But I couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for Arella and her three younger siblings. Seeing how sick their dad was every day, scared they could lose him before he could get the transplant that would save his life.
“Yo, Arella!” Her best friend, Palmer, yelled. “Let’s go.”
Arella rolled her blue-gray eyes, making me grin. “I’ll see you tonight?” she asked as she backed toward the car.
“You know it. I’ll be the one in the ‘Thornton’ jersey that smells like sweat and sexy beast.”
“Gross,” she laughed. “He’s my cousin. I don’t want to think about his scent being sexy, Vi.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not my cousin, and I think he smells divine.” I winked, and she snorted out another laugh. “I hope your mom doesn’t find out you skipped.”
“Girl, same to you with Uncle Shane.”
“Oh, please. I can handle my dad. Not so sure you can bat your lashes and pout, and Aunt Lana will go weak at the knees.”
“True.” She opened her friend’s passenger side door. “Pray for me, cuz.”
Palmer’s car was just leaving the parking lot when Shaw came skipping toward me. I heard the doors of Cannon’s car unlock, and I jumped in the front passenger seat while she slid behind the wheel.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said as she started the car. “But I got us a way on to the Malibu campus, hopefully without any issues.”
“Jags?”
“Jags,” she confirmed with a wicked grin.
Seeing the sparkle in her eyes, I lifted a brow. “Is there anything you want to tell me, Shaw?”
Her grin disappeared, and her fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “There’s nothing to tell. He and my brother have this stupid pact, so even if Jagger wanted to, it’s unlikely he’d ever do anything.” She shifted the car into reverse. “The pussy.”
Sensing how upset the topic was making her, I changed the subject by telling her I’d seen Arella. The drive to Malibu was spent talking about Uncle Drake’s illness, but Shaw knew I didn’t like talking about my dad’s donating part of his liver, so we didn’t discuss that aspect.
When she pulled into the student parking lot, Jagger was leaning up against his SUV, and Shaw parked right beside him. Opening her door, he shook his head at her, his ice-blue eyes alight with amusement. “He’s going to kill you.”
“He’ll have to catch me first,” she said with a wink as she got out.
I climbed out and walked around to the two of them. I’d never noticed it before, but there was definitely some kind of tension coming off both of them. How the hell I had missed that, I wasn’t sure. But now that I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.
“See you two later,” I told them as I headed for the back door into the school.
The halls were empty, so I made my way to Luca’s locker. I knew his combination and I was tiny, so I opened the locker and climbed in, knowing it wouldn’t be long before his next period, which was lunch.
Ten minutes passed, and then the bell rang. I bit my lip to keep from giggling as the hall began to fill up with students.
“I’m starving.” I heard Lyric grumbling. He and Luca sounded about as alike as they looked, but to me, I didn’t even have to think about it.
“Yeah,” Luca replied, sounding distracted. “Me too.”
“Come on, man. Relax. You’re going to kick ass tonight, and you know it.” I heard them right outside the locker, and then the door started to open.
As soon as the light fell on me, I jumped out, wrapping my arms and legs around Luca. He grunted, his hands cupping my ass and holding me against him like he never wanted to let me go.
My hair fell over his shoulder, and I kissed his neck, making him groan in agony. “Babe,” he growled in warning.
“Well,” Lyric said in a dryly amused voice. The senior hall was already starting to clear out as students went to lunch or their next class. It wasn’t lost on me that the others were giving the twins a wide berth. “I’m going to go eat. You two be good. Don’t do anything your daddies will kill someone over.”
I lifted my head and grinned at my friend. “Can’t make any promises.”
“Didn’t think you could.” He slapped me on the ass, earning him a feral growl from his twin. Laughing, he walked away. “Later, Vi.”
“What are you doing here?” Luca asked as he backed me against his now-closed locker, his dark eyes swirling with a rainbow of browns. He was happy to see me, hard as a rock, and pissed at his brother for slapping my ass. All of those emotions were there in those hypnotic eyes. I knew what each shade of brown meant, could anticipate his every emotion just from looking at his eyes.
“You need me,” I said with a shrug.
“I always need you.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “But today more than ever.” I traced my thumb over his bottom lip, aching to kiss him.
But kissing wasn’t allowed.
Luca was afraid if he kissed me, he wouldn’t be able to stop. And while I was more than happy to let him do whatever he wanted to and with me, once he turned eighteen in a few short weeks, it could cause some huge problems because I was only fifteen. To avoid the whole issue, he’d given us strict rules to protect us both.
No kissing was the hardest rule to follow, though. For both of us.
He put his face in my neck and inhaled deeply. Like always, I shivered, aching for so much more. But I refused to make this harder for him than it already was. I knew he struggled every day with not being able to touch me the way we both were desperate for him to.
My eighteenth birthday seemed like a lifetime away, but I tried to remind myself that each day that passed was one more closer to when we could be together in all the ways we’d always dreamed of.
“How did you get here?” he asked, inhaling the scent of my perfume over and over like he was an addict snorting his favorite drug.
I squirmed against him, hoping to distract him with my core brushing over his engorged hard-on. He groaned but lifted his head, his eyes narrowing on my face. “Vi?”
“Hmm?” I murmured, stroking my fingers down his jaw.
“How did you get here, Violet?” he repeated, his voice lowering in warning.
“Promise you won’t blow up.”
“Vi,” he gritted out.
“Shaw and I took Cannon’s car.”
His nostrils flared. “So, you and Shaw, who is only fifteen, drove that damn car over here?”
“She’ll be sixteen in a few months,” I tried to argue.
“She doesn’t fucking have her license yet!” he exploded. Breathing hard, he set me on my feet and backed up a step. “You put yourself in a car, one that could be considered a deadly weapon in the wrong hands, with someone who isn’t even legal to drive you behind the wheel.”
“Shaw is a better driver than her brother who does have his license,” I reminded him.
“I don’t like it when you’re in the same vehicle with that douchebag any more than I do with her driving.” He scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration. “You could have been in an accident. Anything could have happened to you.”