“Yeah. I’m fine.” I ran my fingers over my shorts, but Will was already looking back to where my attention kept wandering. He looked back to me, his smile faltering slightly, but I noticed.
He reached his hand out for me, and I let him pull me toward him and to the dry sand. “Let’s go get you a drink.” He put his arm over my shoulders as we walked, and I let him. He was a complete stranger, but I somehow felt safer there under his arm when I had no idea what faced me.
I avoided looking back toward Beck as we made our way over to a giant trash can that was stuck down in the sand. A keg was floating in ice, and Will let go of me as he started pouring me a cup. I didn’t dare tell him that I didn’t like beer. Instead, I gripped the plastic cup in my hand with too much force and I took a deep drink of the bitter liquid.
“It’s cheap-ass beer.” He chuckled when he saw my face. “But it does the trick.”
I nodded and wiped the edge of my mouth with the back of my hand. I didn’t really know the difference between cheap beer and expensive beer, but I knew it tasted awful.
Will was looking back toward the fire, but I was looking anywhere else. “You know Beck Clermont?”
I tensed as the name left his mouth. “Not really. Why?” It wasn’t a lie. I didn’t know anything about him. Not in any way that actually mattered.
“He’s staring at me like he wants to rip my head off.” Will chuckled and looked down at me.
I chanced a look over my shoulder, and he was right. Beck was staring Will down as if he hated him as much as he hated me. Maybe he did.
Maybe he hated everyone.
But according to Allie, that wasn’t true.
According to her, she had never seen him act toward anyone the way he did me.
Lucky me, I guess.
“Did you do something to piss him off?” I asked Will, even though I knew that hatred was probably directed at me.
“Not that I’m aware of.” He chuckled again and pushed his hair out of his face. “I hope not at least.”
“How do you know Beck?”
“Everyone knows Beck.” Will looked at me like I was crazy. “He’s the best player on the Prep baseball team. He’s been offered a dozen college scholarships even though he doesn’t need any of them.” There was a hint of irritation or maybe jealousy in Will’s voice, and I couldn’t say that I blamed him.
Guys like Beck getting a scholarship was like a slap in the face to those of us who couldn’t afford it.
“You play?”
“Yeah.” He nodded and his signature grin was back on his face. “I’m not half bad.”
“What’s up, Hollis?”
I tensed as I heard his voice far too close to me. Will looked up with a smile on his face, and I continued to stare straight ahead as they slapped hands. I couldn’t see him, I didn’t dare turn in his direction, but I could smell a hint of his cologne. It somehow was so much darker than Will’s. Where Will was the sun, Beck was smothering.
His mere presence all-consuming.
“Hey, man. You slumming it on the beach today?” Will chuckled, but I had no doubt that Beck rarely spent his spare time hanging out on the beach with the Clermont High students.
“Something like that.” I could feel him staring at my back, but I didn’t care. I took another long drink from my cup, and I could barely taste it. I was too aware of him. Too anxious with him standing behind me. “I see you met Vos’s sister.”
I winced as he said my last name. I looked up at Will, and I could tell hearing my last name made things different for him. I didn’t know what it was. My dad’s money or that he knew my stepbrother, but there was an instant difference to him. Just like there had been with Beck.
But Will didn’t hate me.
“I didn’t realize you were Lucas’s sister.”
“Step,” I clarified quickly, but Beck scoffed.
I finally looked up at him, and I instantly wanted to slap that small smirk off his face. He looked so at ease, so at peace with his hate for me, and I had no fucking clue what his problem was.
“It’s nice to see you again, Vos.” He looked me over, not hiding one moment of him perusing my body, not from me and definitely not from Will.
“Don’t call me that.” I shifted on my feet and his eyes stayed glued to my thighs at the movement.
Under all that hate, there was the edge of lust in his gaze. Just that small look made me feel crazy. It made the memories of the other night come crashing back into me.
It didn’t matter how much I had tried to bury them.
“Will?” Beck ignored me and looked up at Will. “Do you mind giving me and Vos a moment alone?”
Will looked between the two of us as if he was missing something, as if I had lied about not really knowing him. “Sure.” He smiled at me again, and I wanted to tell him not to leave. Instead, I wanted to tell Beck to go to hell, but I didn’t do either.
I watched Will walk away, back toward the bonfire, then I stared daggers at Beck.
Those flutters in my stomach became a hurricane, and it shook through every part of me.
“What’s your problem?” My tone was sharp.
There was a spark in his eyes, something that told me I shouldn’t fuck with him, or maybe that no one ever had, but I didn’t care. He didn’t even know me.
“My problem?” he asked with a false calmness to his voice, but there was nothing calm about his eyes. The hazel looked as golden as the fire that danced next to him. He looked every bit the king that these people thought he was. He looked every bit the devil. “What’s your problem?”
The rational part of me was long gone. I didn’t know what it was about him, but he infuriated me.
“You’re my problem.” I stepped closer to him, and his eyes flicked to my mouth. “I don’t know what your problem with Lucas is, but I’m not him. You don’t even know me.”
He looked back up at my eyes, and he looked hungry.
It was like whatever I had just said only seemed to fuel him.
“I know you, princess.” He reached his hand out, and I held my breath as he moved a piece of hair out of my face. My heart was hammering in my chest. I should have slapped his hand away. I should have shoved him or screamed or told him not to touch me, but I didn’t do any of those things.
I just watched his eyes as his skin grazed against my own, and my blood boiled at the way my body reacted. My body remembered every filthy word he had sent me the other night.
It remembered every illicit touch he had provoked.
“You’re a Vos.”
“And you’re a Clermont,” I snapped with as much venom as he had.
He cocked his head to the side and watched me. I squirmed under his scrutiny. I hated the way his eyes were studying me. I hated the way a simple look could make me feel so much.
“If you know so much about us Clermonts, then you know we don’t fuck around. I told you to quit the country club.”
“And I told you to fire me.”
I didn’t know why I was pushing so hard against him. I could have just backed down and laid low, but I refused to take shit from anyone.
If he expected a doormat, he came for the wrong girl.
He stepped closer to me, and I willed myself not to move backward even though the urge was overwhelming. As harmless as Beck seemed to everyone else, I could see the fury he hid behind his eyes. It was dark and unending, and I knew it would be relentless if he unleashed it on me.