Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
“Come on!” Quinn calls with Aro at her side.
I yell after them. “I actually haven’t skated since I was ten!”
“You’re good on wheels.” Quinn assures me.
They both circle around, coming back to me against the traffic. Taking my hand, Quinn pulls me, and I clutch both of their arms as I skate onto the rink.
I push off with my toe stopper, finding my balance, and soon let go before we’ve even circled once.
“Who paid for all this?” Aro asks.
“I think Hawke did.”
She looks at me, her eyes wide. “Uh-oh.”
I know. He’s going to be pissed, and I’ll deserve it. Luckily, I can pay him back, but of course, I’ll get the “it’s the principle of the matter” talk.
It’ll be worth it, though. I’m already having fun.
“Farrow is looking at her,” Aro tells me.
I glance at Farrow, seeing him hang back at the counter, watching us. Watching Quinn.
And then I spot someone else leaning on the other side of the rink wall with his back to us, drinking a beer. His eyes are turned on Quinn too.
“Noah Van der Berg is also watching her,” I say.
I throw Noah a wave, wondering how he ended up here. He tips his chin at me and then turns back around. I follow his gaze, suddenly seeing one long dare stretching like a rope between his eyes and Farrow’s.
“That’s a lot of blond in one bed,” Aro teases.
And I throw my head back, laughing. Farrow, Quinn, and Noah…yeah, a lot of blond.
“Who are you guys talking about?” Quinn gripes.
“You’ve been gone too long,” I coo. “There are new men on the scene.”
“And I’m still as disinterested as I ever was.”
I circle around in front of them, seeing if I remember how to skate backward. I wobble but manage to stay upright.
“Her heart is taken,” I inform Aro.
“Shush,” Quinn growls a little.
But I don’t. “Have you heard anything from him?” I ask Quinn.
“From who?” Aro asks.
“Lucas Morrow,” I tell her, throwing Quinn a glance. “Another blond.”
Quinn is twenty. Lucas must be more than thirty by now. But she knew him when he was a teenager and she was a kid, and she followed him everywhere.
Quinn just cocks an eyebrow at me. “I’m not ten anymore. I left crushes behind.”
“Have you gone out with anyone at school?”
“Have you?” She smiles, challenging me.
Hunter showering with me comes to the front of my mind, and I know I’m blushing as images of his body flood my head.
Quinn gasps, seeing my face. “Tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
Nothing I can tell her anyway. She’s his family, too, and I doubt she wants to hear the details any more than I want to hear about all the places Aro and Hawke have done it.
God, I wanted to touch Hunter, though. I almost asked if I could watch him touch himself that night. I can’t believe I almost said the words. They nearly popped out, and I don’t know why he would think that was going too far after we’d already gotten naked together, but I stopped myself before I asked.
“Will there be anything to tell?” she inquires.
Butterflies swarm as we fly faster and faster around the rink.
“Is he nice?” she asks about my mystery guy.
I think about it. He used to be nice. I always felt good and safe with Hunter.
Now…
“He makes me mad all the time,” I reply. “And excited all the time.”
“Sounds about right,” Aro chimes in.
Quinn touches my arm, but we don’t slow down. “You’ll be careful?”
I want to laugh, because if anyone asks me what I want to be when I grow up, the answer is, above all else, ‘not-careful,’
“I’ll be myself.” I meet her eyes. “And I’m prepared that nothing will ever be easy because of it.”
That’s all I can do.
“Let’s go,” I say, jetting off faster.
People surround us, the dancers go wild, and the air fills with heat that blankets my skin. A brunette unzips her leather jacket, revealing a black lace bra underneath, and two women whirl around us, skating backward, one in a bikini.
It must be ’70s night because Olivia Newton-John comes on, and I just realized that every song has been old.
Aro shoots me a look, and I shrug. “Let’s just go with it.”
We laugh, and I’m a little baffled we all know the words. The chorus kicks off, we bob our heads, dancing as we roll, and I let my shirt slip down my arms. I don’t drop it, though. My hair flies behind me, sweat coats my neck, and we all tip our heads back, belting out the lyrics.
But when I open my eyes, I see a black T-shirt lingering in the background of my line of sight. I almost freeze as we cruise past, and then he’s gone, and I can’t see him.
Swallowing my heart back down my throat, I keep going, but he’s all I feel now. Rolling my head back and forth, I sing with Quinn and Aro, my hair tickling the parts of my back that are bare in my tank top and feeling his eyes on my every move.