RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,46
is that I didn’t have to try and win that bet. The moment Pax told Damiana about it, it was all over the academy by the end of the day. And then I had girls tripping over themselves to fuck me. I could have tripled my quota twenty-four hours in. Not even I have that kind of stamina.”
“Oh wow. Big man. So, you won the bet after all. You just accepted the punishment for the sheer hell of it?”
“No. I didn’t screw any of those girls. They wanted to throw their hats into the ring for the hell of it. To say they danced toe-to-toe with one of the Riot House boys. My dick doesn’t get hard for that kind of shit. A girl’s gotta earn me, not think she’s doing me a favor.”
“Whoa. Careful. That ego’s bordering on ridiculous now.”
“It’s not ego. It’s just a fact.”
“So, you’re a good little boy after all. A saintly virgin. Is that what you brought me here to tell me?” Preposterous. If he legitimately tries to convince me that he has morals and has never slept with a student at Wolf Hall, then I’ll know him for exactly who he is: a bold-faced liar.
Wren wiggles his toes in front of the fire, baring his teeth in a wolfish smile. “I’m about the furthest thing you’ll find from a virgin here,” he says. “I was deflowered a long time ago.”
That choice of word—deflower—is laughable. It implies that Wren was once innocent, before he was plucked and sullied at someone else’s hand. Wren was never innocent. He came out of the womb corrupt and depraved, I’m certain of it.
“And no. I can already see it on your face. You know the truth. I’m the furthest thing from good you’ll find here, too. Don’t you want to know what I lost by not playing along with Dashiell and Pax’s bet?”
“No. I don’t really care. It’s so predictable, this whole thing. Bored rich boys placing bets to stave off boredom, not caring how their stupid bullshit affects the people around them. Don’t you care about anyone else here? Don’t you feel bad about hurting people?”
Wren weighs his response quickly. He barely has to think about the answer at all. “I care about Pax. I care about Dashiell. But not in a traditional way that most guys in high school care about each other. They’re not my bros. They’re not my homies. They’re oxygen. Daylight. Warmth. Familiarity. Shelter. Home. Safety. The other people wandering around the halls of this godforsaken shit hole? Do I care about them? No, Stillwater. I don’t. I don’t give a fuck about a single one of them, and I’m not afraid to admit it.”
I’m cold in spite of the fire. It’s as though there’s a block of ice sitting in the pit of my stomach and it will not melt. I’m weary down to my bones. I should never have left my bedroom. I’m a fool for coming all the way down here in the blowing wind and rain to sit here and listen to this. He did trash my room. He’s not ashamed of who he is in the slightest. Fool that I am, I guess that I was hoping I’d discover a few redeeming qualities that Wren’s been hiding from the world, but there’s nothing to redeem here. Wren’s a barren wasteland, and I have no intention of wandering that wasteland, knowing I won’t find anything to nourish me there.
Urgh. It’s really gonna suck walking back out into that storm. I get to my feet, already shivering at the prospect of the driving, icy rain slapping me in the face. “I’m going back to my room. This is a waste of time. I—”
“For some reason, I care about you, though,” he says, clenching his jaw. He’s not looking at me now; his eyes are fixed on the rug in front of the fire. From the expression on his face, I can see that this admission has cost him something. He doesn’t like whatever it is he’s feeling right now. “I’m cursed with this bewildering fascination over you, and it’s really becoming…inconvenient, Stillwater.”
I roll my eyes, fighting back a dramatic sigh. “What is this? What’s the point? This is just another bet, isn’t it? You’re looking to redeem yourself after your last embarrassing failure and you figured I’d make an interesting new target in one of your wagers. Well, I’m not your plaything, Wren Jacobi. I was not put on this earth