. You’re just rattled from this morning. There’s nothing out there.
Except Rusty, and that gave me reason to be spooked.
Kreed noticed my sudden change; of course, he did. He noticed everything when it came to me. His gaze flicked sideways from the road, then up to the rearview mirror, and I watched his eyes narrow. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I lied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Just feeling out of sorts this morning. Didn’t sleep well.” Always blame it on sleep.
“You’d sleep a lot better in my room.”
My lips twitched. Since returning to the Corvo estate, we’d been sleeping in separate rooms despite Kreed’s protest. I hadn’t wanted to give his father another reason to come down on Kreed. I was trying to protect him for once. “Maybe,” I conceded.
“Does that mean you’re finally giving in, little raven?” His tone dropped, richer, amused.
“How about we get through school first?”
“If we’re taking votes for whose bed she sleeps in, I’m putting my name into the hat,” Mason chimed in from the back, walking a thin line of death because Kreed was going to kill him.
I braced myself for another halting stop, but Kreed’s foot pressed harder onto the gas.
Shit.
Turning in my seat, I shot Mason a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing glare. “It wouldn’t matter. I’m not sleeping in your bed.”
“I have a huge bed. It’s definitely more comfortable than Kreed’s or Mason’s,” Maddox added, jumping on this crazy offer of sleeping arrangements I had no interest in entertaining.
My eyebrows crashed together. “Seriously?”
“Just letting you know you have options,” Maddox said with an earnest shrug that somehow made it worse.
“She doesn’t,” Kreed snapped. “I’m her only option.”
Mason folded his arms across his chest. “Is that so? And why is that?”
Why the fuck were they baiting him?
Kreed’s eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, giving new meaning to if looks could kill.
A knowing smirk curled on Mason’s lips. “You could just admit you love her.”
Holy. Shit.
I froze. My heart stopped. The world went still.
Everything inside me froze—my breath, my pulse, my ability to blink. Even the goddamn air stilled in my lungs.
