Page 13 of Ruining Him

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry. I just wanna stick it to Cole for once, so let me walk you back to your dorm?” he asks and holds his arm out for me to link with mine.

Ah, fuck it. Why not?

I curl my arm around his and we walk towards the exit.

“So, you don’t like Cole?” I ask, looking up at him. He’s handsome, I guess, but the last thing I need to be doing right now is hooking up with someone. “I’m pretty sure you’re the first person I’ve met in this place that feels that way.”

He sighs. “It’s not that I don’t like the guy. I just hate how they think they rule over this place with an iron fist. We’re all rich, you know? I don’t see the point of having a hierarchy in this place when we’re all on the same level,” he says just as we step outside, the low sun blinding me for a moment.

“Makes sense, though, if you…” I trail off as I catch sight of Cole and Harley sitting on a bench not too far from us.

“I’m gonna kill that asshole,” I growl and go to take a step forward, only Thoms halts my movements by keeping my arm wrapped tightly in his.

“Easy,” he whispers. “The moment he sees how pissed you are, he’ll know he’s won.”

Fuck, he’s right.

I take a calming breath and plaster a smile on my face, and he nods, leading me past him.

I can’t help myself, though. Just after we walk past the two guys, I turn back to look at Cole, reveling in the anger written all over his face, and I wink.

I’m really starting to enjoy these games of ours.

Cole’s been avoiding me after what happened outside of the athletics department last night, and I’m not surprised. He’s probably waiting for my reaction.

I won’t give him one.

Not yet.

The reason I’ve been trying to get ahold of him is because we need to finish this damn assignment, and we can’t do that if he’s hiding from me.

All day, I’ve been keeping an eye out for him, with no luck.

Though I have been sidetracked a couple of times by girls wanting to know what the situation is between me and that Thoms guy. Turns out he’s quite popular, so everyone has been wanting the gossip from me.

I gave them the truth; that he has absolutelynotbeen taken off the market by me, and they seemed satisfied by that. Especially after I told them to go ahead and take their shot with him, since I couldn’t care less.

I head towards the guys’ cottage along the forest path since it’s the easiest way for me to get there, intent on confronting Cole so we can get this paper finished and both move on, only to spot him lounging on the grass in his backyard with the rest of the guys.

Great, I guess we’re doing this with an audience.

“Aston,” I bark, and even from this distance, I can hear his responding groan.

As I draw closer, I can hear his friends snickering before they all look towards me with curious looks.

“You’ve been avoiding me, asshole.”

He sighs. “I’m not in the mood today, Lana.”

I chuckle. “Neither am I, but we need to get this paper done so we can hand it in, and I can be done with you.”

He runs a hand down his face while the other guys climb to their feet and head towards the cottage, probably to get out of the firing line if things go south, and I hop over the small fence that separates the forest area and their yard before fisting my hips.

“Send me your part and I’ll put it together. I’ll email you the finished paper so you can look it over before we hand it in to the professor,” Cole grunts.

“And I’m supposed to just trust you?”

He stands, towering over me with fire in his eyes.