“What’s going on, Little Tiger? Are you getting into trouble again?”
She squirmed, batting at my arms and kicking at my legs. Helen was small, but I felt the power in her fight. Her muscles bunched and pumped, fighting me furiously.
“Get off me, you creepy fuck.” She shoved hard at my arms, but I wasn’t letting go. Not yet.
“I just caught you destroying a car. Don’t you think I should be calling the cops?”
“This is Deacon’s car,” she gritted out. “If you knew what he owed me, you wouldn’t even think of calling the cops.”
“Wrong.” Taking a chance with my life, I dipped my head to speak close to her ear. “This is my car. I let him drive sometimes.”
“Oh.” She went limp for a beat, then tipped her head back, showing me her face.
“Yeah, oh.”
“The company you keep, Theodore.”
“Theo. One day, you’re going to tell me what Deacon did.”
“No I’m not.”
In the light of the moon and a few stars, I looked her over. It wasn’t really bright enough to tell, but I knew her lips were crimson red. She painted them that way, and the red seemed to be a part of her.
Her thick, silky hair slid away from her face, down her back and over my arms. Even when she was snarling at me, Helen was strikingly beautiful. She had the kind of deep-set eyes, high cheekbones, sloped nose, and rounded chin that belonged in paintings from a different era. And holy Christ, was she sexy. Possibly unhinged, but sexy nonetheless.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she whispered.
“I’ve never seen a criminal this close up before.” I lowered my face so our noses were almost touching. “Didn’t know they came this hideous.”
She reached up, grazing her fingertips along my jaw. “You know, I’ve never seen a rich boy this close either. I didn’t know the aristocracy still inbred, but I see they do. You’re very ugly.”
Her tits were flattened against my chest, and each panting breath she took shoved them deeper into me. My cock throbbed behind my zipper, harder than I’d been in a long time. It was disconcerting to be so fucking aroused by the little criminal I’d caught. That didn’t stop me from pressing my dick against her.
Her red lips parted, and I felt her gasp and quick exhale across my mouth.
“Theodore,” she breathed.
That mouth was as red as a stop sign, but it flipped the switch on my inner bull. All I saw was a red flag, and there was nothing that could’ve stopped me from charging. Not logic. Not reason. Nothing.
I leaned in, touching my mouth to hers.
And then...nothing.
The little shit had slipped right out of my arms. By the time I realized what was happening, she was booking it down the sidewalk, leaving me there with a hard dick and her skateboard on the ground.
What the hell had I been thinking?
The girl massacred my car, and I tried to kiss her like she was my girlfriend.
With my hand on my forehead, I checked out the damage. Cracked windshield, busted headlights, dented hood. My dad was going to be displeased, and he was already displeased as hell with me.
I was fucked. But if I went down, I wasn’t going down alone. The next time I dealt with Helen, I’d remember exactly who she was. And who she wasn’t.
Chapter Three
Helen
StupidMotherfucker: I’m running out of patience, Helen. You’re past due now.
My cereal curdled in my stomach. Destroying that Bimmer had felt good in the moment, but it didn’t solve my biggest problem. I was short of funds at a time when being short of funds was a danger to my health.
Zadie plopped down across from me at the table I’d claimed for us in the dining hall. “Ready for our first day?”
I tossed my spoon in my bowl. “Yep. I think so. Although, I’m not entirely sure online community college properly prepped me for Savage U.”
If Mads had had her way, I would have been enrolled at Savage U last fall. But the thing was, my grades in high school had been pretty shit. I’d done the bare minimum to graduate, nothing more. It took me all year working my ass off in my CC classes to have a sparkling three-point-eight GPA worthy of admission at Savage U.
Besides the need to raise my GPA, going to in-person school full time would have defeated the entire purpose of being her companion. I actually had to be in her presence to do my job.
I rubbed the pinch in my chest I got every time I thought of my girl. My Mads.
“You’ll do fine, Hells. If you can charge into a frat house and beat a guy up, you can handle classes here.” She started peeling a banana. “I managed to get through an entire year here, you know.”
“That’s because you’re smart.”
Two days as Zadie’s roommate had shown she was smart, chill, and funny when I got her going. Our third roommate still hadn’t shown up, which was fine by me. The dynamic Z and I were developing was an easy one.
“True. But walking into a classroom where I don’t know anyone isn’t exactly easy.”
“Too bad we don’t have classes together.”
Her nose wrinkled. “I know. Next semester, we’ll have to plan it.”
“Yeah.” My stomach warmed. Two days, and this girl had my stomach warming. The bitches who had been her roommates last year had missed out on a treasure with this girl. What the hell had they been thinking?
When we were done with breakfast, we walked to the main quad together, then it was time to separate. I ran my hands down my sides.
“Do I look like a college girl?”
I had my holey Vans, a Hello Kitty Band-Aid on my knee, cut-offs two sizes too big hanging off my hips, a crop tie-dyed tee, and my hair tied back in a pony. Zadie looked me over from head to toe.
“You look beautiful, Helen,” she said softly, like she really meant it.
“Well, you do too, Z. The boys are going to drool, and the girls are going to be jealous, catty bitches. Remember that.”
Zadie was wearing a sweet little pink sundress and leather flip-flops. Not my style, but it fit her to a T. Two days, and I hadn’t gotten over her soft beauty. I had also confirmed she did, indeed, have an ass that didn’t quit. Z was completely oblivious to it, though.
She smoothed a hand over her middle. “See you, Hells. Have a good first day.”
I tipped my chin to her. “You too, Z.”
* * *
Last class of the day, and I was doing well. During my time with Mads, I’d learned a lot about myself. The biggest was that I liked taking care of people, and when I put in effort, I excelled at science and math. Losing Mads had affirmed my decision to go into nursing. My courses were focused mostly on those subjects, which I liked, but I still had to take an English class as part of my core requirements.