“Zayn?” Harley calls.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got work from your teachers.”
“Leave it out there,” I grunt, desperate for her to just go away.
“What are—fucking hell, are you jacking off again?” she asks, her voice higher pitched than normal.
Poppy rolls into my side, shoving her face into my chest.
“Yeah, could you knock again and pretend to be the maid coming in to polish my—”
“You’re fucking sick,” she screams before she runs to her room and the slam of her door makes the walls shake.
The second we know it’s safe, Poppy barks out a laugh.
“Pretend to be the maid?” she manages to get out through her laughter. “Please, for the love of God, tell me that you don’t have a maid, let alone one that polishes anything of yours.”
“We have a cleaner, but I wouldn’t let her anywhere near me with her feather duster, don’t worry.”
“You’re a nightmare,” she says, falling back down into my side and snuggling close. Her bare leg drapes over my waist and I can’t help but to trail my fingertips over the smooth skin.
“What?” I ask innocently. “It got rid of her, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, and probably scarred her for life.”
“She’ll cope. She can consider it karma for the fact she now crashes all my football parties in her slutty little dresses.”
“Oh, because you haven’t been torturing her for years? Did you ever think she does those things out of karma to get back at you?”
“Huh…” I think back over our childhoods and all the things I’ve done to torture her over the years. Poppy probably has a point. “Nah, that can’t possibly be the case. I’ve been the most awesome big brother ever.”
“Sure,” she says with a laugh, tapping my chest gently.
“Maybe you just need a reminder of how awesome I am.”
I roll her onto her back, settling myself between her legs and capturing her lips to cut off any argument that might have been about to fall from her lips.
We hibernate in my room all night. Harley doesn’t bother knocking again but I do slip out to see Mom to reassure her that I’ve done all my work and got the extra Harley collected for me once she came home.
She looks at me weirdly the entire time, as if she suspects something and it makes me nervous that she’s about to race up to my room. But she doesn’t say anything and after a few minutes, she allows me to go back up to my girl.
“Poppy?” I whisper when I return and flick the lock once more before finding my room empty. My stomach bottoms out for a second that she’s run the second I’ve left her alone.
I only have to wait a second before she emerges from my bathroom with a plume of steam billowing out behind her.
“You’ve got a bath,” she states, running her eyes down the length of me.
“I do. I never use it though, so eat your heart out.”
“Oh, I was thinking you could use it tonight.”
A smile curls up at my lips as my brain catches up with her plan.
“You know, I was thinking that tonight was the perfect night to christen the thing.” I walk toward her and gather her up in my arms.
“Shit,” she gasps, running her fingertip gently down my neck. “I didn’t realize I left a mark.”
A smile plays on my lips.
“What?”
“That explains why Mom looked at me suspiciously.”
“She knows?”
“I doubt that. She probably just thinks I snuck someone in this afternoon.”
“Which you did,” she helpfully points out.
“Hmm… so I did. She’s not going anywhere either.”
23
Poppy
I wake with a happy smile on my face as I open my eyes and find I’m laid on Zayn’s naked chest and with his arm protectively wrapped around my waist.
I have no idea if he’s awake or not but I can’t help running my fingertip around the lines of his stomach that the sheets reveal.
Each time I make contact, his muscles bunch and I smile.
“Hmm… I could get used to this,” he says into my hair before dropping a kiss to the top of my head.
The move takes me back to relaxing in the bath with him last night. There was no point where he didn’t have some kind of contact with me and as time went on, I craved it more and more.
He rubbed the tension from my shoulders, gently cleaned around my sore wrists and peppered kisses up my neck while he played my body to perfection. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so relaxed as I did in his arms last night.
I blow out a slow breath, this might feel incredible right now, but we both know it’s not going to turn into a regular thing.
“Skip today. Stay here with me,” he says, his fingers wrapping around my hair and tugging gently until I have no choice but to look up at him.
“I can’t, Zayn. It won’t do any good. I’ve just got to hold my head high and carry on.”
“Are you going to tell me what he did yet?”
I shake my head. If I tell him any of the details about Preston accosting me, it’ll just make him angrier than he already is, and I’d hate for him to end up hurt because he was fighting for me.
This is my fight. My problem. I refuse to allow anyone else to get in the middle. It’s exactly why no one else knows just how bad things are.
“Just tell me one thing. Did he… has he touched you?”
“No.” It’s a half-lie, and it tastes bitter as it passes my lips, but I know I can’t tell him the truth. He’s barely holding it together as it is where Preston is concerned. I can’t do that to him. “I should get ready for school.”
I push from him and swing my legs over the bed.
“Wait,” he says, his hand wrapping around my wrist, preventing me from standing. “I’m not letting you out of this bed until I feel you coming around my cock.”
His lips trail down my spine, sending goose bumps racing across my skin.
“Well, if I have to,” I concede and fall back onto the mattress when he encourages me to do so.
After a short argument that I ultimately lost, Zayn drives me to school once I’ve sent a message to Harley and Ruby to let them know that I’d make my own way.
That hardly ever happens, so I know for a fact that they’re going to have questions for me the second I step foot on Rosewood High soil.
We waited until everyone else had left the house. I thought it was just so we wouldn’t get caught but Zayn pointed out the moment that we were in the car that it was mostly because he didn’t want me in school and anywhere near Preston for a second longer than necessary.
I swooned, hard. But no matter how protective he is about me, I think we both know that it’s not going to stop him. If Preston wants to get to me, then he will.
The parking lot is almost empty of students by the time we arrive seeing as the bell for first period has already rung.
“If I get detention then it’s all your fault.”
“You’re hardly late. Come here.” He leans over the console and crashes his lips to mine.