When we reach the cab, I kiss Lily on the cheek and take the box from her.
“I saved your fish tacos,” she says.
I’m glad since I hadnothingto eat. I was too concentrated on unnecessary drama than my food. She keeps her hands cupped in front of her, but I’d like nothing more than to wrap her in my arms and kiss her for a long, extended moment.
She bites her bottom lip, which shallows my breath and beats my heart. All my anger suddenly depletes as I imagine what I can do to her. How I could take her so hard and so fast that she’ll cry in such searing pleasure.
I am used to having sex with her every single day. And I know she fears that I’ll resent her for withholding sex, but the new frequency only makes the next time we fuck even headier.
I draw her to my chest and lean my head low, my lips brushing her ear. I want to whisper how she makes me feel and how I plan to take her so many different ways. But I can’t promise her things that won’t happen. I can’t even bring her to the beach to screw because that would be considered public sex.
So I just land on the truth, “I love you,” I whisper.
She stands on the tips of her toes and kisses me sweetly on the lips. I run my hand through her hair and then bite her shoulder playfully before setting an equally chaste kiss on her neck. She shivers in my arms, and I don’t tempt her anymore. I fear that one kiss may drive her to want more. It hasn’t since her public humiliation, but I know it can be all too easy to go back there.
We climb into the cab, Lily and I on the middle seat, and Daisy squeezing beside her sister. Rose and Connor take the front, and Ryke and Melissa are happily snug in the back.
Ryke has Melissa pinned against the back of the seat. I can barely see her behind his broad shoulders. Sitting up, her legs wrap around his waist, and his body melds into hers. His hand disappears underneath her shirt, and his lips devour hers hungrily. She can’t stifle a sharp breath as he sucks her neck.
She grips his back, lost to his hands and his tongue. Lily is going to be jealous. Fuck,I’mjealous. While Melissa has her eyes shut, Ryke’s are open, and he meets my gaze while he bites her bottom lip. And he glares at me, basically saying,I hate that I have to do this.But it’s the right thing to do. And frankly, I don’t care that he’s pissed about it. Leading Melissa on—that’s fine (all she wants is sex anyway). Leading Daisy on—that’s not okay.
I turn my back to him just as Daisy leans over to slide the door closed. If she notices Ryke and Melissa’s make-out session, she doesn’t say a word about it.
The cab bumps along the uneven street, the strip lit up in the darkness, club signs blinking and twinkling. Constantly calling me.
I open the to-go box and pull out a fish taco, taking a bite while Lily rests her head on my shoulder.
Connor spins around in his seat to face us. “Did you get your test score back?” he asks Lily.
She sits up immediately. And I curse him for causing her to drift from me. Even though Lily is technically the cheater here, studying old exams. “I’m doing well,” she says vaguely.
“That’s not really what I asked.”
Her cheeks redden. “Yeah, I got the test back.”
“That bad, huh?” He turns to Rose. “I told you that Sebastian isn’t that smart. He bought his way into Princeton. You should have let Joseph Kim teach her.”
“Sebastianissmart,” Rose refutes. “You don’t know him like I do.”
Connor wears a blank face, but if he’d show true emotion at all, I think he’d be upset by that.
“I actually did well,” Lily says.
Connor can’t hide his frown. “What’swell?A 75?”
I cut in, hating to beat around this bush, but Lily is too nervous to come out and say it. “She made a 95 on her Statistics exam.” Before Connor opens his mouth, I add, “She didn’t want to hurt your tutoring feelings.”
Rose beams and tilts her head at Connor. “What were you saying about Sebastian?”
“Wait…” Connor holds his hand at her face. Rose’s eyes grow, incensed by the hand. I think she’s going to bite his fingers off. “Was there a curve?”
“No,” Lily says.
Rose grabs Connor’s hand. “Why can’t you believe that Sebastian is a good tutor?” she asks.
He covers her mouth with his other palm, not done grilling Lily. “Did you take Adderall?”
Rose smacks her purse at Connor’s chest, beating him with the damn clutch until he drops his hand from her mouth. “That was unnecessary.” She points a finger at him.
