standoffish and weird and mean, but it’s also why you haven’t come at me with everything you’ve got. Some part of you, even if it’s buried deep down … maybe doesn’t hate me quite so much as you want to?”
He ignores me, but I’m suddenly shaking and sweating all at once. It’s true, isn’t it? As hard of a time as I’m having feigning interest without feeling true feelings, they had the same problem last year. This fucking sucks. If my dad’s health weren’t on the line, if my career at Burberry wasn’t … would I stop the bet with Harper now? It suddenly feels like overkill. I’m almost glad there’s no way to back out of it. These boys need their lesson to come full circle.
“The girls aren’t going to stop until you’re irreparably damaged,” Creed says, sighing. He glances over at me and his lids open more than usual, exposing those gorgeous blue eyes of his. He takes me in appreciatively. “You’ve caught the attention of the Infinity Club, Marnye.” Oh god, he just called me Marnye. “Leave, and stop torturing us.”
Us.
He just said us.
“Torturing you, how?” I ask, and then Creed’s moving with lightning speed, dropping that lazy prince act for the unstoppable nightmare he is when he’s defending Miranda. He yanks me onto his lap, and I’m suddenly just straddling his hardness with my arms around his neck, his hands on my hips.
Our kiss is sudden and fierce, and it makes me forget that any time has passed since the last moment his lips were on mine. I forget the pranks and the bets and the torture, and I’m just grinding on him and kissing, small moans escaping us both.
Creed is the one who pushes me back, blue eyes sparkling. This time, his heavy-lidded gaze is anything but lazy. All it says to me is sex.
“How far do you want this to go?” he says, voice sharp with need. I swallow hard, and exhale, curling my fingers around his muscular shoulders. We press our foreheads together, and I feel like I might die. Despite everything, I missed this piece of shit. All I want is an … an I’m sorry.
“Are you filming it this time?” I whisper, and Creed goes stiff beneath me. I mean, stiff in other ways, less good ones.
“No.”
“Are you …” I lift my eyes up to his, and I can’t help but think about Zack. This feels somewhat like a betrayal. I told him we weren’t dating, that I could never be with him, but … “Do you take pleasure in what you did to me?”
Creed wraps his arms around me and pulls me close.
Please say it, I think. Please.
“If you think I’m going to tell anyone about this, I won’t.” He exhales, and there’s the first genuine bit of emotion I’ve seen from him in a long time. “You need to leave the school before it’s too late.”
“I’m not afraid of Harper and her bitch friends,” I snap, and Creed grits his teeth.
“Maybe you should be.” I sit down harder on his crotch and he groans. “Jesus, Marnye.”
“You destroyed me,” I choke out. I don’t mean to, but the words just fall from my lips. My body is still pulsing hot, my nipples hard, my lips aching from our kisses. “Why? Why, Creed? Was it fun?”
“I’m fucking sorry!” he roars, and it’s so outside his usual scope of self-expression that I’m beyond shocked. “I’m sorry I did it. But why did you have to pick him and not me? What the fuck, Marnye?” Creed grabs the back of my head and kisses me with so much heat and want that my head spins. This could all be a trap. For all I know, Valentina or Ileana is hiding around the corner and filming us.
My body moves of its own accord, rocking against Creed’s lap while our kissing reaches a crescendo. He shudders underneath me, groaning, his muscles going taut, hips bucking up towards mine. It takes me a moment to realize what just happened, and then I’m rearing back, cheeks flushed, mouth tingling.
“Did you just …”
“You were grinding on my bare crotch,” Creed whispers back, eyes closed, breath coming in heavy pants. His right hand sweeps down my back to cup my ass, and I’m pretty sure he’s looking to see what’s under my swimsuit …
I jerk back, scrambling to the opposite side of the hot tub.
That’s about when Miranda, Andrew … Zack and Windsor all appear.
“Oh.” Windsor says, sounding far