Kingston grabs my hand and forcefully yanks me down the hall and into a guest bathroom. We listen as our fathers say goodbye to one another and wait a moment for his dad to leave. Once it’s safe, he drags me out of the bathroom.
“Your bedroom. Now.”
“What?” I have to speed walk to keep up with him. “What’s going on?”
“Just shut up until we get to your room.”
I want to tell him to fuck off but I’m more curious about what the hell we just heard so I follow. Once we’re safely behind a locked door, Kingston turns on the Bluetooth speaker I have on my desk and presses buttons on his phone until “The Drug in Me is You” by Falling in Reverse starts playing.
He starts pacing in a circle. “You cannot repeat a word of what you just heard.”
I take a seat on the edge of my bed. “I don’t even know what the hell I just heard.”
His angular jaw tics. “It’s better if it stays that way.”
“What does that—” I gasp when it hits me. “Holy shit, you do know what they were talking about, don’t you?”
Kingston runs his hands over his head until his hair is standing on end. “Jasmine, I’m fucking serious. Don’t dig into this and don’t tell anyone about it.”
“They were talking about my mom! I have every right to know why. And why are you not freaking out about the fact that your dad apparently had an affair with my mom? It sounded like our fathers were both sleeping with her at the same time. That’s just... gross. And so unlike the woman I knew.”
He stops pacing and closes the gap between us. I’m on my back with him hovering over me before he stops. I don’t miss the semi pressing into my thigh.
His hand wraps around my neck, but he doesn’t put any pressure on it. “I know your brain is running a mile a minute right now, but you have no idea what you’re dealing with.”
We both groan as he positions his hardness between my thighs and drops his weight on me. I’m wearing a pair of thin joggers, so I feel every inch of him as he rubs himself against my clit, growing bigger with each slide.
“Kingston,” I pant. “Quit trying to distract me. I need answers.”
He lifts his face from my neck and straightens his arms into a plank position. “I know. And I’ll give them to you when the time is right.” He puts his hand over my mouth when I try to speak. “Jazz, I give you my word. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I need you to do it anyway. If you go running your mouth, you’ll put yourself in danger. Our fathers are not good men. They’ve done some really fucked up shit and you do not want to be on their radar.”
My eyes widen. He’s right; I have absolutely no reason to trust him. But the conviction in his voice, the fact that he actually looks scared right now, tells me I can. At least about this.
He moves his hand away from my mouth when I nod. “Okay.”
Kingston searches my eyes. “Okay?”
“Yes.” I push on his chest until he gets off me. “But I won’t wait forever.”
“That’s fair.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket and runs his thumbs over the screen. When he’s done, my phone chimes with a text alert. How did he get my number? “I need to go. You have my number if you need to reach me. I’ll see you in the morning.”
I grab my phone after he leaves and check the messages. Sure enough, there’s a new message from an unknown number.
Unknown: Don’t be stupid. Keep your mouth shut.
I program his name into my phone and send a quick reply.
Me: *middle finger emoji*
I open my window as he approaches his car. Kingston pulls his phone out of his pocket and checks the screen.
He looks up in my direction after reading the message. I can’t be sure from this distance, but I swear he just winked before getting in his car and driving away.
What the fuck did I just walk into?
WHEN I STEP OUTSIDE to meet Ainsley the next morning, she’s nowhere to be found. Instead, a matte black wet dream of a car is parked directly up front with a stupidly sexy guy leaning against it.
“What are you doing here?”
Kingston flashes a predatory grin. “Giving you a ride to school.”
I shake my head vehemently. “Nuh-uh. You must have me confused with Peyton.”
He takes his time perusing my body from head to toe before replying. “Trust me, sweetheart, I could never confuse you for Peyton.”
I ignore what that look does to my panties and pull out my phone to text Ainsley.
“Don’t bother,” Kingston says. “Ainsley’s car is getting detailed. Reed’s giving her a lift and I told her I’d pick you up.”
I stuff my phone in my backpack. “Why couldn’t you drive her since you live together? I’ll just ask Frank to drive me.”
“Because I wanted you to ride with me, not my sister. And tough luck, sweetheart, but Frank has the day off.”
I sigh, realizing I’m not going to win this argument. “How do you know that?”
A devilish grin lights up his face. “I have my sources.”
Kingston opens the weird ass door. It hinges forward until the entire thing is vertical above the ground. “Get in the car, princess.”
“I’d rather walk.”
That’s a total lie. I really want to ride in that car, but a girl’s gotta have some pride.
He gives me a wry look. “You’d rather walk ten miles?”
I prop a hand on my hip. “Maybe I don’t trust you behind the wheel of that thing.”
Kingston lovingly caresses the top of the vehicle. “That thing, is a Koenigsegg Agera RS. She’s a two-point-five-million dollar piece of performance machinery that can go from zero to sixty in two-point-nine seconds. Watch how you speak about her. You don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
My jaw drops. I can’t fathom paying that much money for a car. “Wow... you give new meaning to the word spoiled. Your dad must love you a lot.”
He narrows his eyes. “Actually, it was an eighteenth birthday present to myself.” Kingston grabs my hand and pulls me into him before whispering. “For the record, I wouldn’t take shit from that bastard. Not that I need to explain myself to you, but my mother left me a considerable inheritance. It’s old family money from her side. I get everything on my twenty-first birthday, but the trustee made an exception to release the funds to buy this. Two mill is nothing compared to what I have left.”
I pull away from him, suppressing a shiver from having his hot breath in my ear. “Is that supposed to impress me, rich boy?”
Kingston smirks. “Nah. I know it doesn’t impress you which is why I told you. It’s not exactly something I go around bragging about. I’m not a moron—that’d be asking for trouble. This trust thing goes both ways, Jazz.”
Shit. I have nothing to say to that.
He laughs. “You’re going to make us late if you don’t get your ass in the car. Now get in the damn car.”
I hate how my body responds to his commanding tone.
“Fine,” I huff. “But I’m finding my own way home.”
As he’s closing my door he says, “You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.”