Even so, I try to hold on to my composure. I try to hold on to the authority in my voice. “As if.”
“As if what?”
“As if I would’ve… let you or even stayed.”
“I think you would’ve.” He keeps his gaze steady and unwavering, both intense and slightly amused. “And I think you would’ve enjoyed it too. Girls love it when I give them my attention. They’re known to even beg for it. On their knees particularly.”
My knees tingle at that as if zapped by a current. They buckle too.
As if they’re going to bend. As if I’m going to fall.
But I won’t.
“I’m not like other girls,” I tell him. “I don’t beg.”
Something about that makes him smirk. “Every girl begs. She just needs the right thing to beg for.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “My brothers would kill you.”
I’m the Thorn Princess, as he said.
That’s what they call me. I’m the princess, the little sister of four legendary soccer gods who so completely hate him.
“I think I can handle myself,” he says, all casual like.
“You should be afraid of my brothers, you know.”
“Why is that?”
“There’s four of them and only one of you.”
“So?”
“So you shouldn’t talk to me this way.”
He gives me a once-over before asking in an amused voice, “Why, does it make you want to beg me for something?”
“It doesn’t –”
“You shouldn’t worry about me too much. As I said, I can handle myself.”
I think so too.
He looks so cavalier, so fearless.Reckless.
My brothers could crush him if they wanted to.
My brothers could crushanyguy if they wanted to and everyone in this town knows that. Everyone in Bardstown is afraid of them.
Not him though.
Not Reed Roman Jackson.
He never was and he never will be.
I mean, look at what just happened on the field. What happens every time on the field and also off it. And before I can stop myself, I ask, “Why do you hate Ledger so much?”
“Who says I hate him?”
