Chapter 3
CHAPTER
THREE
Wells
She had to be joking, but she wasn’t acting like it when she opened a book that was for one of my classes. I knew this girl’s schedule, and it wasn’t the same as mine. Actually, her classes were more advanced, even though she was a year behind me. My jaw moved. “The fuck you talking about?”
Every eye in this room was on us. I was used to that shit with being me, being Legacy, but Bow Reed, aka “Squeak,” got the opposite attention. Usually, people headed the other way when it came to her. They didn’t give a shit about her, and that was her fault.
She knew that, which was why she never fought it. My best friend’s sister could be a little spitfire. She could be bold, and she was talking some crazy-ass shit right now acting like my tutor.
“I accepted your listing on my app,” she continued and very much wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Bow had these blue eyes like a baby doll. She wanted people to think she was innocent, virginal, but I knew the truth.
I studied those eyes even though they wouldn’t look at me.
They were framed with dark eyelashes, her nose a pert little button, and her mouth full, pouty.
They had a natural flush to them that matched her round cheeks.
This girl couldn’t not look like a fucking Kewpie doll, everything about her perfectly plastic from her lint-rolled skirt to the tightness of her bun.
She always wore her hair up, and it exposed the rose tone of her neck.
This girl blushed like a son of a bitch, and she certainly was now, with me.
My jaw moved. Bow kept ignoring my ass, and she was pulling books out of her bag like it was bottomless. Eventually, she stopped and placed her hands in her lap. She fidgeted. “Look at your phone. It’s me. I’m your tutor.”
My eyes narrowed. No one told me what the fuck to do. Least of all her.
Calm down.
I looked at my phone out of morbid curiosity, and my brow shot up.
What the fuck?
It was her name. Right there by my listing for a tutor on her app.
Rainbow Reed.
I pocketed my phone. “The fuck you playing at, Squeak?” She wasn’t my tutor, at least not as of last night or even this morning. My eyes narrowed harder. “Where’s Heather?”
I was actually looking forward to linking up with Heather Rodgers. We’d hooked up before, and I was banking on her giving me head after our session. Studying academic shit was hard for me, and I wanted the release.
“Heather Rodgers has a previous engagement,” Bow stated, again not looking at me. She flipped pages in one of her books. “I got a notification this morning.”
Bullshit, she did. Heather knew her assignment was me, and that meant her attendance was a given. Nothing short of a car accident would have kept that girl away from my dick.
I put my arm on the table. “What really happened?”
Bow was lying. What are you up to, Squeak?
Bow continued to fidget with her stuff, but I grabbed the anatomy book and threw it across the room. The thing slammed with a reverberating thud on the polished, wooden floor, and everyone in the room stopped moving.
The librarian even looked away.
She was an older lady, and even she knew better than to intervene with Squeak and me.
Squeak and me.
We had a history, and it wasn’t a good one. Bow was manipulative, and it took only a moment for the world to see that. It took seconds for the world, but for me, it took eons. What she did ran in slow motion for me the day it happened. Rainbow Reed changed the trajectory of both our lives.
She changed my life.
The reality of that was something I had to live with, and if I did, she sure as shit would do it with me. She faced me. “Wells…”
I leaned in, getting close. My best friend’s sister smelled like cookies and her innocent little schoolgirl act killed me. It was negative degrees outside, and this girl had her knees bare in those stupid little tights of hers. I sneered. “Tell the truth.”
She had one more lie before I ended her, and, though I wouldn’t physically hurt Thatcher’s sister, there were other ways to make people suffer. There was a reason no one in this fucking library, or really, anyone on this campus, wanted anything to do with her. They knew what she did too.
“I canceled her acceptance for your request on the app,” she admitted, her chest moving fast, her breath moving fast. She had dark hair like my buddy Thatch and pushed some of it behind her ear.
Her hair was curly and a loose tendril of it had escaped her bun.
She swallowed. “I heard our parents talking that you needed a tutor and were going to request one on my app so…”
Our parents were close, and she would have had ample opportunities to hear that.
So, she canceled with Heather, huh. I moved in closer. “Why?”
No way this girl would actually want to help me. She may be my best friend’s sister, but Bow and I didn’t do things socially beyond our group of friends. Because she was a conniving little kiss-ass, and it was only because of my friendship with Thatcher that I didn’t do anything about that.
Thatcher tended to stay out of the drama I had with his sister. He had his reasons, and I kept things civil with Bow for him and him alone. He was like a brother to me.
Bow knew better than to have anything to do with me, and though I could see her brown-nosing to please our parents, I refused to believe she was that stupid.
“Why do you want to be my tutor, Squeak?” I asked, and she shivered. That was probably because I did get a little close, her ear close. Why the fuck did this girl smell like a bakery?
I shook my head, that syrupy-smelling shit only making me angry. I clenched my teeth. “You really that desperate to kiss some ass and please our parents?”
Bow didn’t speak right away, and I lingered by her ear. One of her curls danced by her earlobe again. It was tiny, and my breath moved it.
A shallow breath lifted her chest. “I need something from you.”
“Oh, yeah?” The loose curl distracted me. It was a flaw and proved she wasn’t quite perfect. I smirked. “What would make you think I’d ever help you?”
She winced, and a sudden activity hit my dick. I got hard, and it had to be because of her discomfort. It certainly wasn’t because of her, but knowing I got to her would do it. The fact I made her uncomfortable, broke her…
“It’d be a transaction,” she said and finally slid those blue eyes in my direction. Her lips moved, a quiver moving through them. I terrified her in ways she probably didn’t want me to see.
My cock twitched again.
She bit her lip. “I tutor you and you make the world see.”
“See what?”
“Me.” Her throat bobbed, and, glancing away, she wriggled. She acted so shy sometimes, but she wasn’t. She was bold as shit when she wanted to be, deceptive… Her lashes fanned with several blinks. “If I’m seen with you… Seen publicly with just you, then people would know…”
“Know what?”
She glanced up, her jaw moving a little. “People would know that we were okay, you and me.”
I sat back slowly. Did I know this girl or did I know this girl? “You help me and the world thinks I forgave you.”
Called out, she fidgeted again. She huffed before nodding. “I help you get your grades up and your parents would get off your back. They wouldn’t cut you off and would pay for your culinary school.”
She knew everything, all my dirty details and family drama.
Of course she did.
If one looked up Bow in the dictionary, they would see many things. They’d see her truth. They’d see her bullshit.
I was only sorry it took someone getting hurt for me to see.
I managed to get even closer to her, and even though her smell made me want to punch something, I stayed there. I did it to watch that discomfort return, that bob in her throat. Her cheeks went red and mine heated. A red fury of anger surrounded me.
I didn’t like people fucking playing around with my life, my future, and that shit went quadruple when it came to her.
“I’ll give in to you this time, Squeak,” I said, because, as much as I hated it, I did need her.
My parents were on my back but by no means would I ever forgive this girl.
Ever. My eyes narrowed. “To the world we’ll look cool but behind the scenes shit will never change between us. Never ever, Squeak. You understand?”
She winced again, her expression pained. Like it truly bothered her that I’d never forgive her, and maybe it did.
I wished I cared.
Rather slowly, she nodded. “I understand.”
That was the last word said before I leaned back and let her do her thing.
She opened textbooks and began exactly what she planned. She was helping me study, my tutor, and the effect was instant. People around us were blinking and chatting in hushed whispers. Especially when I nodded at them, then leaned into Bow.
But really, I’d never forgive this girl for what she did to me. I couldn’t.
If I didn’t get to forget what happened, she wouldn’t either.