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“Why are you manhandling me?” Mikey asked when he reached over and grabbed hold of her arm.

“Start talking,” Sebastian said, waiting for her to finish toeing off her sneakers before pulling her down on the bed next to him.

“I would, except I’m still not talking to you,” Mikey said as she reached down and pulled the covers up before snuggling closer to his side.

Once she was settled, Mikey reached over and grabbed the dictionary, dropped it on her lap and pulled the large book that he’d been wondering about out of her sweatshirt pocket. With a grumble, she opened the book, sighed heavily a few seconds later, and grabbed the dictionary. That was followed by her dropping the dictionary back on her lap, picking the book back up, finding the spot where she’d left off and?

Repeated the process all over again.

Biting back a sigh, he reached over and plucked the book out of her hand with a murmured, “What’s going on, Mikey?”

There was a heartfelt sigh from across the room and then, “She wants me.” That was followed by an, “Ow!” and a, “Why must you fight our love?” as Jonathan picked up the dictionary, which had bounced off his head a few seconds earlier, and tossed it back.

Grabbing the dictionary before she had a chance to maim his brother, not that he didn’t have it coming, Sebastian tossed the book back on the bed so that he could reach up and give her braid a gentle tug to drag her attention back to him. With one last glare in his brother’s direction, Mikey grabbed the book that he damn well knew that she didn’t want to read and mumbled, “Nothing.”

“You’re not going to tell me what’s going on?” Sebastian asked, watching her as she glared down at the book in her hand.

“I’m really not,” she said as she turned the page only to grumble something and go back to the previous page, drop the book and reach for the dictionary as he sat there, realizing that she really hadn’t left him with much of a choice.

He was going to have to get his answers the hard way.

Chapter 9

“Are you ready to talk?” came the question that had Mikey trying to wiggle her way to freedom even as she vowed that somehow, some day, she would make him pay for doing this to her.

Oh, would he pay…

“Are you ready to get off me?” Mikey countered as she gave up wiggling to look over her shoulder and glare at the teenage boy currently lounging across her legs, keeping her pinned to the floor.

“No,” Sebastian murmured as he turned the page of the book that he was reading while she laid there seething.

For several minutes, Mikey laid there, glaring at him, hoping that the unspoken promise of revenge would be enough to make him move. When it became obvious that he wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon, Mikey resigned herself to waiting him out as she laid her head on her folded arms, already bored out of her mind.

“You could just tell me what I want to know,” Sebastian drawled a few minutes later.

“And you could just let me go,” she pointed out as she glanced around, looking for something to do while she waited for the stubborn jerk to give up.

“I really can’t though,” he said with a sad sigh as she tried to pull her legs free again, but god, was he freaking heavy. Things used to be so easy before the big jerk had that growth spurt, Mikey thought miserably.

“I’d really like to get off the floor now,” Mikey said, giving up trying to pull her legs free with a groan and looked around for something to throw at him.

“And I’d really like to know what you’re hiding from me,” Sebastian drawled as she realized that there was nothing within grabbing distance that she could throw at him.

Knowing that it was pointless to try to wait him out, she said, “I can’t try out for the team unless I turn in a new book report on Monday.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Sebastian asked, sighing heavily.

“Because you have enough to worry about right now,” Mikey said as Sebastian shifted to climb off her and–

“Are you talking about military school?” Jonathan said, making her frown as she glanced back at

Sebastian to find him glaring at his brother.

“Military school? What is he talking about, Sebastian?” Mikey asked as she watched Sebastian get to his feet.

“Nothing,” he bit out with a look of warning for his brother as he reached down and helped her up. Mikey looked back at Jonathan in time to see him mouthing, “Sorry,” to his brother with a sympathetic wince that had Mikey absently nodding as she came to a decision.

“Where are you going?” Jonathan asked as Mikey headed for their bedroom door, deciding that she’d played enough games for one night.