Page 14 of A Little Bit Reckless

Bow’s blinks were rapid. She looked like Snow White with her dark hair and flushed lips and cheeks. She eased back in her seat. “But you said I was beautiful.”

I did say that. I closed my eyes.

Fuck.

“Bru…”

I opened my eyes, hearing the strain in her voice. I felt punched in the gut by what I saw. Bow was curled up in her seat, wincing.

And she had water in her eyes.

There was a visible sheen there before she looked away, and my stomach tossed. I reached for her. “Bow, I’m…”

Again, I wanted to apologize. Ihadcalled her beautiful, but it wasn’t in the way she thought.

I messed up.

Bow didn’t let me touch her again. In fact, she all but recoiled when I got close. My throat tightened. “Bow?—”

She scrambled out of my car.

“I’m sorry,” she said before slamming the door in my face. She sprinted away, and I assumed she was heading back to her dorm. She lived close by, but I didn’t chase after her. I had no right to. She may have kissed me first, but I kissed her back. I also led her on, but I wondered how much as I sat there. I called her beautiful, but I also meant it.

And I definitely liked kissing her, too.

CHAPTER

SIX

Bow

“The fuck’s wrong with you, Squeak?” Wells asked me, and I blinked. He shook his head. “I called your name like three times.”

Had he?

He sighed from across the dining room table. I was helping him with his math homework. He was in a junior class, and, though I was a sophomore, I’d learned many of the concepts in his class already. All my classes in high school had been accelerated.

Wells eyed me with a heat that hadn’t let up since I came over to his house. He shared one with my brother. Everyone on campus called it Legacy House since all my brother’s friends—Wells, Dorian, Ares, and Bru—lived there. It was always the hotspot for parties. I gripped Wells’s math book thinking about Bru.

Wells angled back in his chair. He was getting increasingly frustrated as the night went on, and I think only part of that had to do with the fact that he was locked into studying with me. The school stuff wasn’t easy for him, and that clearly annoyed him.He stamped out his big legs. “You’re supposed to be helping me, and you’re not even fucking here right now.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled, my face hot, when my brother came into the dining room.

I jumped when my brother smacked the back of Wells’s head. Wells shot forward and jumped out of his seat.

Wells growled. “What the fuck?”

“Don’t talk to my sister like that, you fucker,” Thatcher said, and Wells lifted his eyes. I knew the dynamic my brother had with his friends for a long time, so, honestly, them hitting each other wasn’t exactly foreign to me. They were like two colossi, and, even though Wells was lankier than my brother, he was faster. I’d also seen him clock my brother to the ground enough times to know he could hold his own with him.

Apparently, Wells chose not to today, and, as he rubbed his blond head, his white tee lifted. It exposed the first section of his abs, and when he caught me looking, he smirked.

My gaze darted away. Wells always liked to tease me and probably did that on purpose. Obviously I’d look, because he put them in front of me.

Feeling dumb, I put my head down but looked up when Thatcher nudged Wells. Wells shot up a fist, like he would hit my brother, but he didn’t. That was just a part of their dynamic.

Chuckling, Thatcher shook his head at Wells before facing me. My brother looked a lot like our dad and was a similar size as well. Thatcher frowned. “What the hell is wrong with you? You did kind of look weird in the face when I let you in the house earlier.”

I did? In what way?