Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 138775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 694(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 463(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 694(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 463(@300wpm)
“Okay, what do I have to do on Sunday?” she asked Kyle, apparently okay with selling her soul to the devil.
He leaned toward her, his arm still around the back of her chair. It was like Lucas and I had ceased to exist. “For our date, I want you to wear something that makes you feel sexy.”
Her jaw dropped in the cutest little way. But Lucas reacted before she could.
“You can’t dare her to dress like a slut.”
The word hit hard, and Tori looked stung.
Kyle took it in stride. “I didn’t.”
I had to agree with him. “He just said she should wear what she feels sexy in. For all we know, that could be a nun’s habit.”
“It could be,” Kyle agreed. “But it’s not. You choose what to wear, Victoria, but it has to be clothes that make you feel good about yourself. Something that you think looks sexy on you. And I bet you I’ll agree.”
“This study break is over,” Lucas said angrily.
As always, when Lucas got heated, Kyle got cool. “Yeah, that was the end. We each got one turn.”
He stood up. “I mean, the entire study session is over. I’ll drive you home.” That last part was directed at Tori.
That seemed to trigger Kyle. “She’ll ride in my truck.”
Tori looked from one stepbrother to the other, clearly not wanting to choose between them. And, if I wasn’t mistaken, irritated that they were having a pissing contest about this in the first place.
Thank god Lucas and I had driven separately today. “Would you like to ride with me?”
“Yes, please.” She was out of her seat so fast it looked like she’d levitated. We both gathered our things rather quickly, anxious to get away from the glowering stepbrothers.
Once again, those two morons had driven her straight to me.
And I couldn’t claim that I minded very much.
25
KYLE
It was Thursday evening, and I wasn’t at a bar with my buddies. I wasn’t chilling at home, watching a game. I wasn’t hitting on hot chicks at a party.
So what was I doing? Studying in the library again.
Why? Because the next fucking paper was due on Monday. It was like Dr. Winters thought we didn’t have homework for any other classes. Not that I did much of it. But apparently, Comp 102 was required for graduation and for staying on the team. On the other hand, it had provided me with a hot little tutor. I didn’t mind that last part so much.
Tori looked so cute as she wrote in her journal. Unfortunately, it was where she kept class notes and shit, not where she wrote her personal thoughts. Otherwise, it would’ve been tempting to peek and see if she’d written anything about me. Or about how excited she was about our date on Sunday.
Except I knew she was excited about it. She got this embarrassed little grin on her face every time she looked at me these days.
Of course, I’d spent a fair bit of time looking at her, too. There was absolutely nothing hotter than a girl who didn’t know she was hot. Who didn’t try to be hot. Like certain other women I knew.
Lucas frowned as he typed something on his laptop. Then he started tapping on his phone. Any normal person would be texting, but I could see from here that he had some kind of calculator app open. The super complex kind.
It was funny, because he worshiped the ground Tori walked on, but when he was into an assignment, she could’ve stripped down to nothing and done a fucking cheerleading routine right next to him, and he wouldn’t have looked up.
Though that was something I sure as hell would like to see. Jayden too, probably. He spent as much time watching Tori as I did these days. He was doing it right now, in fact. I caught his eye and smirked, but he didn’t care. He just raised an eyebrow and then returned to his studying.
With a sigh, I reluctantly got back to work, too. I managed two more painstakingly long paragraphs and then slid my laptop over to Tori, who read through it quickly. She typed in a couple of suggestions, and at the bottom, she wrote, “Good job!”
That was just her inner teacher coming out, but I wanted so fucking badly to show her the things I was truly good at.
And I had a plan to do just that.
“I call for a study break.”
Everyone looked up, but no one looked surprised. Almost as if they’d been expecting it. Well, good. Things would go better when they finally accepted that I should be the one calling the shots.
“What’s on tap for tonight?” Jayden asked.
Lucas shook his head. “More games horny teenagers play?”
“Actually, yeah.”
He rolled his eyes. But Tori looked intrigued. She’d held her own at the last one. She wasn’t the damsel in distress that my idiot stepbrother thought she was. At least not most of the time.