“You good at keeping your mouth shut?” Sculpt asked
What kind of question was that? I wasn’t outspoken by any means, or prone to gossip. Actually, I only had a few friends to gossip with anyway. “I’m not going to say anything about this, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Nope. Wasn’t asking for that reason,” he replied.
Killian’s eyes narrowed and his back stiffened, but he remained silent.
Even though I was scared and nervous of Killian, he was hard not to admire because he was striking. And you’d know if he kissed you, it would be absolutely incredible.
My bestie, Mars, said he was cute.
But you didn’t call a lion cute. Majestic. Magnificent and maybe even beautiful. But definitely not cute.
Sculpt bent and curled his fingers around my elbow to help me stand.
I stood, and my gaze locked on Killian. He was still watching me, his expression cold and unreadable.
Sculpt’s hand dropped from my elbow.
Killian turned away first, and I thanked God because there was no way I was able to stop myself from peering into those eyes. And my heart wouldn’t stop doing those thrills.
He is not a god, Savvy.
Just a guy with beautiful eyes who I wanted to have my first kiss with.
I cleared my throat and raised my knee to balance my bag on it while I unzipped it and quickly shoved my math textbook inside. I rezipped, lowered my leg and shut my locker.
My hand trembled as I fiddled with the padlock and I couldn’t get the shackle of the lock to catch.
“I have a job for you,” Sculpt said.
Damn it. I had to redo the code.
“Sorry, pardon?” I asked, then dropped my bag between my legs and spun the dial one way then the other, then back the other way.
“A job,” Sculpt said. “It’s fast, quick cash, and most of the time you won’t have to do anything except show up.”
“That doesn’t sound legal.” But regardless of what the job was, I was anxious to pay for dance classes, and I couldn’t get a job because most places wouldn’t hire me being only fifteen.
Since my dad died, money was really tight, and my mom paying for dance or even helping out was out of the question.
My lock finally latched and I spun the dial.
“Not her,” Killian said.
My eyes lifted to his through a strand of my wild, red curls, and suddenly I wished I hadn’t because he was watching me again, and it wasn’t emotionless this time.
It was annoyed.
I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like I’d done anything. Maybe he was pissed Sculpt had a job for me. But what did he care?
Trapped in Killian’s ice-green eyes again, I felt as if an elephant sat on my chest.
Why couldn’t I look away?
I so did not want to be on his radar.
But it wasn’t like I had a choice. His gaze had me locked to him, and the only way I’d be able to look away was if he allowed it.
Jesus.
“Why not?” Sculpt asked him.
Killian’s jaw clamped and he jerked his eyes from mine, pushing away from the locker. “She’s a damn freshman and terrified of her own fuckin’ shadow. I bet she’d run out of there crying the second she saw what was happening. Not fuckin’ her!” Killian repeated. Then he turned and headed down the hall.
“Shit,” Sculpt mumbled. “Don’t take it personally. You’re one of the few he actually likes,” he said, but he didn’t say it like a compliment, just a fact.
That made no sense. He didn’t even know me, and I wasn’t sure I liked that he liked me.
Sculpt gave me a once over with his black eyes, and it was unnerving because it was like he was checking to see if I measured up to something. “You want to make quick cash, let me know.”
I wanted to say yes for the fact alone that Killian said I was scared of my own shadow and would run crying out of… wherever he was talking about.
Sculpt turned and jogged down the hall after Killian before I had a chance to ask what the job actually was.
He body checked Killian and Killian punched him in the chest.
I watched them until they disappeared around the corner then flung my bag over my shoulder and ran to meet my mom outside.
An hour later, I sat on the school steps studying math because my mom hadn’t shown—again. It was the third time this week. Mom was getting worse.
“You always do your homework on the steps after school?”
I gasped, twisting at the waist to see Killian standing on the top step looking like one of those Greek gods again. I wasn’t an expert on gods or anything, but I’d decided that he was definitely Zeus. Powerful with a temper and if you pissed him off you were totally screwed.
I stuffed my math book into my bag. “Sometimes. When my mom is late.”
“And how often is that?” he asked.
Shrugging, I said while collecting my bag and standing. “She’s really busy.”
He’d walked down five steps so he was beside me. He smelled fresh and clean with the lingering scent of soap, as if he’d had gym his last period and had showered.
I dragged in a deep inhale then stopped when his brows lifted as if he knew I’d been breathing in his smell.
Crap.
He continued, “Doing what?”
I hitched my bag over my shoulder. “I don’t know. Stuff.”
She probably took too many of those pills again and was passed out. I didn’t know what they were because she’d peeled the label off.
“Come to the river with us,” Killian said. “After the fight one of the guys will drive you home.”
I was so not doing that.
First off, watching a fight made my stomach churn. Not because of the blood, but because I hated the idea of fighting.
The second reason, I didn’t know any of ‘the guys’ and I wasn’t getting in a car with them. I’d rather walk the six miles home.
“I’m okay. It’s not far.”
“Bullshit. I know where you live,” he retorted.