“I’m asking you if you’re down,” he replies as I pause in the middle of the hallway and all eyes turn my way. “You. Me.” Parrish whips out a hand in my direction, pointing an accusatory finger my way. “Dakota.” He smiles and it’s whip-sharp, devastating, completely and utterly unnerving. “If my girl wants to have a threesome, it’s my job to make that happen for her.”
This motherfucker, I think as I narrow my eyes on him and march down the hall with my book bag slung over one shoulder.
“Little Sister looks pissed,” Chas remarks with a lazy smile of his own. I ignore him, pausing beside Lumen and Parrish as the latter glances over at me with that deceptive smile of his still in place. It’s complete bullshit, that look. I live across the hall from the guy, and I’ve never seen him look like that, not even when he thinks he’s all alone in the kitchen, elbows leaned on the counter, head hanging down. Parrish Vanguard never smiles, not for real anyway.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I ask him, glancing over at Lumen. She looks annoyed but not entirely displeased with the attention.
“You wanted a threesome: I’m asking for one.” Parrish gestures in Lumen’s direction and I sigh.
“If this is what you meant by ‘I’m going to bury you’ then your game is seriously lacking. I don’t care if everyone here knows I want a threesome.”
I stare Parrish down, but his expression never changes. Either I’m playing into his hand the way he wanted me to or he’s just that good of an actor.
“Well then, what say you, Lumen?” He turns back to the girl in question and cocks a pretty brow. Last night, I heard him in his room, tattoo machine buzzing, low voices in the background from that stupid murder Podcast that he and Chasm like so much. I tried to get a glimpse of where his newest ink might be this morning, but by the time Delphine woke me up for school, he was already dressed in his uniform.
“Don’t pressure her,” I say, resting a hand on Parrish’s upper arm. He glances down at me like I matter, like I really am his girlfriend and he’s so into me that he can barely breathe. My own breath escapes in a rush and I feel a bit unsteady on my feet. I’m smart enough to realize that it’s all an illusion though, just a game to be played so that my time at this school doesn’t suck royal ass. “You’re a really sweet guy, so kind and gentle, always crying and expressing yourself.” I reach up and stroke some of Parrish’s pretty hair away from his forehead. There’s the slightest narrowing of his eyes, but he doesn’t make any move to stop me. How can he, with everyone watching? “But the micropenis thing really is starting to get to me. I just thought that if it were me, you, and Lumen that I might be able to get off …”
The tightening in Parrish’s jaw becomes a ticking muscle, a sign of anger that he can’t control. Even the prince has flaws.
“I didn’t think you’d want to discuss this in front of everyone though,” I whisper back, a very real blush suffusing my cheeks and chest. “Sorry, Lumen. He can be a bit headstrong at times.”
Lumen crosses her arms over her chest, looking Parrish over with a sharp smirk that tells me I’ve chosen the right path here. Hanging out with the queen bee of the school nullifies the stingers in the rest of the hive.
“You don’t have to lie about my dick just to save my feelings,” Parrish whispers, but it’s a stage-whisper. We are still very much in the middle of a performance here. “I don’t care if Lumen knows.” He turns back to the girl in question as I brace myself for whatever it is that might be coming next. “I can’t get hard for her,” he says, almost as if he’s admitting something scandalous. My hand tightens on my book bag, the metal heart pin that Tess gave me digging into my skin. “We get along great otherwise; she’s a phenomenal gamer. And she has incredible taste in music”—the sarcasm is so thick it’s practically dripping—“but it’s just, when the time comes, she just doesn’t do it for me.” He shrugs his shoulders loosely as Chasm looks on, tapping his fingers against the locker he’s leaning against.
Rather than watching Parrish however, he seems to be watching me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost say that he looks … sorry? Like his friend’s behavior isn’t exactly his favorite thing in the world.
A small shiver traces over my skin, one that I ignore in favor of holding my ground against his bestie. This stupid, piggish, annoying sloth prince! I want to kick him in the nuts, but if I get expelled from this fancy school for violence, Tess will probably hire a private tutor and I’ll be trapped in the ice cavern for the next two years.
“Your erectile dysfunction is nothing to be ashamed of. A lot of guys have issues getting hard—even ones diagnosed with micropenises.” I stroke Parrish’s arm and lean my head against his shoulder. He immediately stiffens up, but I don’t think either of us misses how good that feels. He’s warm, and his body is lean and hard, and holy crap, he smells amazing. Also, pretty sure he neither has issues getting hard nor has been diagnosed with a micropenis (which is a real medical condition that I probably shouldn’t be using to tease him with).
The thing is, when Parrish comes at me, I forget to control my emotions. Something about him just triggers me into doing and saying things that I wouldn’t normally do or say.
“Honestly, Parrish,” Lumen begins with a sigh, tossing her curled honey hair over one shoulder. “I’m over you. We might be dating the same girl, but even her wishes aren’t enough to get me into your bed.” She flashes him a sharp smile and then lifts a brow in my direction where I’m still cuddled up to my stepbrother like he’s actually anything other than a thorn in my side.
“Shall we?” she asks, but Parrish isn’t done. He very carefully withdraws his arm from mine, and though I’m loathe to admit it: I miss the contact. This asshole! What the hell has he done to me, other than scramble my brains around in my skull until it seems impossible to think clearly when he’s around?
“I’m sorry, Dakota,” Parrish says, shaking his head and then running his fingers through his hair like he’s actually in some sort of emotional distress. “But I don’t think I can do this anymore. It’s not that I have trouble getting it up: it’s just that I have trouble getting it up around you.” He stares down at me with those pretty gold-flecked eyes of his, and that ember in my belly heats up, burns, incinerates. I’m going to kill him. Really and truly. No hyperbole necessary. “It’s over.”
He turns away from me and stalks down the hallway, taking his cluster of friends with him. That is, all of them except for Chasm. He has his arms crossed over his chest, but his face, that’s impossible to read.
“Told you making out with me at the party would’ve been a better idea.” He stands up from the locker and gives me this voracious little smile that makes the girls—and a few gay boys—titter and giggle. Gross. I glare at him.
“Trying to shame me in front of the whole school? How cute. Why don’t you put a leash on your bestie instead of letting it be the other way around?”
Chasm frowns hard, and I can feel it: a shift in energy.