“I think that may be why,” I confessed. “She’s my best friend. I love her like a sister, probably more, but she has always cussed, and even when I was little, I knew she shouldn’t.”
Ash laughed out loud. “So, you’re saying Ava swears enough for both of you?”
“I think I am.” I bit my lip to stop the laugh. “Plus, you can articulate perfectly well without the f-word.”
Ash nodded as we walked, and I knew he was thinking about it. “But sometimes a goodfuckorbastardjustreallyemphasizes what you’re feeling, know what I mean?”
“No,” I told him with amusement.
“But you know what I mean, like when you’re balls deep in a girl and she’s working your dick hard, it’s impossible not to sayfuck.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I told him primly.
Ash chuckled and made a gesture as if to say,Obviously, but his look turned speculative. “I know I made you come—”
“Ash!” I hissed as I looked around wildly. “People can hear!”
“What? No one’s listening to us,” Ash carried on. “I know you had anorgasmictime with me.” His head tilted. “I remember those sweet,sweetmoans . . .” He spread his arms wide as he tilted his head back with his eyes closed, mocking me.
“Could you stop?” I asked him with enough bite that he grinned.
“I didn’t really notice at the time, because you were obviously loving it, but you never swore once.”
“So what? You want to broadcast our sex life to the campus because I don’t talk like trash when we’re having sex?”
“We have a sex life?” Ash asked me with curious interest. “Andtrash? Likethat’sbetter than what I said?”
“You know what I mean!” I muttered as I picked up the pace to get away from him.
His hand grabbed the hook on my backpack, pulling me into his large body. “Spell it out for me, Red.”
It was the low tone, the proximity, the stupid fluttering in my center — he was dangerous. So very dangerous. “Stop calling me Red,” I said instead.
“Say . . .fuck,” he whispered in my ear.
His body was too close to mine, his lips too near my already heated skin. “No.”
“Then Red it is.”
Whistling, he walked past me, and once again, I was left behind feeling confused at how quickly he could make me feel unsteady while he remained completely unaffected.
When we got to the coffee shop, I hurried to Ava’s side. I wanted — no, Ineeded— some stability.
“You’re flushed,” Ava said as she hugged me. “Did you run?”
I heard his low chuckle, and I forced myself to ignore it. “No, it’s cold out.”
“Hi,” Quinn greeted me as she pushed a coffee toward me. “We ordered for you.”
“Thank you.” I had to stop taking coffee and food from these people. And then I remembered my mom had told me to stop using the credit card, and I grimly realized that I may need to take the freebies while they were offered. Hating that idea, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my wallet. Handing ten dollars to Quinn, I explained it was for the coffee.
Ash snatched it out of my hand and strolled over to the counter with my money.
“What’s he doing?” I asked no one and everyone. “That’s my money.”
“You were giving it to Quinn,” Gray spoke up. He’d been so silent since we got there, with his head tilted back, I thought he’d been asleep. “Money’s fair game when it’s a Devil’s.”
Looking at Ava, who looked equally confused, I turned back to Quinn. “What does that even mean?”
