Chapter 8 Mia
I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react when he looked at me like that. He smoldered. I knew that Ava would laugh at me if I told her that, but when Ash looked at me with that lazy, half-lidded, sexy look, I wanted to take his clothes off and cover him with my kisses.
Why were all three of them so darn hot? It kind of helped that Gray was quite obviously as warm as an iceberg, and Jett was as welcoming as being run over by a bus, so their actual sex appeal was limited.
Then, of course, there was the older brother, who was sexy as hell, but he was clearly a serial killer.
Or an aspiring serial killer at least. But Ash?
Good gracious, he was sex personified. Tall, broad, defined forearms and abs that led to a very, very impressive package.
And he knew what he was doing. I mean, of course, he would — he’d had enough practice — but dear Lord, he knew how to use what God had blessed him with. And blessed he had been.
We were supposed to be a one-and-done. But the sex at Halloween had been mind-blowing. I’d still been experiencing the aftershocks of my orgasm on the walk home.
It wasn’t fair that he was so good at everything. Plus, he was actually friendly . . . with most people. I knew he had a temper — all three Devils seemed to have a knack for violence — but strangely, that didn’t detract from the hotness that was Ash Santo.
Packing up my stuff at the end of class, I was surprised when he walked up and waited beside me. “What?” I asked him as I looked around and saw our classmates noticing that he was beside me.
“Rules, don’t leave Red alone.” He yawned widely. “Where to next?”
“Music,” I answered as I picked up my backpack. “You really don’t need to do this.”
Ash looked me over and shrugged. “Probably not, but it’s not a hardship. C’mon.”
We walked across campus in silence, and I noticed we very rarely spoke to each other. Was that weird? That I’d had sex with him more than once, but not an actual conversation?
“My mom wants me to get a job,” I blurted out halfway to the music theater.
Ash looked down at me, and I waited. His dark navy jacket was open, with a white T-shirt under it, and in his dark jeans, he looked nice. Well, he always looked good, but he was wearing smart casual well.
“I mean, I know you don’t care, but you know, she promised me that I wouldn’t incur any student debt, and now she’s all, ‘Mia, you need to get a job.’”
I heard him grunt beside me, but something had been opened in my head, and I wasn’t stopping.
“I mean, what can I even do? It’s November, we break in a few weeks for winter break, so does she mean now?
Or when I’m back in Knoxville? And how much can I really earn in the three weeks before I’m back here, and who’s even employing right now?
” My outburst over, I chanced a look up at him and saw that he was staring right ahead.
Had he even heard me? “Anyway, sorry, I didn’t mean to offload onto you. ”
“Did you get your assignment back?” Ash asked me finally.
“Um, yeah, thanks for that.”
“No worries.”
I saw the theater at the bottom of the path, and I looked around the campus grounds. “I still get antsy when I come here after the whole thing with Quinn.”
Ash met my look with a raised eyebrow. “Dude’s gone, you’re fine.”
“I know.” Why was I bothering to talk to him? He obviously wasn’t interested in having a conversation.
“You’ll be okay from here?” Ash asked me as he shifted his backpack off his shoulder onto his other one.
“Will I manage to walk from here to the auditorium by myself, do you mean?” Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “Yeah, dad, I’ll be fine.”
Ash’s look was sharp. “You mentioned mom, where’s dad?”
“Not important.”
He hesitated and then seemed to accept it. With a thumb tucked under the strap of his backpack, he raised his fingers in a lame wave. “Okay, I need to move, you’ll be okay?”
“Yes, I can walk down a path unaided,” I griped as I turned from him and started walking away from him.
“Yo, Red?” he called after me, and I turned in exasperation. “Fifty minutes?” Knowing he was referring to the length of my class, I nodded. “Okay, I’ll be here, but if I’m not, wait for me.”
I could have told him not to bother, but I simply turned and headed into the theater. I held back the groan as I saw Mindy and a handful of her friends all in one corner of the entrance.
“Took my advice?” Mindy called as her friends snickered.
Ignore her, I told myself. You don’t need to rise to it.
“I mean, I told you to bite me, but maybe you prefer a Devil’s bite?”
Whirling, I turned to look at them all. I should have thought about what it looked like for Ash to be escorting me everywhere. No one else knew he was doing it because he had to; they thought we had hooked up. “I do. He does it so well.”
When their faces mirrored their shock at my snappy retort, I spun away from them in case they saw my anger at myself for snapping.
Me: I think I just outed me and Ash
Ava: How?
Me: Mindy riled me
Ava: You didn’t tell anyone what’s happening?
Me: No!
Ava: Sorry. Okay, I’ll let Jett know to let Ash know
Me: Just tell him he better not make me look desperate . . . or something
Ava: Ash is really nice, you should stop thinking so badly of him
Me: . . .
Ava: Mee, be nice. Also the wet room/shower room is being installed as I type.
Me: Ugh, I forgot about that
Ava: Love you, I’ll talk to Jett, see you at lunch!
Putting my phone in my back pocket, I walked over to the rest of the class. We were split into groups of three, and today was group practice, which I usually enjoyed, but I was on edge.
I felt my butt vibrate as I spoke to one of my classmates, and I quickly pulled out my phone before the professor could see me.
Unknown: I’m your boyfriend?
Me: No . . .
Unknown: I’m your male friend?
Me: You’re a friend that’s male, maybe
Unknown: I’m definitely male
Me: Okay, thanks for the text, glad Jett told you
Quickly, I saved his number.
Brute: Not sure your reputation can survive being my girl
I hesitated as I looked at the two words my girl — should my pulse be racing?
Me: I’ve been associated with worse
Were we flirting? We both said we wouldn’t do this.
Brute: Obviously it was worse, no one’s better than me
Could his ego be any bigger?
“Ms. Davis, do I have your attention?” my professor called, and I hastily shoved Ash into my back pocket, then giggled at what I had thought.
“Absolutely,” I told her with confidence, and we got ready to sing.
Leaving the theater, I ignored Mindy and her friends and was actually relieved to see Ash waiting against one of the benches outside. One leg was cocked against it as he waited, his attention on his phone. When he heard the doors opening, he looked up, and I saw him look over my shoulder.
I gave him a quick roll of my eyes as I approached him, and I saw his answering smile, which again, caused my tummy to somersault. This guy was killing me.
“Hey,” I said as I reached him. I didn’t want to look over my shoulder, so I jabbed my thumb close to my shoulder so he knew I meant whoever was behind me, and he got the message. “I can explain.”
“Hey, Ash.”
I looked around. I hadn’t realized they were so close to me, and I knew my surprise was obvious.
“Hey.” It was clear Ash had no clue who they were, and I was weirdly happy about that.
“You ready?” I asked him, hoping that he caught the urgency in my voice about how much I wanted to be away from them.
“So, you two a thing?” Mindy asked.
Ash considered them for a minute before that smile he used like a weapon appeared. “Why? You jealous?”
I genuinely hadn’t expected him to answer like that. I thought he would either ignore them or say no. Like someone normal, although there was nothing normal about us.
“Of Mia?” Mindy scoffed.
Skank.
“C’mon, Ash, she’s just jealous you like to sink your teeth into me.” Tossing my ponytail over my shoulder, I grabbed his hand and thanked him internally when he allowed me to pull him away from the bench.
Putting distance between them and us, we walked quickly up the path, me still holding his hand and, better yet, Ash letting me. As we rounded the corner in the path, I dropped his hand and looked up at him.
“I can explain, all of it.”
“What’s to explain?” Ash shrugged casually. “They see you with me, they assume you’re my new bounce, somehow that involves a biting fetish that I didn’t know you had, and then their allegations are confirmed when I walk away with you hand in hand.”
“You seem very relaxed about it,” I told him cautiously. “Also, there is no biting fetish.”
“Whatever, you’re not the first girl that other girls try to say I’m doing exclusively.”
I stopped walking. “Your terminology leaves a lot to be desired.”
He looked back at me, and I could see that he didn’t understand what I meant.
“New bounce? Doing exclusively?” I explained to him. “Seriously? You can’t talk about girls like that.”
“Why?”
My mouth opened. My mouth closed. “What do you mean why?”
“I can call a girl whatever I want. It’s generic, wasn’t meant in regard to you specifically, and would you rather I said fuck? Hookup? Slut? Which I wouldn’t use by the way. Bitch, I probably would.”
“No!” I cried.
“Then what’s the issue?” Ash turned. “C’mon, we’re supposed to meet at the coffee shop.”
I knew I needed to address his thinking, but I could hear my classmates behind me, and not wanting Ash to blow my very recently won victory, I urged him to walk. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“Oooh goody.”
“Don’t be a jerk.”
“Why don’t you swear?” Ash asked me curiously.
“You’re interested in my vocabulary?” I asked him in amusement.
“You’re what, nineteen?”
“Yes.”
“Never met a teenager that didn’t swear like a sailor.”
“Now you have.” I tucked my hand into my jacket pocket as we walked.
“But Ava . . . I mean, that girl has taught me curse words,” Ash said with a fond smile.
“I think that may be why,” I confessed. “She’s my best friend. I love her like a sister, probably more, but she has always cussed, and even when I was little, I knew she shouldn’t.”
Ash laughed out loud. “So, you’re saying Ava swears enough for both of you?”
“I think I am.” I bit my lip to stop the laugh. “Plus, you can articulate perfectly well without the f-word.”
Ash nodded as we walked, and I knew he was thinking about it. “But sometimes a good fuck or bastard just really emphasizes what you’re feeling, know what I mean?”
“No,” I told him with amusement.
“But you know what I mean, like when you’re balls deep in a girl and she’s working your dick hard, it’s impossible not to say fuck.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I told him primly.
Ash chuckled and made a gesture as if to say, Obviously, but his look turned speculative. “I know I made you come—”
“Ash!” I hissed as I looked around wildly. “People can hear!”
“What? No one’s listening to us,” Ash carried on. “I know you had an orgasmic time with me.” His head tilted. “I remember those sweet, sweet moans . . .” He spread his arms wide as he tilted his head back with his eyes closed, mocking me.
“Could you stop?” I asked him with enough bite that he grinned.
“I didn’t really notice at the time, because you were obviously loving it, but you never swore once.”
“So what? You want to broadcast our sex life to the campus because I don’t talk like trash when we’re having sex?”
“We have a sex life?” Ash asked me with curious interest. “And trash? Like that’s better than what I said?”
“You know what I mean!” I muttered as I picked up the pace to get away from him.
His hand grabbed the hook on my backpack, pulling me into his large body. “Spell it out for me, Red.”
It was the low tone, the proximity, the stupid fluttering in my center — he was dangerous. So very dangerous. “Stop calling me Red,” I said instead.
“Say . . . fuck,” he whispered in my ear.
His body was too close to mine, his lips too near my already heated skin. “No.”
“Then Red it is.”
Whistling, he walked past me, and once again, I was left behind feeling confused at how quickly he could make me feel unsteady while he remained completely unaffected.
When we got to the coffee shop, I hurried to Ava’s side. I wanted — no, I needed — some stability.
“You’re flushed,” Ava said as she hugged me. “Did you run?”
I heard his low chuckle, and I forced myself to ignore it. “No, it’s cold out.”
“Hi,” Quinn greeted me as she pushed a coffee toward me. “We ordered for you.”
“Thank you.” I had to stop taking coffee and food from these people.
And then I remembered my mom had told me to stop using the credit card, and I grimly realized that I may need to take the freebies while they were offered.
Hating that idea, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my wallet.
Handing ten dollars to Quinn, I explained it was for the coffee.
Ash snatched it out of my hand and strolled over to the counter with my money.
“What’s he doing?” I asked no one and everyone. “That’s my money.”
“You were giving it to Quinn,” Gray spoke up. He’d been so silent since we got there, with his head tilted back, I thought he’d been asleep. “Money’s fair game when it’s a Devil’s.”
Looking at Ava, who looked equally confused, I turned back to Quinn. “What does that even mean?”
“What’s mine is theirs, and vice versa.”
“You’re all so . . . weird.”
Gray looked at me with a wide grin. It was the first time Gray Santo had genuinely smiled at me.
Should I have felt even more uncomfortable that he did?
Probably not, but I did. Hastily, I stood and joined Ash at the counter.
What was it Ava had said before, when she had finally let Jett in . . . better the Devil you know?
Right now, I understood her philosophy completely.