Page 84 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Thursday

The kiss thief hadn’t texted me back last night or today. I wanted to think of something clever or funny to text him. Or somehow trick him into admitting he was Jacob.

I glanced at the time. It was well after dinner and I still hadn’t heard from Axel. I’d cancelled my plans with Jacob tonight so that Axel and I could work on our project. And each minute that ticked by made me feel like an idiot.

Axel wasn’t coming.

He’d just wanted me to cancel my date. He’d had no intention of ever coming over.

I sighed and changed into a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top. There was no reason not to be comfortable while I spent the night alone in my room. I brought up the varsity roster list Sophie and I had sorted through, and stared at the names of the 13 guys that we thought could be my kiss thief.

If it was Jacob, the list meant nothing. But if it somehow wasn’t him? I shook my head.

This was stupid. It was definitely Jacob.

And just because we hadn’t had a date tonight didn’t mean I couldn’t try to kiss him before Saturday.

Well, kiss him again. Because I was pretty sure I’d kissed him yesterday in the janitor’s closet.

I just needed to kiss him while being able to see his face.

I pictured Gigi plopping down on Axel’s lap in the cafeteria and planting a kiss on his lips.

Yeah, no. I definitely wasn’t doing that to Jacob. I wasn’t a psychopath.

I looked back at the list and tried to think if it could really be one of these guys.

Yes, I had classes with all of them. But there were a few I had never even really spoken to.

Like August Ward. He sat on the opposite side of class in entrepreneurial studies.

And Zach Fisher. I’d definitely never spoken to him.

I didn’t think we’d ever even made eye contact before.

I knew Sophie would say that just because we hadn’t spoken didn’t mean it wasn’t one of those guys. And that my kiss thief was technically a stalker, so it kind of fit. But did August or Zach seem like stalkers? If so they were very good at it. Because I never noticed them staring.

My eyes kept scanning down the list. This was impossible. I needed a break. And ice cream. Yeah, ice cream helped everything.

I wandered downstairs and into the kitchen. I pulled out the pint of Chunky Monkey and then just stared at it.

I was supposed to be on a date tonight with Jacob.

Having fun. And instead I was alone eating ice cream.

But I knew one way to not feel alone. I opened the gallery on my phone and looked at the pictures Sophie had taken of me.

The kiss thief would definitely respond to one of these.

I clicked on one of the modest ones of me in a bathing suit again and hit send.

“Your turn,” I texted. I wanted to play 21 questions again.

This time I’d be focused. This time I’d get information.

I waited for him to respond.

And waited.

But he didn’t take the bait. I was getting used to talking to him every day. And I felt off-kilter from his silence. Especially after that kiss yesterday.

I sighed. Alone tonight with ice cream seemed to be my fate. Maybe I didn’t just need ice cream though. I grabbed two bowls, scooped in some ice cream, and headed to my mom’s office.

“Mom?” I knocked on the door of her office.

“Come in!” she called.

I opened the door and walked in. It was more of a library than an office, really. The shelves were lined with books she’d written and books she and my dad loved. And she had a desk in the center of the room.

She looked up from her computer and smiled. “What’s this?”

“Figured you could use some writing fuel.” I handed her one of the bowls.

“Thanks, sweetie.”

I walked over to one of the bookshelves.

“You used to love climbing on that ladder and being pushed along the bookshelf.”

I smiled. “I remember.” I put my hand on one of the rungs of the ladder. I used to make Axel push me on it too.

“Is everything alright?”

I turned around. “Remember when you told me you kissed a guy after your first kiss with dad?”

“Um...yes. I did say that.”

“Did you like that guy?”

She took the slowest bite of ice cream ever and then shrugged. “Yes.”

“So you liked two guys at the same time?” I felt all twisted up inside about liking Jacob, my kiss thief, and Axel.

I didn’t want to admit to my mom that I might actually like three guys at the same time.

I was still hoping Jacob was my kiss thief.

But if my mom liked two guys at the same time and everything had worked out okay for her.

..then maybe it would work out okay for me too.

“Scarlett, where is this coming from?”

“I just need to know, Mom. Please. You liked two guys at the same time?”

She nodded.

“And which book did you write about that in again?”

She pointed to the shelf behind me. “The Hunted series.”

“Can I read it now?”

“Absolutely not.”

“But, Mom.”

“Scarlett, like I’ve told you your whole life. If you’d like to read it, you can read it when you’re 18.”

But I needed to read it right now. I needed to know how everything worked out for her so I’d have some peace of mind that it would work out for me too. “I’m practically 18.”

“Practically isn’t the same.”

I sighed. “What kind of weird stuff is in it that I can’t read until I’m five months older?” My birthday was in February. This was ridiculous.

“Is there something bothering you?” she asked, ignoring my question. “Is this about your first kiss the other night? Because you’ve left me dying to know who it was with.”

“Maybe I’ll write a book about it and let you read it in a year.”

She laughed. “Touché.”

“I should probably get back to my homework.”

“Alright. But I’m here if you want to talk about liking two guys at the same time.” She smiled and started typing on her computer again.

And I had the oddest feeling that she was writing about me. I stared at her happily typing in horror. She better not be. That would seriously be the most embarrassing thing in the world. I took my ice cream and went back upstairs.

I was looking down at my phone, hoping to get a text from my kiss thief. Come on, take the bait. Text me back.

I walked into my room and collided, bowl first, with something hard. I went to scream, but someone clamped their hand over my mouth.

“Shhh,” Axel said. “It’s just me.” His other hand landed on my waist.

I looked up at Axel as the ice cream smushed onto his shirt and the bowl fell to the floor. The ice cream had melted quite a bit during my conversation with my mom and it just went everywhere.

My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it in my throat. He’d scared the shit out of me. And I was having a hard time calming down when his hands were on me. I tried to step back, but for just a second, his fingers tightened on my hip.

“Did you just throw pudding at me?” Axel asked with a laugh and removed his hand from my mouth. His other hand slowly fell from my waist. “You’ve been spending too much time at Sophie’s.”

He had no idea. “No, it was ice cream. I...” Why was I explaining myself to him? He should have been explaining himself to me . “What the heck are you doing here?” I was having a hard time catching my breath.

“We had plans to meet up.”

“Hours ago, Axel.” I wasn’t an idiot. Liam had gotten home from practice before dinner. And what the heck? Had my dad or Liam let him in? And if so...why hadn’t they called for me? “And how did you even get in here?”

“I snuck in through the hole in the floor.”

What?! “Axel, what were you thinking?! Use the front door next time.”

“I remember you specifically asking me on Friday to sneak in through the secret entrance.”

I opened my mouth and closed it again. “Someone could have seen you. We haven’t fixed the hole yet and I don’t want to be grounded again.”

“I was careful. I don’t want you to be grounded either. Because if you remember our conversation about you asking me to come hang out with you by sneaking through your new getaway door, you’ll also remember that I said I wanted you at my first game of the season.”

I glared at him. He seemed to remember so much about that conversation. Except for the important thing. When I’d told him I saved my first kiss for him and he didn’t have any reaction.

Axel picked up the bowl of ice cream off the floor. He leaned down to grab my phone next, but I quickly got to it first.

The last thing I needed was for him to see the text I’d just sent. I held my phone to my chest.

“What?” he asked. “Something on there you don’t want me to see?”

I laughed awkwardly. “No.”

He smiled. “If you say so.” And then he started to pull his ruined shirt off.

I watched as his abs were exposed. It was like the video footage of the locker room I’d watched yesterday. And yeah, today too, sue me. But he looked even better in real life. His long lean muscles were tan from his time at the beach this summer. I didn’t think he’d ever looked better.

He walked over to my computer and put his hand on the back of my chair. His varsity jacket was draped there. I thought he was going to say something about it, but instead he leaned down to look at my computer screen. “Why do you have a copy of the varsity football roster?”

What? Crap! Why had I left that open?

Axel grabbed the mouse. “And why is it sorted based on height?”

“It’s for a...research project.”

“What research project?”

“Something with Sophie.”

“For which class?”

“None of your business.” It was the only thing I could think of to say.

“As team captain, it kind of is my business. You have all their phone numbers too? Why do you have all this personal information?”

I folded my arms across my chest. “You’re acting like we stole the list or something. Obviously we didn’t do that. We got it legally.”

“Legally?”

“Yes.”

He looked back at the list. “Why are the 13 guys at the bottom in a different color?”