and let me fuck them every which way ‘til Sunday, I still wouldn’t. And you got the most crucial part wrong, princess.” He lifted his hand and flicked me between my eyes, making me jerk backwards at the pinch of pain. What the fuck? “I’ve worked for everything in my life. In fact, I like working for it. Working for it means I earned it. So the next time you wanna throw around judgements about people, I suggest you take off your shiny tiara and take a long, hard look at your reflection. Because you may look like a barbie doll brought to life, but I’m willing to bet you’ve got dirty little secrets too.” He turned his back on me, picking up his broken headphones and running on, leaving me in the wake of his words.
My heart thundered as I watched him leave, his back muscles flexing as he pounded along the pavement. That was the second guy I’d pegged wrong since I’d arrived and I’d only met two. I was gonna reserve judgement from now on. But I’d sure as shit got one thing right about that guy. He was an asshole. And I was happy to stay far, far away from him.
Blake soon reappeared from the trees, tucking his cellphone into his pocket and giving me a bright smile. “Sorry Tate, had to take that.”
“No worries.” I moved forward to collect my suitcase but he beat me to it, his fingers brushing mine as he grabbed the handle.
Tingles rushed under my skin from his touch and I glanced up at him from beneath my lashes with a smile. “Thanks.”
“Any time.” His eyes roamed over my face before he led the way forward with confident strides.
We soon turned down a path away from the lake, heading deeper into the trees until we reached a huge building with large, arching stone windows. Birdsong hung around me in the air and the sound of chatter carried from the housing building.
“This is Beech House, the girls’ dormitories. Here.” Blake tossed me a key and I snatched it out of the air. He gave me an appraising look then walked up to the wooden door to the right of the building and parked my suitcase beside him.
“I’m not allowed inside - which is a fucking travesty,” he said, his eyes dancing with light and I moved forward, but he threw an arm across the door to stop me from heading in. “But sometimes I break the rules for the right girl.” He shoved the door open, towing my bag inside and I laughed.
“What will happen if you’re caught here?” I teased as I followed him into the stairwell. Stone steps led up to the next level and lanterns hung from the walls, lighting the way in a soft amber light.
“I’ll get detention for being a bad boy. And if I get caught twice, I could get suspended.” He threw a grin over his shoulder as he started carrying my bag upstairs. “The trick is not to get caught.”
“Or ratted out,” I added.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he growled and the sound had my heart pounding.
“I wouldn’t,” I agreed. “If I didn’t want you here, I’d just throw you out myself.”
“Do you think you could?” he asked like he was challenging me to try and I laughed in answer, letting him wonder about that. I was trained in kickboxing and self-defence, so I totally could if I wanted to. My dad always joked he’d built me into Lara Croft and maybe that was a little true – except my version had less pointy boobs and couldn’t do a rolling tuck jump in tiny denim shorts.
We reached the third level and headed down a corridor with dark wood floors and rooms leading off of it on either side. “You’re in room three three three.” He stopped in front of it, backing away from my suitcase and pushing a hand into his hair. “See you around, Tate.”
“Thanks for the escort.” I smiled as he turned away, strolling off at a casual pace down the corridor.
A girl stepped out of a bathroom at the far end of it in nothing but a towel and shrieked as she spotted him. She turned back into the room crying, Blake Bowman’s here! and set off a chain reaction of excited chatter and giggles. Blake barked a laugh as he headed down the stairs and I shook my head before moving toward my room and pushing the key into the lock.
Guess the