Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,111

on to tell me that for all this to stop, I need to come home means your plan is skewed. If anything, I think it’s not a plan at all. You’re just grasping at straws.”

Heavy silence falls over us for a second and I know I got him.

“Careful, Princess, that over-confidence you’ve always had as a child is going to hurt you. And I don’t want you to be hurt. I’m only doing this to look out for you.”

“Yeah well I don’t care what you want,” I say, standing up now. I’m going to end this call and throw this damn phone away. “Goodbye, Dad. Go drink or something.”

I go to end the call, but he stops me.

“When you lose, and you will, I’ll still be there to help you pick up the pieces.”

I want to tell him I don’t want him anywhere near me, but I’m so done with him. So, I just end the call, throw the damn phone to the wall and do it all over again until it finally breaks.

I shake off the melancholy that has settled on my shoulders during the call, then decide to take a shower and get ready for Julian’s return. No one will take him away from me, I’ll make sure of it. And I know what my father just tried to do; plant seeds of doubt in my mind so that I’d be worried enough to mess up my limited time with Julian.

He was off to early training at Stanford and I would be heading for my senior year at Clintwood. There was no way we’d be able to have full and total access to each other like we do now.

So, as I take a shower, I decide not to tell him about the call from my father. I have another plan in mind for when my man comes home.

25

When Julian comes back to the penthouse we now call home, he finds me lying on the couch, waiting for him, wearing the sexy black baby doll Rye and Jaz forced me to get when we went shopping.

I see the moment his eyes dilate as he takes me in, his jaw locking while his fists clench and unclench like he wants to touch me, but he knows better because in front of me, the TV is on and my face is on it and the word Missing blazed right on top of my picture.

He doesn’t look surprised at all and he senses the mood in the apartment.

“You knew, didn’t you?” I question and he shrugs carelessly, watching me back with a hooded gaze that makes my blood simmer as arousal pours into me like a flood. This game I play with Julian…it’s playing with fire. I know how dangerous it is to make him angry, but fuck, when he loses control…

“Yeah,” he murmurs in that sexy, decadent voice that does things to me.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” I say, sounding breathless. The better question to ask here is when did I become this girl? Full of want for a guy like this?

“Yes,” he mutters, watching me, his eyes roaming all over my body, making me feel seen. “I was going to tell you when the time was right.”

“When was that?” I question, unable to keep the anger from seeping into my voice. “When were you going to tell me that I’m practically making headlines back home?”

“Mia…”

“When, Julian?”

“And then what?” he questions, his voice still low, watching me like a wounded animal. “What were you going to do with that information, Little Minx?”

I pause, not knowing how to respond to that. But still, I refuse to let him see that’s right.

“I don’t know. Maybe I would have called home or called the police in Palos Verdes and told them that I’m all right and I’m alive.”

“Really?” he scoffs. “Why didn’t you then?”

Well shit. If the police were looking for me, then it means they probably questioned everyone who is in one capacity or the other connected to my life. That includes Nicky. She must have told them that she also doesn’t know what happened to me. I mean, what else could she say?

“I’ll admit that calling the police right now would be a gamble with the devil,” I say. “I have no idea how to protect Nicky if that happens.”

“Not to mention you’re underage, in Paris under a fake name.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re excused for keeping this from me!” I wave at the screen again. “How am I going to