“You asked.” He says no apologies. I’m sure he’s lying. Pretty sure. He has to be, right?
“I hate you.”
“Right back at ya. So where do you need me to parade around and show you off? I have other stuff to do today.”
I tell him which class I’m in and he agrees to meet me.
Long after we hang up, I still have his rough voice in my mind. Even a few pictures of him doing exactly what he said he was doing. Which makes for a nice image, but one I need to find a way to kick out of my mind.
After running down the hall to shower, I get dressed in a skirt, tank, and another shirt over it that hangs off my shoulder. I leave my hair down, throw on a pair of wedges to give me height and head to class.
No, it’s not the best outfit to wear to school, but it works.
The second I walk into the large, oval shaped room, I see Gregory. He stares me down, his eyes narrowed. I give him my best smile. Gregory takes a step toward me when the professor walks in and starts talking.
I feel his eyes on my back the whole class. Take that, Gregory. This is what you get for throwing me away.
“I’m not the first one to think so either.” I try to block out his words.
As soon as class ends, I head toward the door.
“Chey! Wait up!” Gregory shouts from behind me, but I keep going. Colt better be outside this door right now.
Better. Be.
“I don’t have time, Gregory,” I say over my shoulder. Stepping into the busy hallway, I look around. Of course. Colt isn’t here.
“Chey.” He grabs my wrist. “I just want to talk.”
Red has her arms crossed, but she’s standing a few feet away from us. Part of me wants to gloat, but I’m too annoyed.
“I’m pretty sure you don’t have the right to grab me.” I’ve been grabbed against my will before and I’m not about to let it happen again. I jerk my hand away.
“Sorry, sorry. You’re right. I’m worried about you, Cheyenne. That guy? He’s unstable. He seriously attacked us when we were out one night. You’re not being yourself and I want to make sure everything’s okay.”
His voice is sugary sweet. It’s the voice he uses to get his way. I’ve heard it a million times, except it used to be he had to use it on other people and not me.
It reminds me of what this is all about. Gregory’s used to having his way. Winning. He never expected me to walk away. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. Or to screw around with Red, but have me on his arm. Not going to happen.
So I play the game too. “I’m better than okay, actually. Colt…he…” I use the same fakeness on him, as though I’m so enamored with Colt that I can’t find the words to explain him when really I want to use a few choice words that wouldn’t help my situation.
“You’re going to get hurt. He’s using you to get in your pants.”
Now this pissed me off. “Excuse me? You’re the one who—”
“This is the second time I’ve caught you messing with my girl, Pretty Boy. I’m not going to let it go a third time.”
I can’t believe it, but I actually exhale a sigh of relief at the sound of Colt’s voice. Colt pulls me in front of him, and puts his hands on my waist. Under my shirt. They’re warm against my skin. “Hey. Sorry I’m late.” He leans forward and presses his lips to my neck and holy shit, I shiver. He’s good at this.
“H—hey.” Ugh. Why is my voice breaking? I need to get myself together.
“You’re done here, right? I really want to get you alone.” He kisses my neck again. Even nibbles on it a little and out of nowhere I giggle. Okay. I need to chill and I don’t remember telling him he could kiss me, but there’s no way I’m stopping him now.
Gregory is just watching us, eyes wide. Fire burns in them and I know he wants to explode, but I also know he’s probably afraid of Colt. This couldn’t be more perfect.
“Yeah. I’m definitely ready.”
“Catch ya later, Pretty Boy.” I hear the grin in Colt’s voice. He latches our hands together, and we walk away, while I try to ignore the tingles shooting around in my stomach.
~CHAPTER TEN~
Colt
The second we step outside, I let go of her hand. I’m not a real hand-holding-kind-of-guy, especially when I’m not really hooking up with the girl. The kissing? That I can handle, but the rest of it is too frolicking-through-flowers for my taste.
“What was that?” Cheyenne asks, her mouth pursed.
“That was me making the a**hole jealous, like you’re paying me to.”
“You didn’t have to really kiss me.”
I look at her. Would it hurt to show a little appreciation? “You’re just pissed you liked it.”
“We should go to the coffee house. It’ll be good for us to make an appearance together.”
“Choosing to ignore what I just said to you? And what if I have a class? Or do you?”
She shakes her head. “I have a little break before my next one. You?”
For the first time since coming outside she looks at me. Christ, she’s gorgeous. This would be a whole hell of a lot easier if she wasn’t. She has these pouty, little lips I want to bite and then suck into my mouth.
“Are you checking me out?”
Fuck. I got caught. “Do you have to ask? You know how you look.”
This makes her stumble. I try to catch her, but she does it herself. “I…”
I shake my head. “I don’t play games, Cheyenne. I tell it how it is. The only games here are the ones you’re paying me to play around everyone else.”
“Can we just go get a coffee now?” She’s fighting a smile which honestly, makes her sexier. Too bad she drives me crazy.
“Anything you want, Princess Cheyenne.” I don’t know why it is, but I can’t stop screwing with this girl. She both pisses me off and makes me feel mischievous at the same time.
“I thought you were going to stop calling me that?”
“I thought you were going to stop acting like a princess?”
She sighs and for the first time I wonder if this whole thing is wearing on her more than I thought. “Why don’t our truces last very long?” she asks.
“I guess we’re special like that.” Again, I feel like an ass. I don’t know why I’m worried about it. We’ll be going our separate ways in no time.
“Let’s just go get coffee so you can show me off,” she says.
We walk to the coffee house I first saw her at. When we get inside I ask her what she wants and tell her she can sit while I order. Such a good little lap dog I’m becoming.
Cheyenne smiles at me. A few minutes later I’m at the table with our drinks and sit down.
“So…” she’s obviously reaching for something to say. Instead of saving her, I sit back to see what she’ll come up with. “Classes. You never replied about classes.”
“I’m good till later today.”
“How old are you?”
“Shouldn’t you already know this, since we’re sleeping together?” I wink at her.
“You know what? Never mind. I forgot how big an a**hole you are.”
I sigh. What is it with this woman? “Twenty-one. You?”
“Nineteen. Major?”
“I’m still figuring it out.”
She crinkles her nose and her eyes flick around the room. “Aren’t you a junior?”
“Why do you do that?” I change the subject. And technically I should be a senior.
“Do what?”
“Look around like that…like you are always scanning to see who’s around to know if you need to impress someone or not.”
She squints her dark eyes and cocks her head. Does she really not know she does that?
“Oh. I know them. They’re Gregory’s friends.” Cheyenne reaches across the table and grabs my hand. This is so f**king ridiculous. I can’t believe I agreed to play this game with her. I don’t like to be used and I’m sure as hell not into fake people.
“I gotta take a leak. I’ll be right back.” Pushing to my feet, I head to the bathroom. The a**hole’s friends eye me and I wonder when we reverted back to high school.
After I get done I see Cheyenne sitting there with her arms crossed. “What happened?” I look at her friends, but they’re not paying attention to us.
“Nothing. Let’s just go.”
Shrugging, I grab my cell off the table. Taking a quick look at my texts I see someone needs a hook up. I could walk home, but that will take too much time, so I say, “I live off campus. I need a ride home.” My car wouldn’t start this morning so Adrian drove me in.
“Whatever.”
I follow the princess to her dorm, wondering what crawled up her ass while I was gone. She walks up to a Honda Accord which isn’t what I expected from her. I would have thought she’d drive something flashier.
I give her directions to my shithole house. It doesn’t take long to get there and she’s silent the whole time. When she pulls over, I can tell she wants to say something. “Spit it out, Cheyenne. I’m in a hurry here.”
“You’re a drug dealer.”
Fuck. “You know, we’re not really in a relationship, so you don’t need to play the controlling girlfriend card by looking through my texts.” My whole body feels hot. My heart is suddenly going a million miles an hour. Who the hell does she think she is?
“I didn’t mean snoop, but your phone lit up when the text came through and I caught a glance.”
“It sure as hell didn’t say what it was about so how do you know?”
“I just do. Ruin your life or not, I don’t care. It’s not my business, but if we’re doing this, you have to keep it away from me. I don’t want anything to do with that shit.”
My whole body tenses. “Because obviously I’m doing it for the hell of it. I’m the guy with tatts who lives in the piece of shit house and gets in fights with frat boys. Obviously that means I deal drugs because I want to.”