Elle Thorpe

A large body landed in my back seat, and I yelped, slamming my foot down on the brake automatically.

Banjo gave me a lopsided grin. “Told you I’d see you around. This wasn’t exactly what I meant, but hey, I’ll take it. Man, these seats are like butter.”

“Getting a lift?” he asked cheekily.

“Could have asked!”

“But you would have said no.”

“You don’t know that.” He was right. I would have, to save myself further embarrassment. Being this close to him was stirring things inside me that I needed to keep a lid on. Especially since we weren’t alone.

“Lacey, can I get a lift in your sexy-as-fuck car?”

“No!”

“See?” He grinned. “That’s why I didn’t ask!”

It was hard to keep a straight face. He was so cute with all that blond hair flopping in his eye, his smile full of mischief.

I guided the gearshift back into park. “Banjo. Get out of my car.”

“Lacey. Go out with me.”

Jagger let out a gasp from the passenger seat and then clapped her hands with glee. “Well, this just got interesting!”

“You don’t get to judge me.”

Jagger sucked in a tiny breath beside me. She shook her head ever so slightly.

“Untouchable,” she said beneath her breath.

Colt bent down, leaning in until we were eye to eye. “You should listen to your friend there, princess. I do whatever I want around here. If I want to judge you, then there isn’t a thing you can do about it. Is there?”

Then he ran one finger down the side of my face, starting at my temple and tracing his way along my jaw.

I knew a power play when I saw one. He expected me to back down. To flinch away.

I wouldn’t. Not now, on day one. Not ever. It took more than a handsome face who overestimated his importance to intimidate me.

So instead, I got closer. I got so close our faces were less than an inch apart. If I’d been across the parking lot and seen a guy and a girl this close, I would have assumed they were going in for a kiss. My body flushed with heat at the thought, even as I fought to keep my anger under control.

I knew what he expected.

I wasn’t going to give it to him.

“The pauper bows to the princess, Colt. You’d do well to remember that.”

And with that, I threw the car into reverse once more, slammed my foot on the gas, and shot us out of the parking space. The three guys scrambled to get out of my way, but my gaze never left Colt’s. I put the car into drive and hightailed it out of the parking lot, tires screeching, back end fishtailing, leaving the three boys behind in a cloud of black smoke.

but a different noise caught my attention. I frowned and detoured to my left, knocking quietly on the door. The noise from within stopped abruptly.

“Aria?” I asked, without opening the door. “You okay?”

There was a moment of silence, then, “Go away, Banjo.”

Nope. That wasn’t going to do. I clapped a hand over my eyes and turned the door handle, letting myself inside. “If you’re not decent, get a robe on or something because you’ve got ten seconds before I move my hand. Ten…nine…

Something hard bounced off my head. I moved my hand to rub what was probably going to be a bruise. “Shit, Ari. That hurt!” I complained

Ari’s mouth lifted at the corners.

A relief settled over me. She wasn’t just Colt’s younger sister. I’d always thought of her as mine, too, and even though we liked to give each other a hard time, I knew she’d been crying and I hated it.

Rafe was shaking his head. “Great story, but you ain’t calling dibs. She’s fine. And my dad actually seems to like her.”

I scoffed. “You want to date her because your dad approves?”

Rafe reached over and shoved me in the arm, sending my stool sliding on its wheels. “No, I want to date her because I can’t stop thinking about how hot her legs looked in that skirt.”

I grinned to show him I didn’t mean anything by the teasing. We all knew Rafe’s dad was a dick and made his life impossible at every opportunity. But that didn’t mean I was letting Rafe have a crack at Lacey. Not when I’d spent all night thinking about her, trying to work out how I could get her phone number. She’d rushed off with the police, leaving me standing by her front door, wondering what the hell had happened. One minute we’d been going upstairs, her soft hand wrapped around mine and her citrus scent making me wild. Then next minute I was staring at her front door and she was gone. If my lips hadn’t still tingled from the tiniest of kisses we’d shared, I would have thought I’d imagined her.

“About what you said yesterday—”

I got cut off by a scraping noise that was as painful to listen to as fingernails down a chalkboard.

“Oh, the princess is in our class. Great. Should we bow? Curtsey? I’m not sure of the protocol.”

I didn’t even have to lift my head to recognize Gillian’s voice, sharp and vicious. I looked over in her direction, deliberately slowly, as if I were bored with her statement. “That’s because you have no class, sweetie.”

He sighed. “I’m not playing anything. But it’s complicated.”

“I don’t do complicated either.” Then I forced out words I didn’t really mean. “So just forget it. I only chose you because I didn’t know anyone else’s name. Can we just talk about what song we want to do?”

Banjo appeared wounded by that, and I tried to keep myself from apologizing. He deserved a little of his own medicine, even if I did feel bad.

“If that’s what you want.”

That was what I wanted. For now, anyway.

“I’d love to go out with you,” I said to Banjo, firmly.

Banjo’s smiled faltered. He shot Colt a look, and shook his head slightly, but whatever Banjo was trying to convey didn’t get across.

Colt was too busy laughing his ass off. “Oh, this is rich. Yesterday, you were too good for us. Today you want to date him?”

Ugh, I wanted to punch this guy. “I said I was too good for you, jackass. Not him.” More words I’d probably feel bad about later, but something about Colt brought out the worst in me. And in that moment, I didn’t care.

I turned back to Banjo, but my stomach sank at the expression on his face.

He stood and pulled me aside, a few steps. His hand was warm on my arm, sending a pleasant tingling feeling across my skin. “Listen, something’s happened…I’m really sorry…”

I almost felt sorry for him. His cheeks were pink with embarrassment, and he looked genuinely apologetic.

“Dumped on your second day of school,” Colt said, loud enough for all the kids at the tables around us to titter.