sigh. “You know,” I say, adjusting myself to better look up into his eyes. “Even though I have you four guys and Ember, I don’t think I’ve ever been so lonely.”
He nods, understanding me completely, where someone else who wasn’t so confident in himself would have been easily offended. “I get it,” he tells me. “You have all these new people around you, most of them knowing you better than you might even know yourself, but not one of them is in your position. We’ve all had eighteen fucking years to adjust to this fucked up lifestyle, but you’ve been thrown straight into the deep end and told to survive while you’re having shots taken at your head. None of us can even pretend to know how that feels.”
“You know, I’ve been through eighteen foster homes, at least thirty different schools, and a million fake friends, and not one person has ever understood me until I met you four assholes, and even with the chips on Grayson and Carver’s shoulders, I still prefer their company to anyone else I’ve ever met.”
“Well,” he laughs, a cocky as fuck grin ripping across his face. “What can I say? We’re pretty fucking awesome.”
“Yeah, and not cocky at all.”
King winks and slips his hand into mine, lacing our fingers. “Are you intent on sitting here all night watching the waves do exactly the same thing over and over again, or do you want to do something with me?” he asks, a wicked sparkle hitting his eyes. “I’ve got an idea.”
Do I sit on the beach and sulk all night or let this deviously delicious man take me on an adventure? Choices, choices. I grin back at him, the excitement bubbling deep inside my chest. “Well, fuck me,” I laugh, letting him pull me up. “How am I supposed to say no to that?”
“You can’t,” he tells me, dragging me along through the sand, back toward the road. “I’m just that fucking irresistible. No wonder your bitch-ass is always throwing yourself at me.”
“Look who’s talking,” I grumble. “Do I need to remind you that you were the fucking weirdo stalker who snuck through my bedroom window in the hopes of getting your dick wet? Actually, I think there’s a special, fucked up place in hell for guys like that.”
“Don’t even start with me,” he says. “Getting my dick wet that night was just an added bonus. I couldn’t help it that you were just that desperate for me.”
“Yeah,” I laugh, grinning up at him, absolutely loving the chance to tease him. “I was so desperate for you that I decided to fuck Cruz instead. You must have really rocked my world.”
He looks my way, his eyes narrowing. “Dick.”
“Don’t you forget it.”
We reach the main road and King comes to a stop, glancing up and down the street. “Well,” he says. “We have two choices. We can either walk twenty minutes back to the party and steal Carver’s Escalade, but also risk running into whatever backup Jacob called, or …” he adds, a devilish smirk kicking up the side of his mouth as his eyes sparkle with the best kind of mischief, “we can hotwire one of these bad boys and take it for a spin.”
My gaze shifts toward the cars lining the streets, and fuck it, I like the way the man thinks.
Not bothering to wait for me to agree, King grabs my hand and pulls me toward a black Mustang parked a little down the road, and the closer we get to it, the wider his grin becomes. “Do I even want to know how you learned to do this?”
He looks back at me, his eyes sparkling with a devilish laughter. “Probably not.”
I roll my eyes and watch as he steps up to the side of the Mustang only to shake his head at the idiocy of the owner who left the driver’s side window open just enough for King to slip his fingers in and shimmy the window down. “Fucking idiot,” he mutters to himself. “He should have at least made it a challenge.”
King’s hand dives inside the Mustang and unlocks the door before pulling it wide and dropping down beneath the steering wheel. I watch in amazement as he fiddles around, and not a moment later, he grins up at me as the engine roars to life.
I can’t help but laugh, he looks like a fourteen-year-old boy who just had the hot babysitter offer to suck his dick. “Well?” he asks, getting