Page 337 of Hell Hath No Fury
I scowled and continued staring. Watching him twirl a pen between his talented fingers, I wondered if he was even listening to Mr. Pratt’s gigantic speech.
So come, pretty Rose, come for us, all over us, and make it loud.
My thighs clenched under the desk, and I drew in a shaken breath of much-needed air.
Letting my eyes roam the room in an attempt to bring me back to the present, I returned my gaze to the front of the classroom to find Cooper gazing over his shoulder at me. I blinked and smiled and looked away, hoping my cheeks weren’t as flushed as they felt.
Then I excused myself to the bathroom.
Once there, I splashed some water onto my cheeks, being careful to avoid my mascara-loaded eyes. I hated waterproof mascara because it was such a bitch to remove.
You’re fine. Quit thinking about it already, I told myself.
It had been… different, being with two guys. Different in a way that itched at my skin like something I might never cure. Different in ways that would be impossible to forget, but that didn’t mean it needed to become some type of fixation. I had to at least try to forget about it.
If I couldn’t, then a sinking feeling told me I needed to pretend it never happened. It seemed like that was what Cooper wanted, and if we were to survive—and I feared I couldn’t without him—then that was what I had to do.
Resolved to drag my boyfriend over this afternoon and screw his brains out until anything but him left my imagination, I meandered back to class.
Light footsteps echoed up ahead, but I kept my head down until suede boots with slightly pointed toes and black jeans that hugged the tops of them came into view. My eyes swam up Headmaster Taurin’s muscular frame.
Buttoning his forest green suit jacket, he nodded once. “Pretty Rose.”
I smiled, about to say hello, then stopped dead in my tracks and almost tripped over nothing.
Unable to breathe, I turned around.
His long dark brown hair was tied in its usual fashion at the nape of his neck. As he rounded the corner, heading back toward the office, his hazel eyes shot to mine with his finger propped against his lips.
Holy.
Fucking.
Shit.
* * *
Cooper’s phone rang out again and again.
I’d waited for him after school, only to realize he’d already gone home. I should’ve just gone to his place and told him, I knew that, but I was reeling. Spinning while not moving at all, I gazed out our kitchen window to the sprawling empty yard and tipped back another shot of Dad’s finest scotch.
A mistake, as it only served to remind me of him. Tobacco and scotch upon his breath, his teeth and tongue over my lips.
Headmaster Taurin.
My hand trembled as I lowered the tumbler to the sink and rinsed it out.
I had to call Cooper again. I couldn’t drive, and I didn’t want to walk there and have it be awkward. There was no way it wouldn’t be, so I’d just keep annoying him until he eventually picked up.
It was rare for Cooper to ever ignore me unless he couldn’t actually answer the phone, and it was rare I hadn’t gone straight to his house after school to tell him something important rather than wait to speak to him over the phone.
I was scared. I was petrified not only of how he might react to the news of Taurin but also of how he might perceive my own reaction to it.
Which he’d be right to. A need was growing inside me, climbing higher now that I knew who’d been with me and my boyfriend on the weekend. A need I feared I couldn’t hide. Not with Cooper. He’d known me too long.
“Hey,” he finally said, sounding as though he’d just woken up.
I knew him well enough to know that probably wasn’t true. He hated taking a nap. Whenever I had and he’d accidentally fallen asleep with me, he’d always wake up grumbling about how it was a waste of a good day.
