“I wouldn’t sleep with you if you were the last man on Earth,” she snarls with a hostile stare, leaving no misinterpretation about her thoughts when it comes to my best friend.
“Ah, isn’t that precious. Baby, all I have to do is snap my fingers, and you’d come running. They all do, so what makes you any different?”
She lets out a loud scoff as she looks him dead in the eye.
“You wish. Not everyone wants a piece of Easton Price.”
“And yet, you know my name, whereas I have no clue about yours. Nor do I care. I don’t need a name to make you see God, sweetheart. Too bad for you, I don’t fuck uptight bitches.”
“And too bad for you, I don’t screw entitled assholes. Guess we both lucked out,” she rebukes, turning her head away, forcing him to let go of her hair.
“Feisty. Maybe I was wrong.” Easton sinisterly laughs out in amusement. “Maybe you wouldn’t be a lousy fuck after all. As long as you brought those claws with you, we could have a go at it. What do you say? Want to find a janitor’s closet and put it to the test? I’m bored, and you seem like you need a good fuck. Don’t worry. I won’t turn the lights on.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she retorts without missing a beat. “As I said, you’d be the last guy in all of Ashville I’d ever be alone in the dark with.”
Easton’s gunmetal eyes burn an eerie shade of gray, the tug of his upper lip looking pleased with the challenge.
“Will you stop?” I chime in, pulling his shoulder to force him to sit back down, all the while wondering what the hell has gotten into him. Unfortunately, Easton just shrugs me off, ignoring me completely, too wrapped up in his little game of harassing the poor girl.
“Are you afraid of the dark?” he hushes in her ear. “Why? Do the things that lurk in the shadows scare you?”
I see a small shiver running through her body while the nape of her neck bursts with goosebumps, proving how much Easton is freaking her out. And purposefully, too. After all the shit we have to deal with, he should be more sensitive and self-aware of his intimidating ways.
“Enough, East,” I warn, not one bit happy with his attitude.
He tilts his head my way, his shark-like grin intact, utterly unaffected by my warning.
“For now. Just one more thing.”
He then turns to the brunette one more time to rasp his last, ruthless, pestering comment in her ear. As hard as she tries to pretend he’s not getting under her skin, her body betrays her the minute his breath touches her skin.
“You just made it on my radar, sweetheart. I hate to tell you, but that’s not a good place to be. I’d be careful if I were you.”
She snaps her neck toward him with burning fury covering her eyes, even though every cell of her body is clearly showing how terrified of him she is.
“You don’t scare me,” she lies.
“Ah,” he coos, gripping her chin so their faces are just inches apart. “But I think I do, don’t I?”
“Mr. Price! Is there anything you want to share with the class?” Professor Donavan asks, confirming we got his attention.
Easton takes a full minute to stare the girl down instead of letting her go. When she finally submits and lowers her eyes from his, Easton releases his grip from her chin and leans back in his seat, looking right as rain.
“Nah, teach. I’m good. What I have to share is only for a selected few, if you catch my drift?”
The few smirks and giggles from the other students invade the classroom, taking Professor Donavan a minute to restore order.
“Please try to refrain from repeating things of that nature, Mr. Price. This is a Philosophy class not Sex Ed.”
Another slew of chuckles ensues, but Professor Donavan is able to keep control and continue with his lecture quickly enough.
“What the hell was that all about?” I interrogate him once we’re no longer the center of attention.
“Don’t worry about it. You’ve got other things to focus on.” He pretends to pick off lint from his shoulder, not caring to look me in the eye.
My brows pinch together as I scrutinize my best friend from head to toe. Easton is a cocky asshole, but he isn’t a mean one. That’s Colt’s area of expertise. So, what gives?
I slant my chin toward the brunette, who is now crouching down in her seat, making a serious effort to not gain Easton’s attention again.
“You know her, don’t you?” I whisper, making sure no one else is listening. East offers me a curt nod, confirming my suspicion. “And she just happened to get on your shitlist how, may I ask?”
He leans his head back on the headrest, pensively looking up at the ceiling again.
“She’s good. I’m bad. Do I need a better reason?”
“Sometimes you can be a real dick, you know that?”
“You’ve got bigger fish to fry than worrying about me, Finn. I’ve got my shit handled.”
“Whatever,” I huff out with little to no steam behind it.
At the end of the day, he’s right—my plate is already full enough. Wasting my time on Easton’s mercurial moods, or who got on his bad side, is not going to help either way.
I try to focus on what Professor Donavan is saying for a while, but truth be told, I’m not remotely interested in anything he has to teach today. When the bell rings, announcing the end of the class, I’m all too relieved to hightail it out of here. Not as fast as the brunette in front of me, though. The way she scurries out of the classroom has me feeling a little bit guilty that I didn’t put a leash on Easton.
I’m about to reprimand him again for intimidating the poor girl when he wraps his arm over my shoulder with a wide grin spread on his face. He’s all bubbly and shit, as if he didn’t just put the fear of God into one of our classmates.
“You know what we need? A large dose of caffeine from The Grind. Maybe some of their sugary treats, too. You with me?”
“Yeah, why not?” I nod.
It’s not like I’m going to pay attention to any of my classes today anyway, so ditching one won’t make much difference. It will also serve as the excuse I need to keep me from going to the other side of campus in search of the current bane of my existence—the stunning, green-eyed girl with thick, tattooed thighs, and a razor-sharp tongue.
I’ve thought of nothing else for the past forty-eight hours, and three things have become painstakingly clear for me. The first is that Stone is going to be harder to crack than I thought. The second is that I must be a fucking masochist to even try. The third is a nasty pill of truth, way more difficult to swallow—The Society isn’t the only reason why I’m invested in gaining Stone’s favor, and I’m not sure I like what that means.
I don’t do feelings. And I sure as shit don’t get them for smart-mouthed girls with too much attitude for their own good.
So why the fuck am I feeling dejected? Why is she all I can think about lately?
Girl’s going to be trouble. I just know it.