okay, Ash." He keeps his eyes on the road, but his body tenses at my answer. "I've been doing too much, and it's caused some inflammation. The radiology department will be calling with an appointment for new scans, and hopefully there isn't any serious damage."
His fingers tighten on the steering wheel even as a tic pulses in his cheek from clenching his jaw. After a few deep breaths, he gets his anger under control. I'm not sure what his malfunction is, but after discovering his extracurricular activities, I'm wary.
"What exactly have you been doing to hurt yourself? Since you've been chaperoned, I'm assuming it was before you came to Blackbriar?" His tone leaves little doubt as to what he's getting at.
Annoyed, I decide to press his buttons. "Gonna explain why you almost hulked out there, Ash? You'd think you were a caring or jealous boyfriend, acting like that."
He doesn't find me amusing, and his answering brusqueness brooks no argument. "Answer the question, Cordelia." He flashes me a glower before returning his attention to the road, giving me a glimpse of dark brows pulled down sharply over midnight blue eyes.
"Ooh, pulling out the daddy card." I mimic him, "Answer the question, Cordelia." Ash can't stand to be mimicked, it drove him up the wall when we were kids.
Ash's nostrils flare in irritation. "Stop it. You're being a brat."
"Gonna pull the car over and spank me, Daddy?" I think he chokes a bit with that one, and I have to look out of my side window to hide my grin.
"I'll find out eventually, may as well fess up now. Besides, everyone knows your daddy couldn't hack it and took off." His barb hits home, but I force myself not to let it show, it's been years since I resolved myself to my father being gone.
"Maybe if you take his place, the same thing will happen." Then I deliver the coup de grace. "In case you don't remember— he washed up in the river."
Ash's fair skin pales, leaving the remnants of his angry flush standing out starkly on his profile. The rest of the drive passes in a tense silence, only briefly broken at the gate to the school. Pulling up into the lot, he parks as near as possible to the dorm. When we get out, he turns to leave me, but I stop him in his tracks.
"Chaperone, remember, Ash?" He pauses, and I add, "I'm not the one that will be disobeying if you leave me here." Spinning on his heel, he changes direction, fuming as he passes me. "What happened to 'anything you need'?" I call after him, feeling a bit smug at the turnabout.
All I get in return is the bird, and I have to hurry to catch up. Well, hurry as much as I can with my new restrictions directing me to take it easy.
***
Ash storms out of the elevator stomping to our door where he has to wait for the lock to disengage. He'd been annoyed enough on the ride up to mess up his neatly styled low-fade. Now the dark brunette hair on the top is in a disarray that looks like sexy bedhead.
He flings the door open, nearly hitting Blaise with it. "Oh, good, you're here. Take her before I strangle her ass."
Blaise flicks his gaze between the two of us, wariness taking the place of his previous annoyance at getting whacked with the door. I continue to bait Ash, ignoring our audience.
"But, Daddy, I thought I was getting a spanking for being naughty?" My top lip tucks in, while the bottom one pokes out in an exaggerated pout.
"See? I can't deal with that. She won't stop." When he points at me in aggravation, I give him sad eyes and flutter my lashes.
A fit of coughing pulls my attention to Riggs, who's coming out of his room. He catches his breath and demands an explanation. "What the hell happened at that appointment, Ash? You're not supposed to be banging the bitch on field trips." The fuck did he say? Fuck taking it easy.
I’m advancing on Riggs, murder in my eyes, when Blaise opens his mouth.
"She probably likes it rough after slumming it with that dead gutter rat."
My balled up fist pops him right on his smirking mouth. I was aiming for his nose, but he's too tall. Ignoring any thought of my injuries, I launch at him while he's bent over and off guard. We both tumble to the floor, and somehow, mostly by luck,