Page 97 of Tempting Little Thief

Hayze leans in.

Their lips are a breath away.

I kick him in the chest, taking her around the waist and burying my face in her neck.

They both laugh loudly, and I growl against her skin. “Yeah, fucking right, Rich Girl. Ask me some shit like that again. I dare you.”

She flips me, climbing on top, and I let her pin me down, her satisfied smirk spinning something low in my gut. “So jealous.” She beams.

“So mine.”

She freezes, but only for a second, before lowering, holding her hair to one side, so she can kiss me, a soft, short kiss. “So yours.”

My lips curve and she opens her mouth to speak, but before she can, shouts reach us from the open door. We pop up right as her friends burst into the room.

“The cops are out front!” Delta, she said her name is, shouts. “My grandfather will murder me. Probably literally if it avoids a scandal.”

“Yeah, we can’t talk our way out of being inside this house,” Bronx shouts. “So get your ho ass up!”

Rocklin is already at the window by the time she’s done, and Bronx yells down the hall. “This way!”

One by one, they rush in, jumping out the window with panicked hisses.

I look to Hayze, and we both laugh, shaking our heads. “The others split. It’s just us and the cast ofClueless.”

Damiano’s glare snaps over his shoulder before he climbs through, his eyes flying to the satin I peel off the floor, watching as I slide it into my pocket.

He shakes his head and climbs out, the two of us the last through.

The girls run through the grass, giggling and whispering as they sneak out the side gate to the back lot of the house—we wouldn’t have used this house if it wasn’t an easy escape route. We’re poor, not ignorant.

Once we reach their car, they climb in, all waiting for Rocklin, but she comes to me first, glancing behind me, hesitant to leave.

“Go,” I whisper. “I’ll come to you.”

“When?”

“Soon.” I hold in my smirk. “Good luck with the third degree, make sure you include all the dirty details.”

“A little secret?” She smiles, and I bend so she can meet my ear. “I rank higher.”

Chuckling, I swat her ass, and off she fucking goes.

Into a car with a dude who’s had her.

Back to a life where another one wants her.

In a world where I’m not allowed to have her because she’s her and I’m me and we don’t match. Yet our bodies disagree,and our souls have stretched, those thin little threads reaching out, the tips touching, trying to grab on.

Not sure how long I stare after the car, but it’s not until there’s a flashlight beam on the back of my head and a voice shouting, “Stay right there,” that I move, Hayze on my heels.

We run, jumping two fences and popping the lock on a shed, and slip inside. We curve to the back, dropping down next to a bag of fucking manure.

I scrunch my nose, looking away.

I’m down in the dirt, surrounded by bags of shit.

If this ain’t an omen, I don’t know what it is.

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