Rich Prick – Tijan Page 0,41

asking to come see you.”

I frowned. A young man? Blaise? “Oh.”

It was daytime, so he would’ve gotten Mr. Carl at the gate. That meant Tucker truly hadn’t put Blaise’s name on the list, which was cool of Tucker, but not so cool now.

I bit my lip, tugging at one of my backpack straps. “I’m feeling better, so I was going to go to the store. I’ll just talk to him out there.”

“We should tell him to wait?”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I slipped past her and hurried down the hallway. “See you tomorrow, Miss Sandy. I’ll be back later, and I might be worn out, ’cause I’m probably not back to a hundred percent.” Cough, cough.

I was such a shitty actress, which was ironic, considering my parents.

Then I was down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out to the garage. My parents had taken my dad’s vehicle, so my mom’s was still in the first stall. She always got the first stall because she said if she brought groceries home, she needed close access to the kitchen.

I couldn’t remember the last time she went grocery shopping, but it was what it was. She got the first stall.

I headed past the next three empty stalls to Maisie.

When I got to the front gate, Carl pointed me over to the side.

Blaise’s G Wagon was parked and Blaise was waiting beside the road.

He jogged over, and I tried not to ogle, but damn, he looked good.

He tapped on my window.

I rolled the window down. “Hey. I was headed out anyway and figured it’d be easier this way. Miss Sandy didn’t seem too approving.”

He nodded, his hands going into his pockets. “Where are you going?”

I hesitated, but this was me. I had to be me. “There’s some new camping gear at Holliston. I wanted to check it out, see if they had the new security system.”

He frowned, his head tilted to the side, and I sighed on the inside because even that looked good on him.

“Let’s take Maisie back, and I’ll drive,” he said.

“What?”

“Come on.” He tapped my window again, grinning—and my word, there was a dimple there. A dimple, folks. A dimple!

“I’ll follow you through, and then we can hang out.” His eyes darkened. His grin turned wolfish. “I need some Aspen time. Badly.”

I frowned, a little kick of concern tightening my throat, but I nodded.

He jogged back to his car, and I pulled around to explain the plan to Mr. Carl. He gave me a tight nod as his gaze looked back at Blaise. When we got to the house, I pulled Maisie into the driveway and hurried down to the road.

Blaise had brought his Wagon around, so I slipped in on the passenger side.

That’s when the nerves hit me.

I liked riding in Maisie, and getting in Blaise’s Wagon, I got all tongue-tied. This was a boy that had kissed me, made me explode, and I was in his vehicle. He was driving, and we were going to hang out. Was this an appropriate time to confess that I’d never been on a date?

Would he look at me weird?

Because I felt weird. I felt all sorts of what the hell am I doing? Blaise was so out of my league.

“Did you come from a party?” I asked.

He turned toward the gate, easing slowly so Carl could open it for us. “Huh?”

“What’d you do today?”

He glanced at me, then did a double take, his eyes narrowing. “What’s up with you?”

My stomach tanked. “What?”

“What do you mean what? Something’s up with you. You’re looking at me like my fingers have not been inside of you and I’m not sitting here hoping my dick will follow one of these days. Just spell it out.”

Jesus Christ. Forget my stomach tanking. He just brought his foot down hard on my stomach. I felt squashed, then the anger started in.

“You’re such a prick! You can’t talk to me like that.”

“Like what?” Both his eyebrows were up, but so were the corners of his mouth. He tried to hide his smile with his hand. “I’m being honest. I want to bang you. Badly. Most girls would love hearing that from me.”

“Well—” I jerked forward, but then I stopped.

I did like hearing that.

I leaned back in my seat, grumbling, “You made me feel squashed, and now I’m, like, loving what you’re saying? How messed up am I?”

“Huh.” That was all he said as he moved his car to the side of road. We’d just cleared the gate and turned the corner. As