Chapter 9 #2
But she will.
She’s stiff and unmoving, and the saccharine tone of her voice doesn’t disappoint when she says, “Gee, I wonder why.”
I flash my most charming smile, and she rears back like a raccoon jumped at her. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”
“I wasn’t planning on it, no.” She blows on her coffee to calm her trembling hands.
Purple Hair shoots her eager hand out while Jessica takes a hesitant sip. “I’m Rain. And you are? Sorry, let me rephrase that. I know who you are, Ravencourt. But who are you?”
I shake her hand. “Kane Ravencourt. Jessica’s boyfriend.”
Coffee sprays from my little rabbit’s mouth, and she quickly blurts, “He’s not my boyfriend.” She then turns to me, livid. “You’re not my boyfriend. We are not a thing.” Her dainty hand waves between us. “Not a thing! Besides, I have a boyfriend, remember?”
“You do?” Summer asks, and Jessica turns to her with a stiff smile.
“I do,” she says. “There’s that guy… The one with the blond hair. Broad shoulders. Massive cock.” She clicks her fingers. “Dean. That’s his name.”
This Dean guy is a dead man walking. Huge cock? I fucking doubt it.
“Dean?” Cash’s blue eyes sparkle with amusement, and Noah can’t quite hide his faint smile either while he scrolls on his phone. Only Maverick is silent, watching the scene unfold with keen interest. “Does he hunt things that go boo in the night?”
“Very funny,” Jessica replies drily, then stiffens when I place my hand on her thigh beneath the table.
“So… this is interesting,” Rain muses, stirring her coffee. “How did you two meet?”
“It’s really not that interesting.” Jessica smiles tightly while fighting the ascent of my hand beneath the table.
I squeeze her leg. “You don’t want to tell your friend the story of how we met, sweetheart?”
If looks could kill, I’d be six feet under. She finally peels my hand off her thigh, and I laugh softly, amused by her beetroot-colored cheeks.
“I’m not your sweetheart, Kane.”
“No, she’s Dean’s sweetheart,” Cash chirps.
Rain turns her attention to him. “You two are twins.”
Noah barely looks up from his phone when he scoffs. “Good observational skills.”
With eyes sharper than an owl at night, Rain snaps her head in his direction. “And who are you, pray tell? Huey, Dewey, or Louie?”
He continues scrolling, his voice a lazy drawl. “Your example is a poor one. We’re a quadruple, if you haven’t already noticed, not a set of threes. If you really want to know, I’m Sam, and the others are Frodo, Merry, and Pippin.”
“Dibs on Pippin.” Cash smacks his hand down on the table and flashes a lopsided grin.
“Wow.” Rain’s deadpan expression drills holes in the side of Noah’s head. “We have a comedian in our midst.”
Maverick runs a hand through his wavy, dark-blond hair as I lean in close to Jessica.
“I don’t like to be left on Read. It’s not good for my self-esteem.”
She turns to face me and clears her throat. Her eyes are a deep sky-blue with faint specks of green, which I’ve never noticed before.
“There’s nothing wrong with your self-esteem, asshole,” she says quietly. “I’m sure you have women lining up on the street to stroke your ego. Why don’t you harass one of them?”
“They’re not as intriguing as you.” It’s true. I think about her all of the time, and I don’t know why, but ever since that first day in my father’s office, she’s been on my mind.
I shift her hair away from her shoulder and stroke my thumb softly down the line of her delicate jaw. “For starters, they don’t steal from my father and threaten me with weapons.”
A faint blush heats her cheeks, and she dips her chin.
I know what’s going through her head: I’m from the Heights, and she’s from the Falls.
We shouldn’t be together. Technically, she’s right.
My father would blow a gasket if he found out about my involvement with a girl like her.
It is one thing to fuck Falls women as long as it’s just sex.
Obsessing over them? Begging for their attention?
Texting them late at night because you can’t stop thinking about them?
No, that could get me into trouble with the society.
“Text me back,” I whisper, tracing my thumb down the column of her neck. She’s got the smoothest skin, and I could spend forever exploring every inch of her body if she’d let me.
Before I can whisper all the filthy things I want to do to her, the bells sound above the door.
Two meaty guys—Malice and Jackson, according to my research—enter the room. They spot us in the corner, and Jackson storms over with vicious murder in his eyes while Malice trails behind like a lazy cat.
We stand up, and I meet him halfway. Jackson is a tall fucker. Possibly the only one I’ve met in a long time who has a couple of inches on me. Malice isn’t quite as tall. He’s about my height and stacked with muscles and tattoos.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Jackson seethes.
I look around the cafe, faking confusion. “We came for coffee.”
“The fuck you did!”
My cocky smirk comes out full swing, and Jackson narrows his eyes, puffing up his chest as he steps closer.
“Stay away from our women.”
“Or else?”
“Or else,” he warns, close enough for his minty breath to fall over my lips, “I’ll kill you in your sleep… You and your fucking trust fund friends.”
Oh, the guy has guts. I appreciate that.
My lips twitch, just for a second, as we size each other up.
It’s refreshing to see this darker side of Falls. I had started to think the people here had all lost their edge while they were busy mowing our lawns and cleaning our pools. It turns out some of them have a backbone, after all. I like it.
Smacking him on the shoulder, I head for the door with the others in tow.
Jackson turns. “You’re not welcome on our side of town, Ravencourt.”
He knows who I am. Even better.
I spin around and ignore him and his entourage as I push open the door with my back. The others shoulder their way past Malice and Jackson, all cocky swagger and dimpled smirks.
I wink at Jessica. “See you around, princess.”