Page 85 of Study Buddies

That was just her inner teacher coming out, but I wanted so fucking badly to show her the things I was truly good at.

And I had a plan to do just that.

“I call for a study break.”

Everyone looked up, but no one looked surprised. Almost as if they’d been expecting it. Well, good. Things would go better when they finally accepted that I should be the one calling the shots.

“What’s on tap for tonight?” Jayden asked.

Lucas shook his head. “More games horny teenagers play?”

“Actually, yeah.”

He rolled his eyes. But Tori looked intrigued. She’d held her own at the last one. She wasn’t the damsel in distress that my idiot stepbrother thought she was. At least not most of the time.

“What’s the game?” Jayden asked again. He looked eager—as he should, given what I’d come up with.

“Seven Minutes in Heaven.”

Jayden gave a low whistle, but the other two just looked confused.

“What’s that?” Tori asked.

“And what the hell kind of parties did you go to as a teen?” Jayden asked.

“Actually, I heard about this one in a movie.”

“What is it?” Tori said again, and I grinned. She really wanted to know.

“The idea is that two people are locked in a dark closet, and for seven minutes, anything goes.”

“Anything?” Tori squeaked, while Lucas looked as if he was getting ready to explode.

“Anything you both want to do,” I clarified. “It’s notThe Purge.”

“And we’re not doing it.” There, I’d been expecting a self-important pronouncement from Lucas. He was right on schedule.

“That’s a long time,” Jayden said, thinking it through. “People could get into a lot of trouble in seven minutes… including the kind that ends in decades of childcare.”

“So wait… I’d get to spend time alone with each of you?” Tori asked. I couldn’t help noticing that she’d said she’dget to, not that she’dhave to. “One-on-one?”

Her reaction was perfect. She wasn’t saying no. She wasn’t upset. She was fucking fact-finding.

But Lucas, of course, thought it was his job to guard her virtue.

“She’s not doing it,” he said flatly.

“There aren’t even any closets down here, are there?” Tori asked.

Jayden and I exchanged an amused look. He knew as well as I did that she was excited—not horrified, as Lucas expected her to be.

“There aren’t,” I said. “But I bet we could find some place. Some dusty corner that no one goes to.”

Jayden nodded. “I know the perfect spot on the south side of the basement. One of us could keep watch.”

“Except we’re not doing it,” Lucas growled.

Before I could say anything, Jayden jumped in.

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