Page 99 of Cruel Elite (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 3)

Noah says my name like a warning. He takes a half-step towards me, but then stops, like he’s afraid to get too close.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me.”

His voice is loud now, almost a shout.

Noah doesn’t shout at me. We don’t shout at each other.

There are a lot of couples that fight and make up, but Noah and I get along. Our love is the kind that’s easy, natural.

We are better together than we are apart, and we complement each other in every way.

So, hearing his voice raise sets me off balance.

“Penelope.”

My full name. Another rarity.

“When my mom told me she was pregnant, she also mentioned the father would be… bunking with us for a while.”

Noah exhales, his shoulders slouching forward, and drops to the ground, his face in his hands. “I’m going to be sick.”

“It’s a coincidence, okay? Everything’s fine. We’ll figure this out, and then we’ll feel so stupid for being worried at all. Okay?”

Noah doesn’t look up at me, so I cradle his head, threading my fingers through his hair.

I kiss his temple and his forehead, and when he finally pulls his hands from his face, I grab his cheeks and kiss him with everything I have in me.

But he barely moves. It’s like kissing a CPR dummy.

I pull away and cup his jaw, looking deep into his dark eyes. “We’ll figure this out.”

Noah follows me home.

I check my rearview mirror over and over again, worried he’ll turn off and go a different way, but he doesn’t. He stays behind me the entire way.

Even as I pull into my driveway behind the gray car my mom’s secret boyfriend drives.

It was the only thing I ever saw of him. The gray car in the dark driveway, coming to pick her up for dinner or a weekend away.

I never saw his face, never caught a glimpse.

But I can tell that the car is empty today.

Meaning he must be inside.

My heart pounds as I get out of my car and turn away, waiting for Noah to get out, too.

He doesn’t.

He’s sitting in the driver’s seat, his hands frozen on the wheel, his mouth hanging open.

I think he’s looking at me, but I realize he’s looking past me.

At the car.

---