Page 13 of The Chemistry of Us

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

I pushed off the wall, walking toward her. “Oh, you know, your date is out there. I wouldn’t want to keep him waiting.” I tugged on the ends of her hair. “Boy’s probably lost without your tits sitting in front of him.” Releasing her hair, I continued my assault, grazing her collarbone. “God knows he hasn’t been staring at anything else.”

She shoved my hand away. “You asshole!”

“Never claimed to be anything but.”

“I’m going to go now.”

“No one’s stopping you, Tru.”

Her eyes widened in shock, making her beautiful blues shine bright as they tore into mine.

“How do you know my name?”

I ignored her question. “If you really wanted to go, you would have already left.”

Her chest heaved. I was clearly getting to her.

“What you want and what you’re going to get are two different things.” I reached for the side of her face, and my knuckles caressed her cheek, tucking a misplaced hair behind her ear and causing her lips to part. “You want me to play by your rules.” I slowly moved my fingers to her mouth. “Watching you these past few hours is doing me no favors. I see the looks you’re throwing my way and how your pretty little mouth smirks every time you do.” With my thumb, I rubbed her bottom lip for a few seconds. She stirred, and I immediately took my hand away, slipping it into the pocket of my shorts. Making her miss my touch.

She cleared her throat, shaking her head. “What do you want?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Her eyebrows rose.

“Don’t dig, sweetheart, because you might not like what you find.”

She dramatically sighed as I backed away from her.

“The only obvious thing is how much I don’t like you, Vaughan.”

I smiled, big and wide.

“Looks like someone knows who I am too.”

She glared at me.

“By the way…”

I winked at her before I added…

“My friends call me Van.”

CHAPTER 6

TRU

Now: Later that night at the party

I openedthe door to apologize to Vaughan, feeling bad about the way I treated him in my bedroom earlier. Our mutual hate was just so lethal.

After we shared something so good, this was all we had left between us?

I slowly clicked the door shut behind me for the second time and looked down at what I was wearing. I still had so much work to do for the different students I was tutoring, but at that moment, the rage won, so I stomped over to my closet, grabbing the sexiest dress I could find.

It was a short red Versace my foster parents had bought me for my seventeenth birthday two years ago, but when I’d seen the price tag, I panicked and felt too guilty. I had just stared at it with shaking hands, said thank you, then carefully hung it in my brand-new closet with the rest of the shiny new things they bought me. Everything was designer, and I still didn’t get used to it.

---