Could I though? Also, did you hear that shit? You know who else smells like lemon?! Oliver! Maybe, I wasn’t crazy… Or the scent I was wearing on some part of my clothes from brunch, was lemon-scented, and that had played a part in my odd hallucination. Whatever, this was just getting too complicated.
I went to tell him maybe just a bit of what was going on but all of a sudden someone was banging on Bard’s window with the side of their fist. I nearly cursed.
Koa.
Bard muttered a curse and I could practically see him shutting down as he unrolled the window.
Koa Kline. Probably, hands down, one of the most gorgeous men I had ever met, and the bastard knew it. He was a pain in the ass half the time, and the other half the time he was clingy. But not in the ‘this is so cute’ way, more in the ‘what are you doing and why’ way. I mean, it was still cute because I wanted to jump the guy’s bones, but he didn’t need to know that.
I mean take, for example, his 6-foot muscular body that was outfitted in a dark shirt that highlighted his perfect muscle tone. His golden and platinum hair was longer than Bard’s and messy against his golden sculpted chin and lips. Lips that were almost too pretty for a man but somehow worked on him. It was probably because of the damn lickable dimples he had. Fucking ridiculous.
Then there were his eyes. The obsidian color was filled with a different charm than his voice and words, it had a darker tone to them, and not for the first time, I felt like he was different than I thought. Different than I knew him to be. The gold around the pupil was just an added, ‘look how fucking beautiful’ I am, plus, he smells like oranges. I didn’t need that type of goddamned negativity in my life.
“Bard!” Koa chuckled, “Where the hell were you? Are you done playing with ponies… Oh, hey, Lia?” Right. Because he had no idea whose car this was...I could roll my eyes. I did for the record.
“Koa,” I sighed as his dark eyes drilled into my face intensely before lighting with mischief.
Bard let out a low almost frustrated sound before trying to open the door. The two of them were supposedly best friends, but I had no idea how factual that actually was. It was a bit overwhelming being near both of them. I never knew where I stood because they liked to pretend they didn’t know who I was unless we were alone and the other wasn’t there to see it.
“Well now I know why you were late,” Koa offers suggestively.
“Koa,” Bard let out a low, annoyed sound, “she was just giving me a ride.”
And picking your ass up because your father sucks.
But parent issues seemed to be the norm in Village Worth, not the exception. Koa came from an unusual situation. His parents were openly hot messes and while Koa was an authentic heir to their family, they each had bastard children spread throughout the town border to border. It was interesting going to school with Koa’s half-siblings that he didn’t even really know. It was easy to see which ones they were though. All of them were stunning.
“I bet you were eager to help, right, Lia?” Koa goaded, almost looking angry at Bard, as I relaxed into my seat and stared forward. I was trying to not be offended by Bard’s quick dismissive action of us. I knew the score. Maybe it was the wealth. I wanted to blame it on that but I didn’t think it was. You would think being an heiress would make me more popular not less.
It sucked even more because Koa, as I mentioned, was such a fucking softy. Did you know the man had a garden at school? Yep, in the green room. It was amazing, and he was in there during most free periods, checking on it. Honestly, it was rather endearing, and apparently, he had quite the talent with making herbal remedies.
“Let’s go.” Bard opened the door and I felt him look back at me, “Night, Ophelia.”
I didn’t respond, and he muttered something under his breath before closing the door. Koa offered a smile and walked in front of my car, slapping his hands onto its hood before getting into his large truck with Bard taking the passenger's seat. Are they for real right now?! Couldn’t Koa have picked his ass up? They pulled off and I sat there for a minute considering why I even went out of my way for Bard.
He always denied our ‘friendship’, especially in front of Koa. Once again, I didn’t know why.
Koa was annoyingly sweet to me when it was just the two of us, like, honestly it was bad enough that I could ruin his reputation with it. I was sick one day from school, and he stopped by with Vitamin water and naturally made cough drops just to make sure I was doing okay. I had been sick enough that when he’d sat down to watch TV with me, I hadn’t complained. After all, I’d known both of them my entire life. Yet, it seemed like the two of them were worse at communicating with one another than communicating with me. Maybe I would bust them on it. Force the situation.
Was it even worth the effort? You would be gone soon, Ophelia.
Pulling away from the curb, I decided that I might as well run to the library before heading home. I smiled in slight anticipation. Along the river that crawled through our town was a library that hung over one of the many jagged cliffs that lined the cavernous space. I could see the Gothic structure was rather busy today, but considering it was a Sunday and everyone had homework, it wasn’t completely surprising. The library was a social experience for some of my classmates. Not a haven, like it was for me. I loved reading and if I had to choose between going out or reading, I usually chose the latter. I parked my car, threw up my hood over my thick dark hair, and got out, keeping my gaze on the river.
They’d found three bodies in it this year alone.
I’d seen them. Unintentionally of course, but when you had important people floating in and out of your house, you came across things. Our police chief, Anderson Mae, was my stepmother's best friend and the gruesome photos had been on our coffee table in a folder. Of course, the moment the two had been out of sight, I had looked through them. As I said curious and, okay, it wasn’t unintentional, clearly.
The bloated yellowish corpses looked strangled and covered in bruises. Apparently, the victims had been ‘passing through’ but I never heard their identities, so who actually knew. I didn’t know anyone well enough in this town to be able to identify them.
I grunted as my shoulder smacked into someone. Stumbling back, I caught myself before I fell on my butt. Shaking my head, I straightened myself. My eyes snapped up as a pair of emerald green eyes, speckled with pale gold, looked over me with a mixture of heat and concern. A large amber hand wrapped around my waist as I came face to face, more like chest, with the one person I’d been avoiding like the plague the past few weeks.
Kirin Bhatt.
A devastatingly handsome transfer student that had moved here less than a year ago, from Delhi, India to live with his uncle. I’d heard the poor man, Dev was his name, I believe, was really sick. The fact that Kirin was taking care of a family member was attractive on its own.
To top it off, he had a slight southern British accent because apparently, he’d attended a boarding school, for most of his life. However, whatever mild-mannered tendencies they had taught there had been lost on him very clearly, because his energy was aggressive and lethal. Especially when you were pressed right against his deliciously muscular chest and his corded arms were wrapped around your waist.
This was bad. This moment was very, very bad. I needed to get far away from him but when I tried to step back he kept his arm around me, his angular face and dark styled hair distracting even in this gloomy weather. Fuck. He even smelled good, like myrrh or something as equally rich and intoxicating, his dark tattooed fingers digging into my skin the longer I chose not to say anything, a low rumble coming from his chest.