like complete and utter shit. Worse than shit. Like the gum that has gotten stuck to the bottom of your shoe. You go about your day normally, repeatedly stomping on and smearing it, until you realize you have a pesky tag along. Then you take a knife and you cut the gum from your sole, all the while grimacing in disgust.
I’m that gum.
I can tell the two of them are uneasy around me, despite their best attempts not to show it. Emmett continues his relentless flirting, and I try my best to smile. I honestly do. But it almost seems as if the muscles around my lips are incapable of working. Instead, they sag downwards.
Lucas arrives then and moves to sit in the seat in front of me once more. Like always, he’s wearing a form-fitting sweater that clings to his muscular but lithe form. His red hair is slicked away from his cold, critical face. He spins around in his chair until he’s facing me, his sea-blue eyes meeting my own until I hastily look away. I don’t want any of the Devils to see me like this. I’m afraid they’ll see too much, see the demons I wish to remain hidden.
His red brows scrunch together, and something akin to concern flitters across his face. He opens his mouth before snapping it closed, the concern diminishing like it was never been there to begin with.
“I want to take you out.”
Mariabella sucks in a breath in the seat beside me, and I wrench my attention off of Lucas to meet Emmett’s imploring gaze. He’s smiling, displaying those mouth-watering dimples, but his hand anxiously twists his pencil through his fingers. I watch, mesmerized, as the silence turns pregnant and pronounced.
“What?” I finally pterodactyl-screech.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Lucas stiffen ever so slightly. It’s so miniscule that I almost think I imagine it.
“I want to go out with you, Peony Simone,” Emmett declares without preamble, using the hand currently not destroying the pencil to run through his blond hair. “I think you’re sweet, funny, sexy as hell, and I want to go on a date with you. Tonight.”
“Oh my god!” Mariabella gasps, and I can’t tell from her tone if she’s excited for me or upset.
“I…um…” Almost unwittingly, my eyes flicker to Lucas’s face. As usual, it’s carved from stone, giving no hint of what he feels. But his eyes tell an entirely different story.
They seem to burn like a blistering hot flame.
He’s positively livid, and the thought sends a surge of something through me. Satisfaction? Contentment? Something else entirely?
Either way, it’s not Emmett’s face I picture when I reply, “Yes. I’d love to.”
Chapter 23
He corners me the second first hour ends. His huge body seems to block me in from all sides as he towers over me, eyes spewing vitriol and something I would almost describe as jealousy.
“Tell him no.” His words are as monotone as everything else in his life, devoid of any inflection or emotion. He could’ve been reciting something as mundane as the newspaper. But that same fire flashing in his eyes from class remains as he glares down at me.
“I don’t think I will,” I huff, purposely giving him my back as I change out my books in my locker. Lucas releases a disgruntled huff, standing so close that his hot breath stirs the hair by my ear. Goosebumps ripple across my flesh, and I try to quell my body’s automatic, visceral reaction to his nearness.
“You don’t want to go on a date with him,” Lucas continues as I slam my locker shut and stride briskly towards the staircase. I know that his next class is on the opposite side of campus, but despite that, he follows me into the stairwell.
“Don’t tell me what to fucking do,” I hiss, whirling on him. Instantly, I become lost in his ice-blue eyes. Not in the “I’m so captivated by your beauty” way. Something about Lucas seems to innately command my attention. I think it’s the power he exudes in seemingly tangible waves. You could never mistake him for anything less than the predator in this situation.
But I refuse to be his prey.
Maybe this is the moment when two lions meet in the middle of a jungle, and a fierce battle ensues. Only one of us will emerge victorious. Sooner or later, either Lucas or I will have to submit and bow down willingly to the other.