My eyebrows hike up, and I look from his hand to his face and back to her.
He leans down. “You okay, hon?”
“Just a little woozy,” she says. “I think the past week is catching up to me.”
He nods, sympathetic.
I want to strangle him. Unusual for me, since I generally like the guy. He’s down to earth and charming, a teacher without being a pain in the ass. People respect him.
But this goes beyond respect.
“Caleb will take you to the nurse. Let me know if you decide to go home, I’ll write a slip.”
She nods and stands.
I take her arm, pinching just above the elbow, and lead her out of the room. Instead of going to the nurse, we veer into the courtyard. There’s a door in the corner that goes to the greenhouse, propped open by a rock.
Students come in here to pass the time. The smell of weed seeps out, but it’s silent as we walk up. I guide her inside and let go, letting my gaze rake her up and down. We’re alone in here. It’s our own private world.
“My, my,” I drawl. I clench my fists in an effort not to do something stupid. “Didn’t think you’d have the guts to bone a teacher, Sheep.”
She blanches. “Excuse me?”
“You and Mr. Jenkins. Mighty close. I can see why you wouldn’t want me to make your life hell.”
She snorts, turning away from me.
I grab the back of her neck, swinging her back at me and pinning her to my chest. I capture both of her wrists behind her back.
Her little body feels good on mine. Like temptation.
“Tell me, how good of a lay is he? Does he have a giant dick? Cuddle you after—”
“He’s my foster dad,” she snarls. She struggling against my hold. “Let me go.”
“No,” I snap, just so I have a second to process. I reappraise her. “Foster dad.”
“Caleb,” she pants. She’s working up a sweat trying to get away from me. It turns me on that she’s such a wreck over being this close to me. I back her into a tree, her spine hitting it hard. Her eyes widen.
I release her wrists and trail my hand up, over the side of her breast, to her red, red cheeks. They’ll be redder when I’m done with her.
“You afraid, love?”
“Stop calling me that.” She tips her head away from me.
“I think you secretly like it.”
“Is this because I said you lost?” She wriggles in my arms.
I shove my hips forward, showing her exactly what I think about that. Her eyes widen, and she goes perfectly still.
“Remember one thing about me.” I lean down into her face. She’s tiny. Fragile. All the easier to break. “I don’t fucking lose.”
6
My head is spinning when I walk out of the greenhouse. Caleb follows close behind me, like a menacing shadow. He said he doesn’t lose—but my heartbeat is stuttering and the fear is crawling up and down my throat.
I couldn’t speak if I wanted to.
He stole my first kiss. And then to feel his erection against my belly…
You’re not supposed to show fear to the enemy. Yet underneath it all, Caleb wasn’t always the enemy. He was a boy who I liked. A friend. We were closer than even Savannah and I, running wild together as kids.
Somehow, we both changed.
For the worse?
“Come with me.” He’s gruff, but he doesn’t touch me.
I follow him without a word, down the hallway to the nurse’s station.
“Ms. Peters.” He smiles at the nurse. “Margo isn’t feeling well. Mr. Jenkins said it would be all right if I brought her home, but I just wanted to check in with you.” His voice lowers. “I’m afraid she threw up a few minutes ago.”
The nurse tuts at me. She doesn’t do more than glance, because apparently Caleb’s word is law around here—even for the staff. “I’ll let him know, thank you.”
I have no choice but to go where he leads.
“You aren’t serious.”
“Can’t a guy bring a girl home?”
I roll my eyes. “Not when the girl is me, and the guy is you.”
He snorts, unlocking his car as we approach it. I’m not surprised that it’s a fast, expensive Audi. Matte black. The leather interior is black with lime-green accents.
He waits for me to get in and closes my door, sliding into the driver’s seat.
“Well?”
I glance at him. “What?”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Back to school.” I glance back toward the doors we just came out of.
He snorts. “You’re a shit liar, Sheep. We’re skipping out on the last twenty minutes of the day. Don’t blow it.” His gaze turns contemplative. “Or do. After all, it’ll just make things more… interesting.”
I’m not afraid of him. Even with the posturing and the games. My head is spinning with everything that’s happened in the last week—at least that much is true—but suddenly, I don’t feel like he’s going to kill me.
And he knows it, judging from the expression on his face.
“Tell me,” he says. Dark and deadly. He’s back to how he acts in front of a crowd.
“Take me to your house.”
His face closes off. It’s the last thing he expected.
I feel like I’m the one disappointed. It rings through me like a bell in a minor key, too much dissonance to handle. How does he manage to make me feel so much with just a change of his mood?
“Now you’re playing the game,” he murmurs.
He guns it out of the parking lot, flying down streets that we used to run through. It’s surreal. It’s a dream-turned-nightmare.
“What if I don’t want to play?” I ask.
He turns onto a familiar road, easing into his driveway. He parks in front of the empty house and grins at me. It’s the smile that belongs to a madman, leaking darkness like an oil spill. “Sorry, love. You don’t get a choice.”
Caleb climbs out of the car. I take a deep breath and mirror his movements, following him up the front walkway. He unlocks the door and pushes it open, gesturing for me to go in front of him.
This place…
Memories sucker punch me. Chasing him around, eating dinner. My mother brushing my hair off of my forehead and kissing my temple.
“I changed my mind.” I back away, right into him.
He grips my arms and propels me forward, deeper into the house.
“Caleb, stop.”
“Who said we could stop?”
I dig my heels into the ground, but my upper body keeps moving forward. I take a step, then another, farther into the house that feels more like a ghost town than a home.
Room after room, furniture is covered in white sheets and dust.
“What happened?”
He laughs, squeezing my arms.
“Caleb.”
“I’m not sure a sheep should be so direct.” He talks above my head to the empty house.
We stop in the kitchen, and he shoves me forward.
The kitchen.
“I don’t want to be here anymore,” I say, turning back.
I try to slip past him, but he grabs me. Hauls me in. He lifts me and sets me on the counter, holding my hips.