Page 18 of Troublemaker

Would he care?

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” I grumbled.

“You gave me no goddamn choice,” he said, and then we were back past the boards and in the bleachers and he was lowering me to the padded floor. He didn’t release me though, his hands sliding up and gripping my waist with one hand, my shoulder with the other. I looked up at him, and suddenly everyone else disappeared, until it was only the two of us. I hadn’t been this close to him in so long and his green eyes were as mysterious and breathtaking as an enchanted forest…same as they’d always been.

“What—” I said.

“Lucy, I’ve warned you in the past. Don’t push me,” he said.

“And what will you do if I keep pushing?” My voice was breathy. If I stepped even a centimeter forward, my hard nipples would brush the fabric covering his chest.

His eyes, before so secretly expressive, shuttered, and he released me, taking a step back.

“You don’t want to know, I promise you that,” he said. “Now, get out of my sight. You’ve caused enough trouble for the day.”

I blinked.

God, his moods were so mercurial. I didn’t know what he was reacting to, but I knew ithurt.

I was done with this man.

So done.

“Whatever,” I said. “Clearly someone is stalking me and stealing my panties and you don’t even care. What kind of guardian are you, if you don’t guard?”

He snorted. “Lucy, no one is stalking you. I promise. Someone is probably playing a prank, or you’re just being forgetful. You’ve lost ten iPhones in your life—I know because I had to pay for all the replacements—I’m not surprised you misplaced a pair of your underwear. But now you’re making it my team’s problem, which means you’re making it my problem. I don’t have time for this shit, so I need you to go.”

I don’t have time for this shit.

As in, I don’t have time for you.

So, so done.

Unable to look him in the eyes anymore, knowing that I might actually lose control of the tears that threatened to spill out at his dismissive rejection, I looked down. One of his pockets looked wrinkled and a little bulgy, and even though I wanted to fix it for him, fuss over him, I knew better. He’d never let me touch him. This was the only time, and…

…Time to move on. I’d said I had already, but I meant it. For real this time.

“I’m going,” I told him. “Don’t expect me to come back.”

But instead of reacting, he stared forward, ignoring me as I forced myself to flip my hair and sway my hips as I headed out of the arena, and hopefully, out of his life.

He didn’t look at me once.

Time to do something drastic. No more getting off to him or fantasizing about him or pushing him or flirting with him. Notwhen he had a date soon. Not when he cared so little about my safety, about me.

Yup, getting under someone for the first time was the way to go.

8

BLAKE

My hands were gripping my home office chair so hard, my knuckles had gone white. My breath was so hot, smoke might as well have been leaking from my mouth.

I watched the cameras. Lucy paced her small room as she said on speaker phone with her friend Leslie, “…which is why I need to lose my virginity. Tonight.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea? Maybe you’re being a little too reactive.”

“He couldn’t have given a shit. He dismissed my concerns, made it seem like I was overreacting—I felt like a kicked puppy, and I refuse to feel that way.”