Fuck. That girl’s gonna be the death of me.
I scrub my hand down my face, realizing my mistake almost instantly. I can smell her.
“Fuck,” I bark, loud enough that I’m sure she’ll hear me.
I dress and gather everything I’m going to need for the day and invite myself into Ruby’s room. She can fuck right off if she thinks I’m going to knock after already being knuckles deep inside her this morning.
I drop down on her bed, taking in her room and the flowers that I dropped off in here on Sunday before she got home.
She only makes me wait a couple of minutes, and when she emerges from her bathroom—already fully dressed and ready to go—she doesn’t even flinch that I’m here.
“How’d I know you’d be waiting in here?” she says with a laugh.
“Am I that predictable? I’d better up my game.”
“No,” she says harshly, stepping between my thighs. My hands brush up her legs before groping her ass and squeezing just enough to pinch. “We’re done with games. Either we do this or we don’t.”
“Oh, little one,” I say, pushing to stand and taking her face in my hands. “We’re so doing this.”
“Okay, but...” She looks away nervously.
“But what, baby.” I catch her eyes again as I wait for her to say what’s on her mind.
“Can we keep it on the down-low at school for now? Just until it’s not so new. People are going to judge and—”
“Whatever you want.” I drop a kiss to the tip of her nose.
I don’t really give a shit who knows about this between us, I’d more than happily go and shout it from the rooftops if she wanted me to, but I agree because I just want her to be happy, and if she wants time, then I can give her time.
“Ready to go?”
“Yep.” Hand in hand, we make our way downstairs. There are signs that our parents have been here. The scent of toast fills the air and there are two dirty plates and mugs in the sink but there is no sign of them. Not that I’m going to complain.
“What do you want to eat? We don’t have much time.”
“You,” I say, wrapping my arms around her from behind and sucking on the skin of her neck.
“Definitely no time for that.” She chuckles, breaking from my hold and pulling a cupboard open. “Here.” She throws me a cereal bar before pulling out two travel mugs of coffee and kick-starting the machine.
“I can hardly take one of those on my bike.”
“I can drive.”
“But I’ve got training after school.”
“Okay, well... I’ll take your coffee then.”
“Deal.”
Only a few minutes later, Ruby slips into her car while I throw my leg over my bike and start the engine.
I follow her all the way to school, trying to wipe the smile off my face the entire way.
I take my coffee from her once we’ve parked, and she takes me to the benches where both the team and the squad seem to hang out.
Her friends look between the two of us suspiciously as we walk toward them, and the second Ruby breaks away from me to join them, I see them bombard her with a million questions while flicking glances my way.
“Morning,” I say to Jake, who’s got his arms around a pretty blonde.
“Morning. Brit, this is Ashton,” he says to his girl.
“Hey, nice to meet you,” she says sweetly, her British accent throwing me off for a second.
“You ready for this afternoon’s session?”
“More than ready.”
“Good.” He turns his attention back to his girl and I look to the rest of the team. Zayn, the guy who was talking to me in the locker room last night, has his tongue down Poppy’s throat while Harley continues to question my girl.
As if she can feel my stare, Ruby looks over her shoulder and directly at me. She smiles and I swear it nearly knocks me on my ass.
36
Ruby
I know the second his gaze lands on me. I feel it. My body feels like it’s burning up from the inside out.
“Ruby,” Harley warns when she notices why my attention has drifted off. “Stop trying to tell me nothing’s happened.”
I tried to play it off after we walked here side-by-side, but neither she nor Poppy are having any of it. My only saving grace is that Poppy is currently preoccupied with Zayn’s tongue.
“Okay fine,” I sigh. “But we’re keeping it quiet.”
“If that’s the case, you might want to stop looking at each other like you can barely contain yourselves.”
I shrug. I can’t help it.
“Fucking hell,” Harley moans, throwing her hands up in frustration. “I need to find new friends. I can’t deal with you and Poppy both being loved up. I hate being the third-wheel.” Her eyes roam over the members of the squad who are already here, as if she’s choosing her victim.
“Seniors are out, they’re all bitches and leaving soon. Ooooh... Stella.”
“I think she might be leaving too,” I say before snapping my lips shut. Was that supposed to be a secret?
“What? For real? She’s amazing. We need her next year, damn it.”
“I don’t know for sure. I don’t think she does either.”
“Well, we need to keep her.”
“Agreed. Have you put much thought into next year’s squad?” Harley asks me, successfully distracting me from Ashton’s heated gaze and onto cheer.
I shake my head at her, not wanting to get ahead of myself.
“Let’s head inside, I need to go to my locker.”
The morning passes, classes pass in a blur of boredom and lust-filled stares across the classrooms where Ash and I weren’t able to sit together. The ones we were, however, he didn’t exactly take the whole keeping it quiet thing seriously as his hand got higher and higher up on my thigh with every minute that passed.
I have no idea if anyone else noticed, but I felt like everyone knew as I damn near melted into a puddle of need on the chair.
He might have got me off this morning, but as good as it was, it wasn’t enough. After the time we spent together in Seattle, that short moment between us really didn’t scratch the itch I had. I knew from the moment I found him in the shower that I may have made a mistake the night before telling him that I wanted to take things slow because all I wanted to do was strip down, join him and let him do the kinds of wicked things he did to me in the shower in his apartment.
But I stood strong, knowing that I’d made the right decision.
It’s just a shame I question it with every second that passes.
He’s not in my class before lunch and as I sit there with my stomach rumbling, more than ready to go and discover what we’re going to find in the cafeteria today, I wonder if I’m actually hungrier for food or just for him.
Thoughts of Miss Kelly’s office hit me. There’s no way she’ll be in there, maybe we just venture down there and have a little time to ourselves...
A hand slapping my shoulder startles me. “You’re doing it again,” Harley snaps.
“Sorry, sorry.” It’s not the first time this hour that she’s laughed at me for zoning out on her in favor of thoughts of Ash.