Visible and audible was Nate Dietrich, pleading for his safety and apologizing.

Fuck!

Heat rushed over my back, and a cool sweat broke out across my forehead as I looked to Tate. She was seeing it, too, no doubt. Others started hooting and laughing in the halls, while some whispered and showed their phones around to other’s who hadn’t gotten the message.

The video was not flattering. It clearly protected me and threw him to the sharks as a spineless joke. Well, good. I was okay with that, but Tate?

Her eyebrows were pinched together as she looked at her phone, and then her serious and very unhappy eyes zoned in on me.

“Jared? This is you, isn’t it? You’re the one he’s talking to.” Her breathing was fast, and her face was tense.

Son of a bitch. Just when I was hoping things would calm down. Fucking Madoc and fucking Jax. Madoc obviously sent it to the whole school, but it had to have been Jax that filmed it when my back was turned last night. I was sure of it. Madoc didn’t know shit about how to edit videos. Jax was the smart one.

And that’s why he’d borrowed my mom’s laptop this morning. “Tate, it’s—”

“Was this last night?” she interrupted.

“It was spontaneous.” I held up my hands and shook my head, inching up to her. “Nate was at Madoc’s house, and Jax and I went over to confront him.”

“You threatened him? What were you thinking?” she accused. “I mean, don’t get me wrong,” she continued, “I appreciate the gesture, but it’s not worth it. Now everyone’s talking about us again, Jared. They all know what this is about.”

I looked around and—yes—people were eyeing us again. Talking and laughing, not to mention whispering. The grins weren’t snide or spiteful, but it was still talk.

And Tate was sick of it.

“Why didn’t you take me with you?” she asked.

I lifted my shoulders a bit and exhaled a bitter laugh. “It seemed like a bad idea to put you back in that mess. You’ve been through too much. I didn’t want you to get emotional—”

“Emotional?” Her voice erupted like an air horn in the otherwise hushed hallway.

Glancing around, I inched closer, feeling my nerves heat up with her obvious anger. “That’s not what I meant—”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this this morning?” Her wall was up, and I stood there in fucking awe of how close I’d been to her a moment ago. “Another video, Jared!” she burst out. “I should’ve known about this.”

“I didn’t know it was being recorded!”

What the hell? Why was she mad? If anything, she should’ve been happy that I defended her honor! Of course, Nate walked away without a scratch, but the video cut off as my blade went in his face. People would assume the worst until Nate showed up to verify that he was fine.

Tate was overreacting, because she didn’t know what had happened. “That’s the same excuse you used last time!” she retorted.

“‘Excuse?’” Was she really implying that I knew about the sex video? “You’re blowing up about nothing. Again! Just like my fucking car!”

I ran my hand through my hair and blew out a breath.

“Look.” My teeth were bared, and my voice was low. “K.C. brought Nate over to Madoc’s house last night—”

“K.C. was in on this?” she interrupted. “And not me? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“I didn’t have a chance,” I gritted out, waving my hand. “You crept into my room and jumped on my cock so fast this morning—”

“Ugh!” she growled and slammed her knee right between my legs. I hunched forward and fell to one knee.

Shit, shit, shit … I moaned as a white hot pain shot through my groin.

Jesus Christ, Tate!

My eyes squeezed shut, and I breathed in and out quickly, trying to keep my legs from collapsing underneath me.

My fucking dick was on fire and nausea rolled through my stomach in waves. Holy mother…

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 753