Page 197 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

“What?” I snap.

“You get any tail this weekend?”

I stare at him, and then shake my head. He’s the only one in our crew idiotic enough to ask. They all know by now that I keep myself away from women.

It’s too easy to lose control. If I’d had any doubts, last night proved I can’t be alone with a girl.

When I turn back, Addison is only a few yards away.

“What the fuck, man?” I hear Dylan say, but I’m more interested in the girl walking beside Addison than in being interrogated by my posse.

It’s the girl from the woods. This time, instead of some baggy jeans and an oversized hoody, she’s wearing a school skirt thatshows off a pair of slender legs. She’s not wearing makeup, and her mess of hair’s been drawn back into an untidy bun.

In daylight, she’s even more petite than I witnessed last night, the shadows under her eyes more pronounced.

As she takes her first step up to the front of the school, Addy points a finger right at me. The girl looks up, spots me, and stops dead.

Behind me, Zak shouts, “Hey, who’s the new chick?”

But those green eyes don’t move. Her face contorts into a scowl. “You?” she yells, and I can’t quite make out if it’s anger or shock creasing her brow.

“Me,” I say, grinning at her.

The girl surges forward. Addison tries to grab her, but she shakes her off without pausing. The little thing charges straight up to me and tries to slap me.

I catch her, of course, my fingers easily wrapping around her thin wrist.

“Easy there, Angel,” I murmur.

She tries another slap, this time with her left hand. I was so busy gloating, I barely see it coming in time. I twist, and she falls forward, thrown off-balance when she doesn’t connect.

Behind me, the guys burst out laughing. Addison’s eyes are so wide, they look about to pop out of her head. But I don’t thinkanyof this is funny.

I grab the girl’s wrists, pinning them together, and haul her against me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I growl down to her.

“Me?” she barks out in disbelief. Her tits brush against my stomach as she draws one furious breath after the other. “You’re the one that thinks you can just go around raping people!”

There’s a scandalized gasp from everyone within earshot.

I shove her away from me so hard that she lands on her ass and I spot a flash of white underwear before she tugs herskirt straight. But even sitting on her ass in the grass, obviously overpowered and already surrounded by a decent crowd, fury blazes in her eyes.

“The fuck you on about?” I say, hardly recognizing my tight voice.

She scrambles up, fends off Addison when the girl tries to drag her away, and comes back for more. “Could you even stand looking at yourself in the mirror this morning?” she yells. Now there’s an outright challenge in her eyes.

“The fuck?” I scoff, glancing over my shoulder at the guys. But they’re all staring at me like they’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When I turn back to the girl, she’s less than a foot away from me again.

“Let me cut you on the other side,” she says through her teeth. “Then that face of yours will be all symmetrical again.”

This time, when she goes to slap me, I duck under her arm, lunge against her, and force her to the ground. She lands on her back in the grass beside the school steps, and I immediately straddle her.

“Look, bitch,” I spit, my cut aching how I’m clenching my teeth. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you’d better get one thing straight.”

“Briar!” Marcus calls out, but I ignore him.

She squirms furiously under me, but I catch her hands and pin them to her chest before she can try and scratch out my eyes or, judging from experience, try for an uppercut. Fuck, she’s getting me hard, wriggling around like that between my legs.

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