Page 24 of Rule Breaker

The testy forward turned around and sat down again. I waited for Coach Banning to intervene, but there was silence. He was probably sound asleep like everyone else.

Except me. And Kayden.

My head fell back against the seat, and I stared at the ceiling.

“Can I ask you something?” Kayden whispered.

No fucking kidding.I bit back an unexpected—and unwanted—laugh. That was how many times today? More than I’d laughed in…years.

I will not be charmed. I will not be charmed. Stay pissy, stay pissy…

“What?”

“Could you help me with the economics essay this week? If you have time. If you want to. Well, you probably don’t want to, but I figured, now that we’re gonna be bracelet besties?—”

Bracelet what?

I turned my head to snark at him, but I didn’t realize he’d leaned over, so close that I could count every golden freckle on his face. A full-on shiver wracked my body. Did the driver have the A/C cranked up?

Against my better judgment, common sense, logic, and sanity, I opened my mouth.

“Sure.”

What the fuck was I doing?

“Awesome. Give me your phone.” Kayden held out his hand.

Reluctantly, I passed it over and watched as Kayden typed in his phone number.

“This is going to be great,” he gushed.

“No,” I bit out and snatched my phone back. “Only contact me if it’s about the course. You start texting me about anything else, and I’ll block you.”

Kayden sat there and gave me a shit-eating grin.

Fuck. I’d been outplayed.

CHAPTER 11

KAYDEN

Ifinally fell asleep an hour after we left Rochester. And I woke up five hours later to find Dane standing in front of me.

“We’re home. Time to get off the bus, bud.”

I glanced around and sure enough, the bus was empty, save for the two of us.

Maddox was probably the first one off. And hey, maybe he didn’t want to listen to me, but at least he was talking now. I knew he couldn’t stay silent forever. Sooner or later, I got everyone to talk. Wait. That sounded like I was a mafia don or something. I snickered at that image. Me, as an enforcer? Man, I was sleep-drunk.

“Kayden, are you okay?” Dane asked.

“Yeah.” I grabbed my bag and stood up, still groggy. “I crashed hard and now I feel loopy.”

“No kidding, and after that game?” Dane ran a hand over his face. “I’ll probably sleep all day tomorrow.”

“Maddox is gone.”

Duh, Kayden, state the obvi.

---