Page 143 of Beyond the Temptation: Vol 2

Her brows rose, and she smirked. “I bet you could. What’s dinner like at your house?”

“Well, I can say there’s always some meat, but there’s also a vegetable and some salad. We sit around and talk about our days.”

“And who’s we?” Her fork hovered in front of her mouth while she spoke, and then she promptly shoved the forkful inside.

“Me, my mom, dad, and my little sister, Payton. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“I wish. Selfishly for myself, but no. It’s just my mom and me now. And Trent for however long he’ll last.

Damn, why did I get a feeling there was more than she was letting on? Not that I expected her to spill her entire life story when we’d barely spoken before today. Still, whatever it was, I knew it was profound.

“You’re more than welcome to come over to my house and have dinner. You can have a salad, and I’ll even whip you up a sandwich.”

“Thanks,” she nodded like she really meant it. “I might just take you up on it.”

CHAPTER SIX

HARLEY

I didn’t want to be here, but Slade had offered, and I was starving. It had been almost a month of lunches in the courtyard with him trying to pry every single detail of my life out of me, but I’d barely given him anything.

At least he left me alone in the halls. Not that it was helping with the females at San Sebastian High. They still hated me, but I didn’t care as long as they left me alone.

I only had one more month of this hell hole, and then I was out of here. But only if I didn’t starve to death first—which wasn’t going to happen because Slade bought me lunch every day. This week was spring break, though, which meant no school and no lunches. I wasn’t even sure if he was home. I hadn’t been on a run in three days, trying to conserve my energy. My mom and Trent were away on a business trip and hadn’t bothered to leave me any money or even hit the grocery store before they left.

My shaky finger lifted and pressed the doorbell. I stood anxiously waiting to see if anyone would answer the door. After a long agonizing moment, the door swung open to reveal a beautiful girl with golden skin, brown hair, and green eyes. She was, without a doubt, the most striking girl I’d ever encountered. Of course, Slade would have a girlfriend, and she’d be a knockout.

Why did it bother me so much that he’d never mentioned her or the fact that he had a girlfriend? He shouldn’t be spending time with me if he had her.

What was I thinking coming over here?

A big bright smile spread across her face. “Hi, can I help you?”

“Yeah, no,” I shook my head. “I’m sorry to bother you. I… I thought I forgot something, and Slade might know where it is, but then I just remembered where it is. I’m sorry to bother you.”

“Who is it?” Slade called out from somewhere in the house.

“A girl?” She shouted back with a question.

I saw his dark head coming before I could duck out of the way and run for it.

“What are you doing here, Harley?”

“I was just coming over to ask if… I forgot something, but then I remembered. I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll let you get back to your girlfriend.”

Both their eyes went wide, and then they started fake gagging while laughing. What the hell was going on here?

Once he got control of himself, Slade pushed her out of the way with a not-so-gentle nudge. “That’s my sister, Payton. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Oh,” I drew the word out. “I’m sorry. I forgot you told me you have a sister. Well, you have a good night. I’ll see you at school on Monday.”

His hand clamped around my wrist. “Where are you going?” He pulled me closer and spoke quietly enough for only me to hear. “You haven’t been running.”

“You seriously need to stop stalking me.” I tried to laugh but stopped short when my stomach let out the loudest and most embarrassing growl known to man.

Slade’s eyes went wide as he pulled me into his house. “We were just about to have dinner. It’s nothing fancy. Just pizza, but one of them is only cheese. You can eat that, right?”

It was sweet that he worried about what I could and couldn’t eat even when he still didn’t understand why I didn’t eat meat.

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