Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Briar
I meant to throw her off-balance, but Indi has her sea legs already. Despite all this shit with Addy and Jess, I’m looking forward to riding with her again. Just to get her alone, of course. If I can lure her far enough from school, somewhere secluded…
She’d never let me, of course. I’m the predator, she’s the prey—and she’s spotted me.
Now the dance begins.
We’re riding different horses than last time. Indi chose Queen Sophia—a black mare with a white blaze on her nose and I’m sitting a seventeen-hand tall chestnut gelding named Duke of Hearts.
Yeah, Lavish brims with thoroughbreds and corny names.
“No fences,” Indi says as soon as we exit the stable, a finger held up in warning.
“No fences,” I agree with a rueful smile.
“And no galloping.”
But despite the stern tone of her voice, I hear a certain something. Excitement? Pleasure? I can’t be sure, but I have a feeling she’s enjoying this as much as I am.
All that bullshit happening in school feels miles away. Out here, it’s just us, our steeds, and Lavish’s picture-perfect backdrop. Fuck, I wish this was how I’d met her.
Not Sunday night.
Not Monday morning.
Now. Here.
Just two kids out for a ride.
I wish she’d never met Addison either. That poisonous bitch salted the earth for me. After everything Addy’s no doubt been ramming down her throat, it doesn’t matter what I say to Indi, how I act from here on out—she’ll never think I’m anything more than an animal.
“Why so glum, chum?” comes Indi’s cheerful voice from a few feet away.
I snap to the present, and glance across at Indi. She’s wearing a fat grin, melding with her horse on every step. The hand she has on the reigns seems a mere afterthought—her thigh muscles bunch as she guides Sophia with her knees. When my eyes reach Indi’s again, she’s blushing a little. She glances away, and then her hand does tighten as if she’s just remembered exactly who she’s with.
I can’t change the past. I can’t go back and meet Indi again in better circumstances.
I’ll always just be an animal to her.
Fury eviscerates my good mood in an instant. What the fuck was I thinking? We’d go on a horse ride and tomorrow we’d be holding hands and doing our darndest to figure out just how alike—or dissimilar—we really are? That shit’s for pussies and hopeless romantics.
I’m neither.
There’s no point in beating around the fucking bush anymore.
I clear my throat, and Indi gives me a curious smile. She opens her mouth, a smile forming around whatever she’s going to say, but I cut in with a rough, “You should go back to wherever the fuck you came from.”
Indi makes a soft, surprised sound as her eyes widen. “Ex-cuse me?” She sounds more confused than offended, but I turn my voice to steel.
The time for pranks and teasing is over. Should have been over a long time ago.
“You heard me.” I keep my eyes forward. “Tell your parents you don’t like it here. Tell them the boys are mean to you. Tell them whatever the fuck you want.”
“I…” But she doesn’t finish her statement.
“I can keep doing this all year long, Indi. And it’ll only get worse for you.”
It’s best for everyone, honestly. She’s the one that stirred the pot—getting rid of her will reset the clock.
Plus, she can’t like being here—new school, new town.
But she stays silent.
“You tell me you’re leaving, this all goes away.” When I look at her, she’s staring forward again. Her jaw is set, her eyes blinking furiously.
Ah, shit. Is my little virgin gonna cry?
I let out a rough laugh. “Deal?”
“Fuck you,” she whispers furiously.
“Come on, Angel, it’s piss easy. You sit them down at the dinner table tonight. You say, ‘Mommy, Daddy, I don’t like it?—’”
Indi kicks Princess Sophia in the ribs. In a second, she’s tearing away from me.
I laugh. Fuck, guess that finally got the response I needed. Should have done this from the start. But I’m not done with her yet. If it takes me forcing her to jump another fence, I’ll do it.
“Ha!”
I race after Indi, banking when she does, following her through the knolls. She glances over her shoulder, grimacing when she sees I’m on her heels. “Leave me alone!” she screams over her shoulder, flipping me off.
Really? She waves a fucking red flag in front of a bull and expects it to go quietly back into its stall?
“Ha!”
Duke speeds up. In seconds, I’m close enough to grab hold of Indi’s arm. She tears herself free, but doesn’t look at me. I urge Duke forward.
Light gleams off Indi’s face.
Her cheeks are wet, her mouth a quivering line. Her chest is heaving as heavily as Sophia’s, and her grip on the reigns is white-knuckled.
What the fuck?
Maybe she really is on the rag. There’s no way what I said could possibly have made her cry.
“Hey!” I bellow. “Slow down.”
In response, she spurs Sophia on.
Duke follows. I know Sophia could beat my gelding, but Indi’s so busy wiping at her face that she’s not controlling her animal. Sophia flags, and I take the opportunity to catch up, lean over, and grab Sophia’s bridle.
Dumb ass move, but when I want someone to stop, they fucking stop.
Sophia’s hooves churn up dirt and grass as she slows, and Indi swats at my hand as if she’s somehow grown strong enough to fight me.
Our horses slow to a canter, a trot, a walk. But Sophia’s barely even stopped before Indi hops off her and takes off running.
Fuck! What is it with her?
“Indi!”
I tie the horses’s reigns together so they can keep each other company, and then I’m sprinting after Indi. She’s fast, but she’s not an athlete. She’s still climbing the fence when I launch myself up behind her.
I grab her ankle.
She kicks me in the face.
So I let her climb over, and then I go after her.
The shadow of the small strip of woods hugging Lavish Prep’s northern grounds cool my skin a second before I grab Indi’s hair and haul her up short.
She yells out in pain and then starts thrashing around, digging her nails into my wrists and trying to untangle my fingers from her hair.
“What did I tell you about running?” I growl, dragging her against me.
She fights me for another second, and then she goes limp.
Jesus, finally.
Now, should I pin her to a tree again, or just shove her to the ground? Either has appeal?—
Her body shakes as a sob wracks her.
Goddamn it.
“Hey, what the fuck’s gotten into you?” I turn her around. Her eyes are squeezed shut, her mouth trembling. I swipe angrily at her cheeks to dry her tears, but more flash down her face an instant later. “Stop crying.”
“F-fuck off.”
I give her a shake, but she doesn’t even seem to notice. “This could all be over, you know. Just say the word. Say you’ll talk to them and I’ll?—”
“I f-fucking c-can’t, you moth-therfucking asshole !” What starts out as a blubbering mess of words becomes an enraged yell.
Her veracity hits me like a club. I release her and step back, wondering if she’s gonna attack me. The way her hands are fisted at her sides, her body stiff, I wouldn’t be surprised.
I lift my hands, my mouth lifting up. “Just say the?—”
“They’re dead, you piece of shit,” she says through her teeth. She advances on me and slams her fist into my chest.
I barely feel it. I’m staring into eyes bright and green as a water lily pond. “Dead?” I manage, but it feels like someone else is talking with my mouth.
Her fists start drumming against my chest. I gather her up, hold her tight. She fights me, but then another round of sobs takes control. She sags against me, and I let us both sink to the forest floor. I drag her with me as I lean back against a tree trunk. A second later she’s in my lap, bundled up into an impossibly small ball.
She grabs my shirt, nuzzling harder and harder against me as if she wants to burrow inside my ribs so I can keep her safe.
And fuck me, I wish she could. Then I would always have her close, could feel her heart beating beside mine.
I wrap my arms around her, rocking her, willing her to pour out every last sliver of anger, pain, frustration, sadness. I don’t care if all that negativity leeches into me.
I’d fatally poison myself for her and not regret a thing.
I stroke her hair and press my lips to the top of her head, but I doubt she registers a thing. If she did, she’d still be fighting.
Who the fuck wants to be comforted by a wild animal?