“Hear what?” I asked, patting my jacket to make sure I’d remembered to bring my cigarettes from the pool house. I needed regular smoke breaks to keep calm.
“About your dad’s car. The pictures are in all the papers,” he informed me in tones of delight, and I stopped mid-stride.
“What?” I asked, bewildered.
“This dumbass fully set fire to William’s car.Boom.It exploded, and the resulting fireball has been immortalized in every newspaper and tabloid in the city,” Luke explained, flicking his cigarette butt in an outdoor ashtray. I followed the movement before looking back at Xavier, trying to understand. Sure, I had been the one who gave him the green light to get his revenge on William, but not in such an egregious way that a flock of reporters was drawn down on him.
“Why do you always have to be such a dick, huh?” I shoved him away from me, and he broke into laughter, completely unintimidated. I didn’t give a shit if the other students saw us or heard us; he’d crossed a line this time.
He was allowed to get his own back, yes, but within reason.
“You were the one who told me I could do it,” he said defensively. I advanced on him furiously and stared him down with a threatening look on my face.
“Yes, but you weren’t supposed to blow up his car. Jesus Christ! You were supposed to do something that would piss him off…not something that would draw media attention,” I hissed through gritted teeth, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
What was he expecting? A round of applause? Or maybe I was supposed to bullshit him and compliment him on his great job?
“Neil has a point about that. I did warn you.” We both ignored Luke’s contribution to the conversation.
“Come on. Don’t be melodramatic. What’s the big deal? That prick got what he deserved,” Xavier insisted, apparently not realizing that he had also exposed himself to serious risk and that was my fault too.
“That is not the point. Everyone in New York knows my father; he’s the CEO of a major corporation. Do you understand what I’m telling you?” I rubbed my face, hoping William wouldn’t send one of his goons to figureout what had happened. If he really wanted to, he could have gotten to Xavier and had him behind bars in a matter of hours. Scratches in the paint job, a few flat tires, or a broken window—those could have been dismissed as simple vandalism from some local gang of kids, but setting the entire car on fire? That was a threat, and it was going to put him on high alert.
“Relax. He’s got no evidence. I made sure there weren’t any cameras around. It’s not like I did it right outside his building, so unclench.” Xavier continued to dismiss the situation, and I shook my head in frustration. Trying to reason with him or even get through to him really was pointless. Of the entire Krew, he was the one most likely to do irreparable damage. I was just as crazy as he was, but the difference between us was that Xavier enjoyed tempting fate; he always wanted to go over the edge.
I gave up trying to explain it to him more clearly and decided that if my father came to me with questions, I’d just deny everything. He was a shrewd man, though, and he surely recalled that he’d just gotten into it with Xavier and me and that we were the two people most likely to have beef with him.
I stalked furiously toward the school’s entrance. I was already late for my meeting with Professor Robinson.
He wasn’t in his office when I arrived, but the door was open, so I walked in and took a seat in front of his large, messy desk.
“Welcome to the neighborhood, Miller.”
I turned to see Megan slouched sensually in the chair next to me. Could I really not have noticed her there? Apparently so, because, in addition to being on edge, I was eternally lost in my own thoughts.
“Fuck,” I said in a frustrated whisper. I hadn’t realized this was anything other than a one-on-one meeting with Robinson, and I definitely wouldn’t have shown up if I’d known otherwise. I had an unmistakable trapped feeling as I leaned back against my seat.
“Relax, unlike the rest of the girls on campus, I have no interest in your genitals,” she replied, sounding amused. I rolled my eyes skyward and turned my attention to Professor Robinson’s still-vacant desk.
“Just as well. He’s out of your league,” I muttered with a hint of masculine self-satisfaction. I usually tried not to get vulgar with women I wasn’t interested in, and Megan certainly fell into that category. She was perhapsthe last woman in the world I would have fucked, and I wanted to make it clear that she’d never get the opportunity to assess my skills in the sack.
“Oh, for sure. I am well aware of your tremendous physical gifts. Rumors run wild amongst the female student body. But you know me; I’m a skeptical woman. I have to see it to believe it,” she whispered into my ear, giving me a whiff of that orange blossom smell that I remembered so vividly.
I wrinkled my nose slightly. It was a nice scent, but I couldn’t stand it because it belonged to her.
“Didn’t you just say you had no interest in my genitals?” I repeated her own words mockingly as I fidgeted in my seat, already wishing I could light up in here.
“Maybe I lied,” she shrugged.
I gave her a flat look. “Head Case, today is not the day. Knock it off,” I said as my knee bounced up and down with nervous energy.
“Or what? Are you going to put me over your knee and give me a spanking?” she asked challengingly, and I turned and gave her a good, long look, lingering on her large tits concealed by a basic black sweater. She wasn’t dressed to impress, and I felt no attraction toward her, yet she still had a feral beauty that was unmistakable even in understated, unappealing clothing.
“Not a terrible idea,” I shot back and stared into her green eyes. “I love having a woman’s ass in the air. Any woman…” I paused. “Except you,” I finished with a cheeky smirk. Megan’s eyes dropped to my lips, and, for a second, she looked pensive, but then she cleared her throat and took on her familiar confident posture.
“Is that the only position you know, Miller? I’d have thought you had more imagination,” she needled, and I narrowed my eyes in challenge. Had she been just another girl, I would have dragged her straight into a bathroom or empty classroom and demonstrated exactly how wrong she was, but when it came to Head Case, I could not give in.
I knew what she was trying to do.
