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Fight for it? Jesus, he was so nervous about how the size of his cock measured up against everyone else here that he made them fight him—or beg—for whatever it was they wanted or needed.
Will lurched forward before he could respond, his whole body tight and flexed.
“No, me.” Will pulled up next to Aydin. “Let her fight me.”
He didn’t really want Will to answer the question. He knew—love me or hate me—Will would go easy on me, and I was starting to get the feeling that Aydin wanted this to hurt Will, too.
I flexed the muscles in my thighs, forcing my legs to stop shaking. Will had never seen me get hurt. He didn’t know what I could take.
“And believe me when I tell you I know how to take one,” I replied.
“Goddammit,” Will yelled. “Enough!”
I didn’t have a chance to respond. Taylor straddled me, slapping me once and then again, and I barely had time to catch my breath before he planted his hand over my mouth and plugged my nose.
He leaned down next to my ear. “I could be inside you in three seconds,” he whispered. “And I will be when—”
Was I really doing this? Leaving now? No food, no clothes, no help? He wasn’t backing off. They weren’t going to let me run.
“Jesus Christ,” Will said, rushing over. He took my head in his hands, inspecting me.
Will met my eyes over Aydin’s shoulder, and while I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, he didn’t look away.
“Use your head,” he told me, carrying me into his room as if I weighed nothing. “You’ll need it to stay alive, because this is not how we end, Emory Scott.”
CHAPTER 8
“Sure, you are.” Will’s body shook with a laugh behind his friend, and his grin just looked so happy and easy. I started to smile, too, but stopped, remembering myself.
I’d missed this. I loved the water.
Every little thing you could do made you feel stronger. I have this, so I don’t need you. I have that, so I don’t need you.
I tilted my head, took a breath, and stuck my face back in the water, but just then there was another face looking straight up at me from the bottom.
But before I could get to the surface, something wrapped around my ankle and yanked me back down.
In a moment, he leaned over and pulled the black mesh shorts he was wearing in the wrestling room out of the water and threw them over my head, onto the pool deck.
“Why don’t you like me?” he asked. I ignored him, wringing out my ponytail. “And what happened to your legs?” he questioned next.
And something about how he said it made my insides shake a little. Slowly, I stopped.
I breathed out a laugh. “Come on, Will,” I said. “I have nothing you want. I’m not a happy person. Ever. We don’t mesh. Your life is trite to me, far removed from reality, and I thought your views on Lolita were repugnant, and worse, dangerous.”
“I hate your friends,” I continued. “I don’t want to be around any of them. Except Kai, maybe. One of three Asian kids in a school full of WASPs, he, at least, has some clue what it’s like to be me.”
I screamed and splashed, but he didn’t let me go under, pulling me into his body and wrapping his arms around me instead. I looked up at him, breathing hard, and he looked down at me, our lips inches from each other.
I wasn’t a happy person. Not ever. I won’t be able to stop you.
He pulled me in, and I opened my mouth to protest, but instead of a kiss, he just pulled me into his arms, pressed my head to his shoulder, and wrapped his arms around me so tight, it felt like he was the one about to break, not me.
But before I could work up the courage to pull away or hug him back, he whispered, “I’m not like that.” And he pulled up, staring down at me almost nose to nose. “And I’ll see you on the bus tomorrow night, Emory Scott.”
I didn’t need the trouble. I had much bigger problems than him, and I didn’t need this.
I didn’t want to want more. Everything I said about him was true. He was shallow, and he was using me. Bottom line. I couldn’t forget that.
There was a moment, though, when he held me, where he was me, and I was him, and we weren’t alone. It felt like I was supposed to be there.
Trevor followed my gaze, everyone knew that the Horsemen recorded their escapades. There was proof of all the petty crimes and pranks they’d pulled.
He was silent for a moment, and when I looked back at him, his gaze was still on the crowd in Sticks, but his expression was serious as the wheels in his head turned.
I dropped my hands, staring off. I thought for sure Godzilla and the granola bar was Will, but this was snuck into my locker, as well. And it was done tonight. This wasn’t in my bag before I went swimming.
See you on the bus tomorrow night, Will Grayson.
CHAPTER 9
Tears ached behind my eyes, remembering how he felt and how much I really wanted to feel that again right now.
No, it had to be someone else. Someone who wanted to give Will his revenge and didn’t give a shit about me.
Strange as it was the past several years—free and on my own—I hadn’t felt that in a long time.
Was one of them in there keeping an eye on me? Was Will in there?
“Rory told me what you did,” he said, sitting on the edge of the tub and looking over at me. “Thank you.”
He flashed a sad smile. “‘Who needs to learn a lesson about family loyalty and not being a pussy,’” he recited—his father’s words, no doubt.
“It vibrates when the team is coming,” he explains. “Security arrives first, and if we’re in our rooms like good little boys, they simply flip a lock to keep us secure. If we’re not, then they’ll find us and lock us in our rooms themselves. When the doors open again, they’re gone, the fridge is stocked, the toilets are clean, our wardrobe is replenished, and every piece of furniture is shining. Almost like we get a do-over every month.”
“Well, they had to have noticed you being brought here in the first place, right?”
It was safe to assume they saw me brought in or helped bring me in. He was right. If Aydin didn’t lock me in the cellar and keep me undetected like he’d threatened to do, they might not care anyway when they came in a month. They still might not rescue me.
“And I wasn’t unhappy about it,” Micah added, humor in his voice as he looked at the other man.
I was pretty sure these two might just be happy staying here for the rest of their lives if they had each other.
I closed my eyes as he spread it across my hair, lathering it up, and I knew Rory was watching us as I imagined Will watching me through the glass.
“He needs me more than you do right now,” Micah joked.
CHAPTER 10
