Page 286 of Releasing 10
“Ignore her, Claire,” I said loud enough for the girls to hear me. “The only thing she’ll be coming on tonight is her hand.”
“Oh God,” Shelly and Helen groaned in unison, taking a safe step behind Claire.
The third-year girls’ laughter quietened and one of them swung around to toss me a dirty look.
The moment we locked eyes on each other, recognition filled her blue eyes.
Ohyeah, she remembered me.
Our previous encounter at school, when I caught wind of her trying to sit on my boyfriend’s lap during Irish, had been a memorable one.
“Ugh,” the brunette sneered, glaring at me. “Of course it’syou.”
I grinned. “Hi.”
“How does it feel to be the biggest bitch in school?”
“Trust me, you haven’t met my version of bitch yet,” I shot back without missing a beat. “But put your hands on that boy and you’ll quickly find out.”
“You girls don’t own those boys, you know.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” I argued back at her, half hoping she’d go it a little further and do something stupid like push me. I only needed one excuse. Just one. “Because you claim what you lick and Claire called dibs on that boy a long time ago, so why don’t you hurry along and find some other misfortunate asshole to sink your teeth in?”
“Fuck you, bitch.”
“I’d rather be a bitch than a whore. Now, off you go,whore.”
“Yeah,” Claire added, finding her voice with a little backup. “You heard her. Skedaddle.”
A few more insults were tossed back and forth before the lads joined us.
“How are the ladies?” Robbie Mac acknowledged, while he and the rest of his teammates cut in line and joined us near the front. Of course, because they were the rugby gods of Tommen, nobody said a word about it.Assholes.
“Claire-Bear!” Making a beeline for my friend, Thor draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side. “Christ, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
My usual discomfort at his presence was replaced by smugness when I watched the girls we were arguing with turn green with jealousy.
Hah!
“There’s my baby,” a familiar voice whispered in my ear, and a deep, illicit shiver rippled through my body when his chest brushed against my back.
Glancing over my shoulder, I looked up at my boyfriend and exhaled a contented breath. “Hi.”
God, he was so much taller now. For a while when we were younger, we were almost the same height. He was always an inch or so taller, but I thought I might catch up. Not anymore, though. No, because his hormones had taken puberty seriously and he was now towering above me.
When his hand came around my middle, palm flattening against my lower belly, I couldn’t stop myself from sagging against him, absorbing the heat of his body against mine. My hand moved to cover his instinctively, like I had been programed to respond to his touch.
Because his touch was good.
It was safe.
It was so fucking right.
When he was with me, I finally felt like I was okay again. Like the world was back on its axis. Normality had resumed and I would survive. I had another night of living left in me, but only if I got to live it with him.
Hugh continued chatting to our friends, while I lost track of everything that was happening around us, too engrossed to focus on a word of it. Every now and then, he would press a kiss to my bare shoulder, and that only complicated things further.
Because I wasstarvingfor this boy.
