“A joke,” Shaw repeated, her brows drawn together. “You text guys those kinds of pictures as a joke? Aren’t you scared they will end up on the internet or something?”
“It was the first time I’d ever done it,” Carmen muttered. “No one else had won the game yet, and I’d been drinking a little. My friend was telling me how he hadn’t cracked yet, and I guess I got brave.” She shrugged. “It was a stupid idea. I’m just glad Jagger is a decent enough guy not to use that picture against me.”
“Won?” Shaw shook her head. “Won what?”
“It’s a game we’ve all been playing,” Variety, the seventeen-year-old who had sent me a picture of herself topless explained. “We, the senior girls at school, have been trying to tempt Jagger for months now.”
“Tempt?” Shaw parroted. “How have you been…” Her eyes widened. “You have all been sending him nudes?”
Carmen and Variety both nodded, while some of the other girls lowered their heads in shame. “He didn’t hook up with Gretchen at some party,” Carmen explained. “And Stacy got the stupid idea that we should try to do what Gretchen couldn’t. The first one to text him and then hook up with him was the winner. But it’s been months, and no one has gotten so much as a reply text back from him.”
“If that slut couldn’t even suck his dick and he won’t even respond to our texts, then he must be gay,” Stacy, one of the few girls who was pissed about being there—and whom I wouldn’t even give the time of day—shot me a scathing look.
Shaw snorted. “Or he just has taste.” Turning, she marched straight up to me. Standing on her tiptoes, she thrust her hands into my hair and pulled my head down.
I met her kiss with one of my own. My hands went straight to her ass, and I turned her so I was pressing her into the door. I forgot about the others in the room as I kissed my girl the way I’d been aching to since I saw her earlier. She tasted so fucking good, I couldn’t contain my groan. I could get drunk off her sweetness alone.
A sharp knock on the door had me lifting my head. Breathing hard, I met Shaw’s glazed gaze. “Don’t run away,” I growled as I stepped back and moved her aside so I could open the door.
Ma stood on the other side. I hadn’t seen her at all in the last two days because she’d been so busy. We’d talked on the phone and through texts, though, so I’d known this whole thing would go off without an issue. But now that I was seeing her for the first time, concern for my mom made my gut knot up. She had dark circles under her eyes, and she was pale. Ma looked physically sick and run-down, and that scared the hell out of me.
“Ma?” I choked out.
She gave me a tight smile. “Did everything go the way you wanted?”
“What’s wrong?” I asked her after nodding. “Is everything okay? Are you sick?”
“Just tired, baby boy.” Her green gaze went to Shaw, who was standing beside me. Her blond hair was wild from where my fingers had tangled in it only moments before, and her mouth was swollen from our kiss. “You good?”
Shaw shrugged. “Are you?”
“Ask me again once she’s stopped having dark thoughts,” Ma told her.
“Same.” Shaw’s shoulders drooped. “I really need to get home. I promised I’d keep her company. She doesn’t want me to because I guess she feels like I’m babysitting her, but she doesn’t understand that I want to be there for me just as much as for her.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve missed something major?” I muttered to myself, glancing between the two of them in confusion.
Ma sighed. “If you’re finished here, take Shaw home. I’ll make sure these girls get home safely. Your dad is having dinner at Mia’s, and I’m going to be here a little longer before I head to Shane’s. Will you be okay on your own for dinner?”
“I’ll figure something out,” I assured her. “But Ma, you look like you need about a week’s worth of sleep.”
Her laugh was dry when she stepped into the room. “If only, Jagger. If fucking only.”
Chapter 19
Shaw
“Wouldn’t it be easier if I just drove you home?” I asked to break the silence as Jagger maneuvered through LA rush-hour traffic.