You run the tutoring program, and I need a tutor. This is a business transaction, nothing more.”
“What subjects?” Noah’s hands form fists in his lap, but he doesn’t make any move to hurt me the way he wishes. He just stares at my face, those dark eyes searching mine. I don’t like the intensity of him. I resist the urge to slide away.
“All of them.”
“I’ll tutor you,” Gabriel pipes up. “You know how good I am at chemistry. You’re sodium fine, we could do it on the table periodically.”
“Mackenzie, I can help with geology. You’re obviously made of mica rock, with that perfect cleavage,” another guy down the table pipes up, and they all snigger. All except Noah, who still has me fixed with his death glare.
“Careful, guys,” Cleo smirks as she sets down her tray next to his. “You don’t want her to fuck up your nose.”
“Forget it.” I stand up. “I knew this was a mistake.”
Noah sighs.
“Fine.”
“Fine, what?”
“Be in the library during study period today, and I’ll figure out if I can even help you.”
“You’re an angel, you know that? A real saint.” I blow him an air kiss as I stand up to leave, and I swear I see the steam coming out his ears.
Noah and I share a study period. The library isn’t far from the bathroom where I eat my lunch, so I arrive early and spread my books over a table in the corner to save it for us. Not that any other students would consider sitting with me.
I’m reading my battered copy of Caesar’s The Conquest of Gaul when Noah drops into the chair opposite me. He runs fingers through his dark, wavy hair. At first glance, he’s calm, but I sense just underneath a storm is brewing.
A dark thrill runs through my veins as he looks me over, and that darkness in his eyes flares to life. Underneath that prep-school facade, Noah Marlowe is dangerous. And Jupiter help me, but I do love the bad boys. It’s in my blood.
“All the other tutors in the program are booked solid,” he growls. “So I’m stuck with you. Don’t waste my time, and don’t try to be cute. I’m here to help you pass, and that’s it.”
“Deal.” I lick my lower lip.
“Show me your last assignments. That’ll give me an idea of what I’m working with.”
I pull my history essay from my folder and hold it out to him. Noah stares at it, letting my hand hang outstretched between us. He can’t even bear to risk our hands touching. I drop it on the table, and he slides it toward him with one finger, as if it’s infected.
Noah holds the pages right at the edge, his eyes flicking across the text. That same nervous dance I felt when Ms. Drysdale handed back my paper starts up in my gut again. I want this guy to think I’m smart and clever and interesting, and that’s profoundly fucked up given everything I know and my situation.
When he’s done, Noah tosses the paper back to me. “This is shit.”
“You’re not a very good teacher. Aren’t you supposed to be encouraging me to be all that I can be?” I flash him a fake candy cane smile.
“Why are you here?” he growls.
“Because I know that essay’s shit. But I don’t know why.” I shrug. “Because I need to pass senior year.”
“No, I mean, why are you here at Stonehurst? Did you come here deliberately to fuck with me? Destroying my family wasn’t enough for you? Running away to hide for four years so you didn’t have to face what you did?” Noah’s words drip with venom. He slams his fists on the table. “You had to come to my school and fake being stupid just so I’m forced to tutor you.”
“I’m not faking anything.” A lie, but he doesn’t need to know that.
Noah spits on my essay. The glob of saliva lands on the large F scrawled at the top, making the letter appear bulbous and wobbly. “That essay is so comically terrible it can only be fake. It reads like you’ve never written an essay in your life. But I’ve been at school with Mackenzie Malloy since I could walk. I know she’s a cold, calculating, clever bitch. And this,” he gestures to the papers, “is just another one of her attempts to manipulate me.”
“That’s not what’s happening here.” I long to tell him the truth, that I haven’t been in school since I was thirteen, that