Page 14 of Rafe: Sins of the Father

“I bet it’s something like Misty or Bambi or Velvet,” his friend teases.

“Those are stripper names, dumbass,” the third replies.

“What’s your first class?” the guy who bit my ear asks, draping an arm around me. “We can show you where it is. Make sure you don’t lose your way.”

“Get lost.” I shove him off, but not before he grabs my class schedule out of my hand and reads it. “Astronomy? What a coincidence. I’m headed there, too.”

The other two chuckle, but he glares at them. “You heard her, get lost.”

They stop laughing and immediately walk away.

I cock a brow at the boy next to me.

He just grins. “Name’s Connor.”

“I heard.”

“Say it.”

“If I do, will you leave me alone?”

“That’s not what you really want, though, is it?” He turns us toward a big building that looks like the planetarium back home. “Come on, we’re late.”

We’re swept along with a stream of other students, and he ushers me through a set of double doors, and then we’re in a darkened, circular auditorium. He pulls me to a row in the back and sits next to me.

When I sit, the chair reclines with a cushion under the back of my head, and I find myself staring up at a night sky with a million stars.

The professor is already at the podium, speaking. He pushes a button, and we hear a click, and a constellation of stars illuminates.

“That’s Orion’s Belt.” There’s another click, and a different set of stars light up. “This one is Aquila. It’s a constellation on the celestial equator.”

“It looks like a stingray,” Connor whispers in my ear.

“Its name is Latin for eagle, and it represents the bird that carried Zeus or Jupiter's thunderbolts in Greek-Roman mythology. Its brightest star is called Altair.”

Connor grows bored with the presentation, and his hand lands on my thigh, squeezing.

I grab it and try to pull it off, but he’s much stronger than I am.

“Stop,” I hiss.

“Say please.”

I refuse because I’m stubborn that way. “I’m sure there are a dozen girls who’d die for your attention. Go bother them.”

“Only a dozen? Don’t insult me.” He continues to rub my thigh through my jeans, and I’m so thankful I didn’t wear a dress today. I swear to myself I never will if this is what I’ll have to deal with. Maybe if I’m lucky, some other girl will catch his eye, and he’ll tire of me.

I stomp on his foot, and he yelps, his face tightening. “That wasn’t nice.”

“Next time, it won’t be your foot. Next time, you won’t be able to walk out of here.” With that, I jerk free and scurry down the row to the distant aisle and find a seat up front.

He doesn’t follow, but when I dare a peek back at him, he’s glaring at me, and I’m sure he isn’t going to let this go.

When class is over, I mix in with a group of girls and get lost in the crowd, dashing into a restroom. The only problem is he’s seen my schedule, and I don’t know how much of it he memorized before I yanked it back.

When I moved three thousand miles to go here, this wasn’t what I was expecting.

I manage to avoid him the rest of the day and make it to the car my father gave me to drive. It’s a white Lexus. The minute I climb inside, I slam the locks and start it up.

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