Page 36 of The Rivals' Touch

“You can wash my back!” Zayd teases, placing his sweaty arm over my shoulder. Annoyingly, he doesn’t smell bad—quite the opposite.

“You’re a dick!” Abigail tells him.

It makes him laugh, and he jostles me. “Don’t look so terrified, sis. I’m messing with you!”

After extracting myself from beneath his arm, I give him my most sugary smile, the kind that’s laced with poison. “Don’t jerk off for too long. I want to get home at some point today!”

“I promise to be quick if you help me out.” He flashes me a smile and unscrews the lid on his water bottle.

My eyes stray to Jacob behind him, who smirks knowingly at me. I look away. “I’ll go wait by the car.”

* * *

I try to phone Cali again as Zayd cuts the engine and steps outside. It goes to voicemail.

He ducks his head inside the car. “Are you coming?”

After collecting my bag from the footwell, I exit the car. I’m still in my cheer uniform, and as the day grows late, the breeze chills my bare stomach. “Are you not going out tonight?”

Zayd jogs ahead up the front steps. “Yeah, I just need to get changed.”

I discreetly sweep my eyes over his white chucks, distressed light-blue jeans, and gray hoodie. He looks…

“Are you coming in or standing out here all night?” He holds the door open.

My cheeks flame, and I hurry to enter the house.

“Mom?” he calls out as we ascend the stairs to the second floor. It’s weird that our bedrooms are right next to each other in a house this big. What was his mom thinking?

He checks the time on his phone. “She must be out.”

The iron-cast banister feels cool to the touch. “Do you always talk to yourself?”

He puts his phone back in his pocket and grins. “Who’s to say I wasn’t talking to you?”

I shake myself off. I don’t like how I feel around him. My heart is doing weird shit in my chest, and my hands grow clammy. “You weren’t talking to me.”

Just as we reach the top, my father calls out from the bottom of the stairs. “Remi, a word in my office.”

I flinch, and dread flickers in my eyes for a brief moment. Luckily, Zayd scrolls on his phone and doesn’t notice. “I’m coming, Dad.”

Zayd keeps walking, his attention elsewhere as I turn and hurry down the steps after my father.

Dad strides off and dread gnaws at my insides. Throughout the years, I’ve come to know my father. His mood tonight is bad news for me.

We enter his office, and he beelines for the desk and starts leafing through a stack of papers. “Lock the door.”

Turning slowly, I flip the lock and gulp.

“I’ve had a terrible fucking day!” he says, loosening his tie as he looks through his papers. “Do you know how angry it makes me when people don’t fucking listen to the orders I give them?” His eyes meet mine and fall to my bare stomach and legs.

I curse the stupid Aycliffe uniform for being so revealing. “I’m sorry you had a bad day, Dad.”

His fingers pause on the papers. “You’re sorry?”

My heart begins to hammer inside my chest, and I sink back against the door.

“You’re fucking sorry?!” He slowly straightens up.

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