Mr. Heartbreaker Jordan Marie Page 0,29

pisses me off, though, and I know myself well enough to know it will fester.

“We’ll revisit the topic later,” I tell her, letting it go for now. I have a feeling that with Violet, I’m going to have to learn to pick my battles.

“Revisit it all you want, Slick. It’s not going to change my mind,” she says.

“Slick?”

“Trust me when I tell you that nickname fits you perfectly,” she says, while she cups her hand above her eyes to ward off the sun and grins up at me.

“I want to kiss you, Violet.”

“What’s stopping you?” she asks.

“Because when you kiss me back, I want to know that you’re kissing me because you want me and not because I know your secret.”

“Why, Michael S. Huntington, are you telling me that you’re going to table your blackmail threats?” she asks, and she sounds like she’s joking, but I can see the surprise in her eyes.

“You know my middle name?” I ask, because I don’t know many that do.

“I work for the school newspaper. I know everyone’s secrets.”

“Is that a fact?” I laugh.

“Well, okay, I don’t, but Camden does. Still, I think the ‘S’ should stand for Slick, not Scott.”

“Call me anything you want, honey, if that means you’re going to let me kiss you.”

“Are you going to stop trying to blackmail me?”

“Are you going to agree to explore this chemistry between us?” I counter, not blinking and looking her directly in the eye.

“It’s not going to end well,” she warns.

I slide my hand against her neck and pull her in close so that our lips are just a breath apart.

“That sounds like a yes,” I murmur, needing her more than I’ve ever needed anything in my life.

“I don’t share, Slick. You might want to rethink this.”

“I can deal with that, Angel. Just know it goes both ways.”

“I hope I don’t regret this,” she whispers, just before our lips meet.

Right then, I make a promise to myself, and to Violet, even if she’s not aware of it.

I’m going to do everything I can to make sure she never regrets being with me.

Hell, if I have my way, I’m never letting her go and I don’t care how crazy that sounds to Violet, because I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.

20

Violet

I knew this was a mistake.

I was lulled into a sense of …hell, I don’t even know what Mike and I are doing. But, I wanted to trust him and the days that have passed since he picked me up to take me to school until this party, have been good.

Really good.

We’ve eaten lunch together at school, he’s walked me to classes, drove me home from school, and through it all we’ve talked, we’ve held hands… and kissed. I was beginning to believe in fairytales. And then… this party.

Since we got here I’ve barely seen Mike. His father kept asking him to come over and talk to people and I was left to my own devices. When I last saw Mike he was going into another room with his father.

It wouldn’t take too much for me to just leave at this point. I’d probably be home and sleeping before Mike ever realized I was gone.

“You look as thrilled to be here as I do when my Jan comes home from slopping the hogs and tracks pig shit on my clean floors.”

My eyes go wide, and I jerk with surprise as I turn to see a woman staring at me. She’s definitely pretty. She has lush brown hair, with strands of silver shining through. It’s pulled back in a clasp at her nape. She has on a pair of black, silk-looking pants and a bright, colorful shirt that is blocked with every color under the rainbow.

I giggle because everyone at this party has their nose so far up in the air there’s no way I expected someone to approach me talking about pig shit, of all things.

“It’s not really my scene,” I explain, unnecessarily. This woman has nice clothes on—if not a bit colorful, but they’re nowhere near what those around us are wearing. And if she looks out of place, then I sure do in my faded-no-name-jeans, flannel shirt and hair pulled back in a ponytail. I offered to go back to my place and change, but Mike didn’t want me to. I was kind of impressed by that, but the longer I’m here, the more I think that he didn’t want me to change because he only brought me here