Co-Ed(18)

Slater must have noticed because he got off his bed, put his cup down on the nightstand then braced my shoulders with both hands. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say except I warned you.”

“And I still fell for it,” I grumbled. “How stupid do you think I am? On a scale of one to ten?”

“Solid middle ground.” His lips twitched. “To be fair, they’re pretty to look at, and sometimes raccoons just can’t help themselves when they see the shiny.”

“Hey—” I playfully shoved him away. “—are you calling me a raccoon?”

He grinned. “Little bit, yeah.”

“Fair.” I groaned and pulled him back in for a hug. He smelled like spicy soap and Starbucks coffee.

When he released me, it was with a small smile on his face. “Tell you what. Let’s order pizza tonight. You can wallow in the greasy goodness.”

“With extra cheese?” I countered.

“And pineapple.” He groaned like he was going to have an orgasm from the mere thought of pineapple on extra cheese pizza.

“Weirdo.” I punched him on the arm and thought back to the training session. Slater was good-looking. Not just handsome; some might even say hot. “Why didn’t you get asked to work with them?”

When he didn’t answer, I turned around.

Slater’s stance was completely frozen as he held the unicorn with one hand and his cell in the other.

“Slater?”

He gave his head a shake and offered me a forced smile. “Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t always hate them?”

“No.” I burst out laughing. “Is it true?”

He just shrugged and said quietly, “I don’t even know anymore…”

That was the last conversation we had about it before we ate pizza while talking about school, unicorns, and him helping me find a tutor.

But when we turned the lights out, I wondered.

I wondered why he looked so sad.

And why he always seemed so pissed in the guys’ presence; maybe they’d done something to personally offend him other than just exist in the same space.

I opened my mouth to pry more, when I heard his soft snores.

Tomorrow. I’d ask again tomorrow.





Chapter Eleven


Knox

“What the hell were you thinking?” Leo sent a pillow sailing toward my face later that night when I was trying to get ready for bed.

I dodged it just in time for it to hit Finn, who collapsed to the floor in a heap of middle fingers.

I jumped into bed with my phone. “No idea what you’re talking about.”

“The hell you do,” Finn said from the floor. “You never kiss the girls, ever. It’s one of your rules, and you kissed Jessica! You hate Jessica, say it on a daily basis. She’s been after your ass for years, and you kissed her. Why?”

I knew why.

They probably did too.

It had been a dick move. Instinctual. Because I’d felt vulnerable. Because I’d wanted her to think the worst of me. Because I couldn’t stand being in the same small room with her without touching her, without wanting her, and I couldn’t go down that path again.

Especially after the last one had ended so horribly.

So, I’d defaulted to the asshole I was — and kissed a girl I’d had no intention of ever touching again, a girl who I knew would reciprocate and shock the hell out of Shawn.

I had purposefully hurt her.

I knew it.

What I hadn’t expected?

Was for it to hurt me as much as it had.

Shawn was a stranger to me, and yet I saw the pain in her eyes, felt it slam into me in waves as I stood there and waited for her to rage, to yell, to do something, maybe to save me from myself.

But she’d walked away.

Proving yet another point.

They either die.

Or walk away.

Nobody stayed.

Nobody.

“Forget about it.” I set my alarm and shrugged them off. “I was just trying to gauge where Jessica was at, and she’s not in this for a relationship. She wants all of us, and she’s past the year mark.” Hell, technically she was way past it. “I say we have the talk with her. She can keep using our services for a higher rate with no touching, only talk therapy, or she can sign up for Wingman, Inc. I’ll talk her through all the positives, and we’ll see what happens.”

“That’s a bunch of bullshit.” Leo yawned. “I’ll let you have it, though.”

“We both will,” Finn said in a tortured voice as if he knew the reasons why, which meant I needed to hide my emotions even more than I already had.

“Night, guys.”

“Night, Knox,” they said after one another.

When I closed my eyes, I could see the pain on Shawn’s face, and watched as that face transformed into the familiar nightmare of the last three years.

And once again, I slept like shit.

Because I spent the entire night trying to save someone who was already dead.

Always too late.

Always.





Chapter Twelve


Shawn

It was happening again.

The moaning.

I put a pillow over my face and screamed.