Page 98 of Wreck Me

As much as I was happy for her and so proud that she’d accomplished so much and was being recognized for this particular one, I was actually dreading attending such an event.

For one, I hated crowds. I was a loner at heart, I always had been. Absolutely not the social butterfly I’d need to be for what lay ahead. It was also a thinly-veiled attempt on my mom’s part to push me in the direction that she wanted, to make me decide and commit all the way. With me still wavering on that because of all the bullshit that had become attached to the old me, it wasn’t the best time for it. And the truth was, the deeper I ventured into this program at Luxe, the more I felt like it didn’t fit, that I couldn’t make it fit either.

It was just… coming back here, all I’d wanted was stability and to toe the line in every way, because I’d been afraid if I veered off that in any way, it would push me back into the mess I’d left behind. I was afraid once I touched one aspect of it—my previous career path, for instance—it would switch everything back on that I’d tried to tamper down.

But over the last few weeks, I’d managed to learn a lot from Caleb who’d been dealing with the dark I struggled with a lot longer than me. I felt like I could control it a lot better now and if that was the case, it opened the door back up to all the rest without me needing to worry. If it was the case, I needed to test it first obviously.

And then all I’d need to do was deal with Jett.

I’d only gotten one text from him since the last lot.

That should’ve been a good thing, but it was actually anything but when it came to him.

It meant he was biding his time, possibly working up to something way worse than tormenting me from a distance.

Not to mention, the actual content of the text had been worrying and more than a little jarring.

Unknown Number: Continue ignoring me while you’re in your stubborn phase, but don’t think for one fucking second that you can replace me, sugar.

It had made me unduly paranoid that he knew what was going on with me and Bastian—yeah, that was what I called him now, what he’d asked me to call him—which I was already paranoid enough about with the development between us needing to remain absolutely secret.

With that in play, all the secrecy, how the hell could he know?

I wanted to make sure, though. I wanted confirmation of his location. To put my concerns to rest and to take control back and know I could finally let it go and be at peace with it, his threats via text just being meaningless. But to do that, I’d have to go through Jeremy and his private security firm. While it was a safer bet than going through my dad directly, given that they were friends, it was still a risk. And I didn’t want my dad anywhere near that maniac. He’d already come close once, the day he’d come to help me out.

In the City of Rossun, even I knew that the best person to go to in order to obtain any intel on anything or anyone was Caspian King.

But I couldn’t.

Because of who Jett was, who his brother was.

I grunted.

So much bullshit, so little time to figure it all out thanks to a bunch of uncontrollable elements and external factors.

I pushed aside the readings I’d been working on for my classes and brought out my sketchbook instead. I shouldn’t really be doing it, but ever since Bastian and I had played my video game that day, it had brought it all back to me. The excitement, the buzz of creativity, the need to bring my characters and their story to life. The fact he’d mentioned it every time we’d seen each other since really hadn’t helped to tamper that need down either. And we’d literally seen each other every day for the last week and a half.

All in secret.

A few times we’d gotten takeout after our last classes of the day and hidden ourselves away in the forest that flanked the campus to eat together and basically have our dates with nobody none the wiser.

Another time, it had been the stairwell where we’d first… connected, but a different part where there were no cameras and hardly any student traffic.

One afternoon, we’d done some knife throwing in the woods surrounding his mansion while Caleb had been in class.

And in all that time, not once had he touched me. Well, not sexually. Not even a kiss. He’d said that our thing had started off so sex-based and he wanted us to get to know one another properly now without all of that getting in the way. God, it was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard.

I smiled to myself at the thought of it all and sank into my sketching.

My phone buzzed and I snatched it off the café table to see a welcome text.

Bastian: Sending a Greek Salad over to you with extra feta, just the way I now know you like it. You need a pick-me-up coffee, or your usual instead with all the crazy sugar?

What the—

I discreetly looked out around the café.

And there he was, walking in with all that sexy swagger of his, looking as hot as ever in a black open collar shirt this time and a pair of gray designer jeans that did amazing justice to his ass that was basically a sculpted masterpiece.

---