need you to partake in your kinky shit on your own time. We have less than ten minutes to pull it together and come up with a story before the parental units come through.”
“I’m not…that’s not… I didn’t strip and tie myself up.”
“Whatever.” Rubbing his chin, he assesses me. “So what exactly am I working with here? What’s your bondage of choice?”
“I don’t have a bondage of choice. Jace tied me up with…” My cheeks heat and I swallow hard. “On second thought, does it really matter? Just get me out of here.”
I want to punch him when he starts whistling. “Damn, he really went the extra mile. This knot is tighter than a motherfucker.” He makes a face. “Are you sweating? The fabric is kind of—”
“Oh my God, shut up.” I kick his shin. “Just stop talking.”
“All right. Jesus.” He gives the fabric a forceful jerk, freeing my wrists. “Don’t get your panties in a—never mind. Too late for that.”
I snatch them from him. “Turn around.”
Remarkably, he does as I ask. “Relax, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Although if you want my honest advice, you’d benefit from a trip, or five, to Victoria’s Secret.”
I tug them on and rub my chafed wrists. “I’m good, thanks.”
He stops me when I head for the door. “Not so fast. We still have to figure out what we’re going to tell them.”
“Tell who?”
“My dad and your aunt.”
“I don’t know, but the truth sounds like a pretty good start.”
He rushes over when I turn the knob. “Woah, hold on. Let’s not do anything crazy.”
He must be higher than usual. “You really expect me to lie to them for you after all you’ve done?”
Although now that I think about it, he didn’t really do anything. Jace did.
No. Oakley’s not exactly free of fault. Jace had to have gotten the information to use against me from someone.
I grind my molars. Oakley could have stopped the rumors and refused to feed Jace my secrets, but he didn’t.
He gloated and made everything worse.
I can tell he’s trying to choose his next words carefully. “I already let you kick my ass in front of everyone, isn’t that en—”
“You’re unbelievable.”
I swing the door open, but he lugs me back inside and stands in front of it.
“Dylan, please.” His expression is solemn. “I’m sorry, okay? I was mean to you and you didn’t deserve it. But my grades are shit and if I don’t pull my act together, I might not graduate. I really need you to have my back out there.”
I snort. “Like all the times you had mine these last few days?”
He opens his mouth and then clamps it shut.
I jab his chest with my finger. “Do you have any idea how much I dreaded coming back to Royal Manor?” My throat thickens. “I know how these people can be, and I hated the idea of returning to the place where people like Britney and her crew of mean girls reign, but I didn’t have a choice in the matter.” I shrug helplessly. “I figured maybe, just maybe, things wouldn’t be so bad at RHA, because I’d have a friend—no, family—here and we could look out for each other. I didn’t expect to be super close or anything, and I didn’t want to insert myself into your circle of friends—but I definitely didn’t anticipate coming back to everything being a complete one-eighty from the way it was when I left. Or that you’d be helping my childhood best friend destroy my life because he insists on holding a grudge against me for some unknown reason.”
He exhales sharply. “I didn’t know you guys were so close. He never once mentioned you over the years. Not even after my dad married Crystal.”
It’s like a kick straight to the heart. Jace Covington isn’t the boy I knew.
“Yeah, well. There are probably lots of things you don’t know about him. He keeps almost everyone at arm’s length.”
“Truth.” He leans against the door. “Then again, we all have our secrets.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. Can we start over?”
I shift uncomfortably. “If this is another trick, I’d rather just lie to my aunt than fall for it.”
“It’s not a trick,” he insists. “I mean it.”
“Well, forgive me for not trusting you, but just yesterday you called me a skank and said you could have me and my aunt tossed out on our asses like—” I snap my fingers like he did. “That.”
“I