Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,51
the way. You participated in trying to terrorize me. You failed, spectacularly, and it blew up in your face, along with your broken nose.”
Sharon flinched. Tears actually welled in her eyes. “I hate you.”
“I don’t care,” I said, and the rage and hurt in her voice rolled right off of me. Once upon a time, I felt bad for her. I couldn’t find it in me anymore.
With a strangled scream, she pivoted on her heel and slammed out of the bathroom, damn near knocking over two freshmen on her way out.
Rachel slung an arm around my shoulder. “That was hot as fuck…”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, we’re gonna be late to French.”
“Did I ever tell you you’re my hero,” she sang as she followed me out, and I laughed. “Everything I would like to be…”
There was a freedom in being pushed past the point of compassion with people who just wanted to use it to hurt you. Coop had given me the biggest grin when I got to lit and then leaned over to whisper about how sexy me being a badass was. I didn’t ask him how he knew, but I thumped him when Ms. Fajardo wasn’t looking and he laughed.
At lunch, I handed him my backpack so I could take the helmet and climb on the back of Ian’s bike. We were all going to eat, but it was a relatively nice day with sunshine and in the mid-sixties. And I wouldn’t freeze my ass off on the back of the bike.
Soon as I had my arms around Ian, he glanced back at me. “Ready?”
“Yep.”
We led the way out of the lot and blew right past Sharon and a couple of her friends. I’d invited Rachel to come to lunch, but it was her half-day and she had a date with chocolate and a shower before she had to go to work. I promised to call her later.
Cramps sucked.
Surprise cramps sucked worse.
One upside of the implant, my periods were moderately better. I still got them, but they weren’t trying to kill me and they were shorter. I was calling it a win.
At the stop light, Ian put his hand over mine where I’d tucked them against his abdomen. No words, just a soothing rub, and then we were off again. Lunchtime traffic was a little heavy, but nice weather in January always brought people out. It was supposed to drop back below freezing this weekend.
When we reached the barbecue place, Jake pulled in right behind us. He really did like to follow when I was on Ian’s bike. After I climbed off, Ian said, “You busy this weekend? I know you have a date with Archie tomorrow to make up for last week.”
“No plans yet. I mean, I have to work at Mason’s on Saturday.”
“Save your evening for me?”
“I can do that,” I teased as I backed up a couple of steps. “What did you have in mind?”
“You’ll see,” he winked, taking my helmet and his to set inside Jake’s SUV before sliding an arm around me. If we hadn’t been close to the school, we’d have left them on the seats, but he didn’t risk anything since the incident with my car. Then he pressed his lips right to my ear as we followed the guys. “Dress comfortably but in loose clothing. We might be out late.”
A full shiver raced up my spine. No complaints here. “Sounds good to me.”
Archie eyed us as we got in line with them. “What sounds good?”
“Just staking my claim on Saturday night,” Ian told them. “We’ll be late. No one wait up.”
Coop snorted. “That doesn’t mean no one sleep over.”
“Actually,” Ian said, “it does mean that. Thanks for the reminder.”
“Nice,” Jake said with a laugh as he elbowed Coop. “If you’d kept your mouth shut, we could have just been there.”
Clasping my free hand in his, Archie murmured, “We’re gonna stay at my place tomorrow, if that’s cool with you?”
I grinned. “I have to work Saturday morning, so just don’t let me oversleep.”
“Don’t let you sleep,” Archie agreed. “Done.”
I laughed, and then we were giving our orders. Jake paid for mine before Archie could, and I stared up at the ceiling as Coop laughed at me. At the rate we were going, they were never going to let me pay for anything and it was sweet, but…
“Don’t make that face,” Coop cajoled as he tugged me away from Ian and followed after a bickering Archie and Jake. “We like spoiling