The dick.
Now, where I was the math prodigy and Maddox was the computer mastermind, Neo’s gift was observation. The fucking kid saw everything. It was uncanny how he could be looking you straight in the eye but tell you what was happening behind him. He was like a goddamn parrot or rabbit. Those animals could see behind them without turning their heads, and Neo had that same eerie ability.
Chance, on the other hand, was a wiz with computers, too. He wasn’t the hacking marvel that Maddox was, but he was pretty damn good. Chance was also able to take a computer apart and put it back together with no notes or before pictures. He could do that shit from memory, even though he didn’t have a photographic memory.
Stopping in the main hallway of Windsor, Neo took off, while the rest of us headed towards our lockers. However, Chance got sidetracked when a short, sexy blonde smiled at him. Shaking my head, me and Mad kept going.
“Hey,” Maddox said, “I’ll get to work on your shit when Mom and Dad leave tonight.”
I nodded. “Everything, Mad,” I replied. “I want everything.”
Chapter 4
Lake~
“Jesus, chick,” Eden drawled out, “you look like crap.”
Yeah, getting no sleep because you danced with Satan last night will do that to you.
Of course, that’s not what I told her, though. “I didn’t sleep well,” I semi-lied.
“Please, please, please don’t tell me you’re still upset about Curt,” she whined. “It’s been two months. Plus, he was a jerk.”
Eden Rudolph was my best friend. She’s held that title since we in the sixth grade and Mrs. Joyhill had paired us up as study buddies. Where I had brown hair and blue eyes, Eden had rich auburn hair, bright green eyes, and a smatter of freckles over her nose and cheeks. She was also five-foot-six-inches, making her three inches taller than me. She also had the perfect body. Like perfect. Everything body part was so well-proportioned, she could be a damn mannequin.
My best friend was beautiful.
“God, no,” I groaned, meaning it. “I am so over Curt, it’s actually pretty sad, considering we dated for six months.” And it was true.
Curt Metcalf was everything a girl should want in a guy, minus the unfaithfulness. He was eighteen, with light brown hair and light brown eyes to match. He was six-foot and had the body of an athlete. And he should since he was SC High’s reigning soccer star.
When he had asked me out last year, on Valentine’s Day, I had practically swooned. While Curt wasn’t the most popular boy at school, he was close, and he ran with the cool crowd; he always had. And I had been flattered that I had caught his attention.
Now, while I wasn’t what society might consider ugly, or nerdy, or whatever, I didn’t believe myself to be anything exciting enough to catch Curt’s eye. I’ve always just been a normal girl with normal looks and a normal life. My parents, Randal and Bethany Warren, were normal, too. Dad worked with computers as an IT tech and Mom ran a pet store. We were the normal within the surrounding hills and valleys of the obscenely wealthy.
The working town of Sands Cove was surrounded by mansions and prep academies and kids with no parents and too much money, but we were worlds apart. Windsor kids coming into town was like a small village being visited by their governed royalty. And, as far as I knew, us common folk didn’t venture past our designated living area. I’ve never heard of any SC High kids mingling with Windsor Academy kids.
Oil and Water.
So, when Curt had asked me out, I had been over the moon. He’d been the first guy to ever ask me out beyond casual dating, and he’d been the entire package.
Then, right before school began, I’d found out he had cheated on me with Erica Chambers, and the relief I had felt at not having slept with him or sending those picture had been so palpable, I realized I couldn’t have been in love with him if relief had been the first emotion I had experienced. Oh, rage came later, but relief had been the first emotion, and that had been telling.
So, I was over Curt, no doubt, but I wasn’t ready to tell Eden the truth of why I’d gotten no sleep last night.
Ramsey Reed Jr.
My mind had replayed the night over, and over again, trying to see if there had been another way out. Of course, even if there had been, it hardly mattered now. Ramsey had those pictures of me, and while I had my camera, I wondered how big a mistake I might have made. Had my camera really been worth the price I had paid for it? Sure, the pictures were more risqué than they were nude, but even Curt hadn’t ever seen me in just my bra and matching panties.
And then there was also the awful, awful, awful undeniable fact that Ramsey Reed was so gorgeous, it almost hurt to look at him. He had dark, rich brown hair that fell haphazardly on top with the side cut short. His eyes reminded you of chocolate and his face reminded you of Roman gladiators, strong, cut, and all male. From pictures and the internet, he looked so much like his father, some people said the only way you could tell them apart was that Ramsey Sr. had a scar that ran across one side of his face. Maddox Reed also looked like his brother and father. They were only a year apart, and they were often mistaken for twins from afar.
And to say that the Reed men were breathtaking in their domineering, powerful, and arrogant auras was the understatement of the century.
I also couldn’t deny that fear and anxiousness hadn’t been the only emotions I had felt last night when Ramsey had me pinned against the tree, and then my car. The rough warmth of his hand around my neck, and the way his other hand had dug into my hip, had created sensations deep inside my body that were dangerous to feel.
Ramsey Reed Jr. would chew me up and spit me out if he had the chance.
I needed a nice guy in my life. I needed a guy who was normal and liked to do normal things. I sure as hell didn’t need the likes of Ramsey Reed Jr. in my life. Hell, I didn’t need the likes of any Windsor Academy guy in my life.
However, I had an awful feeling that the choice wasn’t mine any longer.
Walking with Eden from the school bus drop off towards the school, I avoided any eye contact when I asked, “Have you ever sent a guy any nude selfies?”
Eden tripped.
I stopped, so she could right herself, and when she was steady on her feet again, she narrowed her eyes at me. “Please, please don’t tell me you sent that fucker any nudes.”
“No,” I exclaimed. “Of course, not.”
“Oh, thank God,” Eden mumbled.
“I was just asking if you’ve ever done it,” I semi-lied again. “I mean…would it bother you if someone shared a picture of you like that?”
We got to walking again, and after a few seconds of Eden thinking it over, she said, “I’ve never done it before. But, honestly, Lake, I’m not sure if I’d be embarrassed if someone shared it.”
“Really?” I asked surprised.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’d be pissed,” she clarified. “That kind of betrayal of privacy deserves an ass beating. But would I lock myself inside my house and never come out? Probably not.”
I glanced over at her. “You really wouldn’t be embarrassed?”
She rolled her eyes. “Lake, in a world of sex tapes, celebrity phone hacks, OnlyFans sites, and fame being more important than self-respect, I seriously doubt anyone would bat an eyelash if a nude of me got passed around.”