Page 111 of The Hate We Breathe
“Good guess.” My voice is breathy as I arch to meet the touch of his mouth. “She’s on her way to Hazelwood.”
“She’ll be fine,” Gio assures me.
“I know.” Anyone who can survive Roquel can probably handle a school full of rich assholes. “But still…”
“You’ll miss her.” Firm, hard hands grip my hips as he lifts me up onto his lap.
“Of course.” I suck back a moan even as I rock against his groin, the hard press of his cock jutting up against my thighs and ass. “She’s leaving everything she knows, and I know she won’t be back—her parents made it pretty clear that if she didn’t marry someone from that church of theirs, they’d cut her off.”
“She’s lucky to have you,” Gio whispers against me, and though I know he’s probably more focused on grinding his dick against my core, I appreciate the sentiment. “Maybe we’ll fly over and visit her sometime.”
A moan finally escapes me as he reaches around and grips my tits, squeezing them briefly before dropping his hands back to my hips. “No more talking about Mads.” I gasp, sliding myself back and forth as if I can get his cock to somehow hit my clit even with our clothes still on. A poor excuse for sexual relief, but since we graduated and summer started, it’s more than I’ve gotten lately. We’ve all been so busy, and I’ve been cramming as many hours in at The Dionysus Lounge as I can to save up for our move to Eastpoint that I haven’t been able to fuck my guys as much as I want.
“Goddamn,Prep Girl, you feel so fucking good,” he murmurs against me, his breath hot on my skin. “Why don’t you wear more skirts?” His complaint makes me chuckle as he fingers the bottom of my shirt and the top of my jeans. “If you did, I could just unzip and?—”
“Can you fuckingnot,” Lex snaps, cutting G off before he can finish that little fantasy of his.
Gio muffles a laugh against me and his hands smooth around to my belly, curving upward until he cups my tits and roughly squeezes them. “Jealous?” Gio’s tone is taunting.
“Fuck you.” Lex growls from the driver’s seat. The hands he has anchored on the steering wheel are practically white over the knuckles.
A thump echoes from the trunk of the SUV and then muffled shouting. I try—I really do—to keep from laughing, but I can’t help it. Now that everything’s over, it’s like a door has opened up inside me and I can actually feel genuine happiness again for more than a brief second. It bubbles up and fills me, turning my veins into rivers of heat as Gio chuckles against my nape.
“Can you at least wait until I can play too?” Lex asks, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror. “We’re almost there.”
This time, my groan is for an entirely different reason. Shoving my hand back, I press my palm into Gio’s forehead, pushing his mouth away from my throat. “Fine,” I say, sliding off his lap and huffing as I cross my arms.
“Thank you, baby.”
“No!” Gio whines. “No ‘thank you, baby’—get back over here!”
“Ah!” I squeal as Gio grabs me by my waist and tries to drag me back over his thighs. I kick and laugh, prying his fingers off me one second only to have them switching to another location. My thigh, my wrist, my biceps—anywhere he can get hold of me is up for grabs. “Gio, stop it! You’re going to make Lex wreck!”
“Lex would never wreck with you in the car,” Gio argues.
Through some begging and pleading, but mostly sheer determination and a lot of muscle strength, Gio manages to get me back on his lap.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and Gio plucks it out for me before I can even reach it. He scowls at the name on the screen before he tosses the phone to the floorboards.
“Hey, what the fuck!” I reach for it only to have him draw me up short.
“It was just your dad,” he says through a grumble.
I roll my eyes. “Maybe I wanted to answer it.”
Gio and Lex both snort at the same time. “You’ve been avoiding both of them ever since the cops finally tracked down your mom and informed her that Morpheus was dead and your dad was exonerated of the charges,” G reminds me. “They weren’t there when you needed them and you don’t need them now.”
My eyes find the screen of my phone as my dad’s name flashes once more and the device vibrates against the floor of the SUV. When the screen goes dark, I lean back.
“Principal Long says I should forgive them,” I say.
“And what does Cory say?” Gio props his chin on my shoulder as he asks the question, and I blow out a breath.
“Cory says that I don’t need to talk to them if I don’t want to, but that they’re only human and everyone makes mistakes.” My lips twist into a grimace even as the words leave my lips.
“Can you forgive their mistakes?” he asks.
I shrug. “Yes, but I can’t forget how they made me feel.” Abandoned. Unloved. Worthless.
