Page 15 of Science Project

I pushed my glasses up my nose and waited a few more moments, thinking they were shouting that they’d be down to open the door for me soon. But when nobody came and the shouting continued, I peered into the window next to the door.

The foyer looked empty, but I could see two figures in the next room.

In order to try to get a better view, I walked around the house and peered into the side window. My eyes widened when I spotted Nicole bent over her family’s couch with a man much, much older inside her.

Chest tight, I stared at the way he used her in terror. His large hands were around her throat, his fingers digging so deep into her skin that they turned white. Nicole stared down at the couch cushions, emotionless.

I clenched my jaw and pulled my gaze away.

Just because she fucked you doesn’t mean she likes you, Akio.

How stupid was I to believe that she’d liked me like that at all? She’d probably only come over to sleep with me so I’d do the entire science project myself.

By the looks of it, I wasn’t even her type. She wanted someone to be rough with her, someone much older and bigger than my scrawny ass was.

Because I couldn’t help myself, I glanced into the window again to see her staring at me in horror through wide eyes. The man—who looked familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on how I knew him—had pulled out of her and collapsed onto another couch. But she hadn’t moved from her bent-over position.

Suddenly, she shot up, matted down her skirt, and ran over to the window to close the curtains. After cursing under my breath, I walked toward the front of the house, where I had come, only to hear the back door open and footsteps approaching. Quickly.

So, I picked up my pace and walked to the car.

It was wrong for me to be here. I shouldn’t have come.

And I didn’t want Nicole to think that I was stalking her … or that I liked her.

“Akio!” Nicole whisper-yelled from behind me.

But I slipped into the driver’s seat of my car before she could say another word.

CHAPTER

NINE

NICOLE

“What are you doing here?!” I exclaimed, sliding into Akio’s passenger seat before he could drive off.

He had been knocking at my door for so long while Joe Santos was inside me and then peeped through my windows.

Thank God that I had turned off the security cameras and alarm system before Joe came over. I didn’t want Dad to know I didn’t have the damn cold-blooded heart to mess with Akio, so I’d invited over someone else in his mother’s mob family to get information.

The car was slowly inching forward, and then Akio pressed on the brakes. “What are you?—”

“I saw you peeping into my house—that’s what I’m doing here! Now, drive!”

I didn’t want Dad to return home and see Akio sitting at the curb.

Akio pressed on the gas and drove down the road, heading toward the beach.

“Now,” I said, crossing my arms, “tell me why you were at my house.”

When we stopped at a traffic light, Akio reached into the backseat and then set clothes in my lap. “You left these at my house the other night, and I wanted to return them to you. I washed them all.”

One by one, I picked up the neatly folded clothes on my lap. Shirt. Shorts. Bra.

No underwear.

While I had no business getting all warm in places that I shouldn’t be around him, I couldn’t stop myself from pressing my legs together and thinking about Akio purposefully leaving my underwear at his house … for reasons.

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