“Is she okay?”
“Yeah. She’s home now,” he says. His eyes dart to the side, which tells me she’snot okay.
I look at my watch. There’s still ten minutes of lunch left. “I need to go find Constance,” I tell Ares. “She’s coming over tonight for a slumber party.”
“Constance is going to your place?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No reason.” Ares places his hand on my lower back as we walk out of the library.
“People are going to think we came in here to hookup,” I say as I watch everyone looking at us.
“We kind of did, P.” Ares laughs.
“No, we didn’t.”
“Can I come to this slumber party?” Ares asks.
“Sure, if you want to end up in my dad’s pigpen,” I tell him.
There is no way my dad would allow Ares to stay over at our house. He doesn’t say I can’t date. Well, actually, he does. But he would definitely draw the line at a De Bellis. He’s still not over my sister running off and marrying a Valentino. Her husband is a mafia prince from New York.
“I’d take my chances,” Ares says.
“It’s girls’ night.” I shrug.
“Spence and Constance don’t come from families like ours, Zara. Don’t take it personal if she doesn’t spend the entire night. It’s not you.”
“Why wouldn’t she spend the night? It was her idea.”
Ares shrugs. “Their home life isn’t great. Sometimes shit happens and they need to be at home,” he says.
“Okay.”
“I just don’t want you to think that it’s you. If she does go home, call me.”
“Why do you care?” I stop. We’re almost at the bench seat where all of Ares’s friends are hanging out. And, I guess, my new friends?
“What do you mean?”
“I need you to stop hovering, stop caring about if I’m okay or not. I need you to pretend you don’t know I’m fucked up.”
“First, you’re not fucked up, Zara. Second, I care because I’m not the heartless arsehole you want me to be. And third, it’s kind of difficult to forget when my dick is still hard from having yourhot pussy rubbing up on it.” He whispers that last part, and I blush.
“Well, I hope you enjoyed it, because it’s not happening again,” I say as I storm my way over to the table.
“Best time of my life, P,” Ares calls out from behind me.
Chapter Ten
Me:
I’m out front. Come out.
Isee that my message is read. Two minutes later, Constance is walking out her front door, heading straight for my car.
“You do know you could just come and knock,” she says, leaning down into my open window.
