“I’m eighteen, but still go to SC High as a senior,” I bit out, and even his prestigious Windsor-pampered ass knew that meant Sands Cove High, our town’s only public high school. See, while Sands Cove was made up of mostly the obnoxiously wealthy, regular common folk still had to work the town, and their children-that’d be me-had to go to school somewhere. So, that left one public elementary school, one public middle school, and one public high school.
“And?”
“My father’s an IT tech, and my mother is the manager of the pet store in town.” Every piece of myself that I was giving him felt like a punch in the chest. But, again, I couldn’t lose that camera over things he could learn from his father, anyway. “No siblings.”
His chocolate gaze swept over me from head to toe, and when his eyes met mine again, he asked, “Boyfriend?”
I bristled a bit, but that was because that was still a sore subject with me. I had just broken up with my boyfriend about two months ago, after catching him cheating on me. Yeah, we’d only been together for about six months, and it hadn’t been love, but it had still stung.
“No.”
He regarded me silently for a bit before asking, “What am I going to find on this camera, Lake?” I inwardly grimaced at how good my name sounded coming from his lips. Ramsey had a deep, rough and tumble voice, and it suited him.
“Nothing,” I told him. “I…I take pictures of stuff. It’s a hobby.”
He arched a brow. “So, you just have pictures of nature and shit like that on here?”
I tried not to cringe. While I didn’t have any pictures of him and what had been going down in that clearing, I did have a few pictures on there that I’d taken but hadn’t been brave enough to send to Curt, and thank God. Nudes, or semi-nudes as was this case, should only be exchanged between spouses.
Seriously.
“I didn’t see anything,” I tried again. “Look, Reed-”
“Reed?”
It also wasn’t a secret that everyone called him Reed, besides his family. He and his brother, Maddox, looked so much like their father, everyone got to calling this Ramsey by his last name to eliminate any confusion. However, rumor was that his family and close friends called him R.J. while only his mother and father called him Ramsey or Ram. Of course, that could all be bullshit because he wasn’t close to a lot of people, but I did know everyone in town called him Reed.
“Isn’t that what everyone calls you?”
His eyes searched mine, and I wasn’t entire sure what he saw in them, but he surprised the hell out me when he said, “Call me Ramsey.”
My throat threatened to close up. “I’d rather not.”
He smirked, and it was more evil than it was sexy. “I don’t really give a fuck what you’d rather. I said, call me Ramsey.”
I wasn’t going to do this with him. “Give me my camera back,” I told him. “I answered your questions, now give it back.”
“Ah, ah, ah,” he mocked. “Not until I check for myself that you’re not lying.”
“I’m not,” I snapped.
“Well, then you shouldn’t have any problem with me seeing for myself, now, should you?”
“You’re invading my privacy,” I said again.
“And ask me if I give a fuck,” he snarled, his temper shining through again.
Ramsey was so much stronger and taller than me, I’d only look like fool if I made a play for the camera. I knew this. So, all I could do was stand here, like that same fool, and hope he didn’t scroll past tonight’s photos. Ramsey already had the upper hand, so I didn’t need him to see pictures of me in only my underwear. That wouldn’t be good.
The wait was excruciating as I watched him click through the photos on my camera, and heat and humiliation immediately coated my cheeks when Ramsey dark eyes flew to mine.
He went past tonight’s dated photos.
What I hadn’t expected was the anger burning in his dark gaze or the brutal rumble in his tone when he said, “I thought you didn’t have a fucking boyfriend.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why the fuck do you have photos like these on your camera?” He sounded truly pissed and I didn’t know what to make of that.
“We…we broke up two months ag-”
Ramsey had me pinned to the side of the car again, my camera now resting on the top of the car. His left hand was digging into my hip while his right hand held my chin in between his fingers, crushing my jaw. “He has these pictures?” he snarled down at me.
I shook my head the best I could with his hold on me. “No. I…I…chickened out. I…never sent them.” He looked goddamn feral, and I could only pray he’d believe me and let me get the hell out of here. I wasn’t a wimp by any means, but I knew I didn’t want to tangle with Ramsey Reed Jr.
“How badly do you want your camera back?”
“Wh…what?”
“How badly do you want your camera back?” he repeated, his thumb now rubbing back and forth over my lower lip.
“It’s my camera,” I bit out. “I’m not negotiating to get it back.”
The corner of his lip curled. “You are if you want it back, my little diamond thief.” Diamond thief? What in the hell did that even mean?
“I already answered all your-”
“I want those pictures,” he said, and I could feel all the air leave me.
“What?” I whispered in disbelief.
“I want those pictures,” he repeated, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
I shook my head. “No.” There’s no telling what he’d do with those kinds of pictures of me.
As if he could read my mind, he said, “For me. They’d only be for me.” His voice took on a darker quality when he added, “I’d never let anyone else see you like that.”
“Reed, pl…please-”
I jumped when he let go of my hip and his fist pounded against the hood of my car. “Ramsey,” he practically shouted. “I fucking told you to call me Ramsey.”
I stood there not knowing what to do. Satan 2.0 was asking me to trust him with pictures I hadn’t even been brave enough to send my boyfriend in exchange for my camera. I was in a lose/lose situation, and I was burning with the injustice of it all.
But what choice did I have?
Two hours later, the clock on my nightstand flashed that it was past two in the morning, but I knew sleep wouldn’t come.
Not with knowing that Ramsey Reed Jr. had pieces of me I couldn’t get back.
Chapter 3
Ramsey~
I sat on the hood of my black Range Rover, waiting for Maddox, Chance, and Neo to pull up, but I didn’t mind waiting on them. Maddox had been running late this morning, having forgotten to set his alarm, and Neo and Chance always cut shit close to the wire.
With my parents and Uncle Liam and Aunt Roselyn being the only close families who resided in Sands Cove, only me, Maddox, Chance, Neo, and Gideon went to Windsor Academy. While I was eighteen, and the oldest out of the entire brood, my brother and Chance McCellan were seventeen and juniors at Windsor. Neo McCellan was fifteen and a sophomore, while Gideon McCellan was only thirteen and still in the middle school section of Windsor Academy.