I suddenly feel so out of place. I wonder if old money can smell poverty, and before I find out for sure, I leap to my feet. I’m not going to just sit here and let Astor ogle me like a piece of meat he’d like to eat … after he’s stabbed it first.
I tell Victoria I’m heading to class, and she just waves me on.
I stop once to glance back at her, and I have to shake my head. She really did just drag me out here so she could pose in Astor’s direct line of sight for an enticing effect.
Wills’ words come back to me from earlier. What a waste.
I’m nearly to my next class when I hear a sultry voice over my shoulder, in my ear.
“Sexy Sadie,” it purrs.
My eyes grow wide and I turn on the spot to see who could possibly be so bold. It’s stunning to see the silvery haired boy who was with Astor just a few minutes ago standing so close we nearly touch.
He grins, his dimple deepens, and he gives me a flirtatious wink. “I’m Blair. It’s very nice to meet you.”
I have no idea what to say to him. There are only a few rare moments in my whole life when I’ve been speechless, but this is definitely one of them.
“Uh … Blair.” I nod and try to get some kind of hold on the whirlwind of surprise going on inside me. “Hi,” I say at long last, feeling seriously dense.
He leans a little closer to me and I can feel the warmth of his body and the scent of his cologne, which is enticing to say the very least. “We’re in this class together. Why don’t you come and sit next to me?” he offers, his green eyes glittering as he studies mine.
An inner, depraved, part of me aches to say yes.
His eyes, the voice, those dimples … they’re nearly enough to make me throw all caution to the wind and agree. I know this isn’t just an invitation to sit together. That look in his eyes, it’s asking much, much more.
But this Blair … no one can be that close to Astor and Wills without making the alarm bells go off inside my head.
“Well, I …” I begin, still mulling it over in my head as I try to decide the least committal way to turn him down, but he cuts me off.
“You can tell me all about your swim in the lake today.” He whistles low and drops his eyes to the white blouse I’m wearing. “I wish I’d been there. I’d have loved to have seen that.”
Ah fuck. I hadn’t thought of that earlier.
Wills must have really got an eyeful.
My cheeks begin to burn, and I tug the books in my arms up higher in disgust. The boys at this school leave so much to be desired. At least his comments have helped me make up my mind.
“Thanks, but I only have reservations for one,” I say. I leave him in the hall and walk into class, sitting at the front where my attention will be on the teacher and not on any of the other, far more distracting, students.
Not to be deterred, Blair leans down to whisper in my ear as he passes by my desk. “Nice choice.” He runs one hand along the back of my seat, letting the tips of his fingers brush between my shoulder blades. “I’ll be able to watch everything from here.”
Blair leaves and takes a seat in the next row over, two chairs behind me to my right. He leaves behind him a space that suddenly feels empty. So much for ‘out of sight out of mind’. Blair just ensured he’ll be the only thing on my mind for the rest of class.
It takes everything in me to keep any kind of focus on what the teacher is saying. Blair doesn’t help; he drops little nuanced words and phrases in my direction the whole hour long. It gets so bad that even the teacher starts to pick up on it, and keeps looking at Blair funny. I end up having to cover the bottom of my face so no one sees me smiling. I know he’s aiming it all at me, and all I can think is that he is the literal definition of a bad, bad boy, and I hate it’s something that intrigues me.
The second the bell rings, I practically run from the room out into the hall. My sweet escape is ruined when I only immediately smack into the solid wall of Astor Hawthorne’s muscular chest.
He’s knocked backward and drops his books along with mine. I’m not the only person who stops to see what he does next. All eyes are on me as he just stands there, staring, as I slowly get down on my knees and pick up my books. I leave his scattered across the floor.
As I stand back up, he’s right in front of me, glaring down, and his voice is cold.
“Stay out of my way, or I will make every day here a living hell for you.”
I shoot him a dark look and push past him down the hall to get to my last class. As soon as I step away, a younger boy clambers down to collect Astor’s books for him. He really is king.
There are only two empty seats when I finally find the next room, and I take one of them just as Blair Rashnikov saunters through the door and sees the empty chair beside me. He chuckles and takes it, leaning over to me with a teasing grin.
“Thanks for saving me a seat, Bunny.” He gives me a wink and I feel my cheeks burning again. “You aren’t going to get away from me that easy.”