I don’t know where I’m going as I walk through the doors. This isn’t our normal meeting time. When we encounter each other after history, everyone else is heading to lunch and there are empty classrooms in every hall. Right now everyone is just getting to school, making their ways through halls, chatting up friends, opening lockers. There’s nowhere for us to be alone.
Apparently unconcerned, Carter picks up the pace until he’s ahead of me, then his arm shoots out. He grabs me and backs up, pulling me with him against an empty stretch of wall. There are still lockers and students everywhere, we have no actual privacy, but as if he sealed us inside a bubble, Carter looks at me like we do.
“Now, what can I do for you?”
“Give Grace her dog back.”
Cocking his head slightly to the side, Carter asks, “Why did you just find out about this today?”
“What? I… I don’t know.”
“The dog went missing last night. This wasn’t today’s scheduled hissy fit, it was yesterday’s. Did she tell you, and you just didn’t connect it to me until today, or did you just find out?”
Given that also briefly crossed my mind when I first found out, I frown. “She didn’t tell me last night. She was probably too busy looking for Scout, she didn’t think to text me.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” he points out. “If she wanted to find the dog, the more eyes looking for it, the better.”
“I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head. “It doesn’t matter. Where is her dog?”
“Hmm, Grace must be mad at you,” he says, ignoring me. “Did you do something to piss her off? Maybe I did. Maybe she blames you for Choir Boy’s car. Yeah, that makes sense. It’s probably that. She’s got a point, too. Maybe you should stop fighting and come back to me now so nothing else bad happens to your friends.”
“Maybe I should stop talking to you and see what happens if I ignore you completely,” I suggest.
Carter grimaces. “I wouldn’t recommend it. If I get much more destructive, I’m bound to start attracting notice. It’s gonna get more complicated. I’ll have to frame someone else for my wrongdoing. I haven’t pinned anything on Jake lately,” he muses, theatrically rubbing his chin and glancing up in thought.
Reaching out and grabbing his hand, I pull it away from his chin. “Stop it, Carter. No more destruction. The sweet talk may not have worked, but this… I hate this. You know I hate this. You know I hate you hurting other people period, but especially my friends.”
Carter smiles faintly, catching my other arm and tugging me closer until my breasts touch his chest. “Yes, I know. That’s the point. Only you can stop it, Zoey. Better go grab your red cape. You can wait in my bed wearing nothing else. Fucking me is morally upright if you’re doing it to save the world, right?”
“Or I could just call the cops and tell them what I know,” I suggest innocently, looking up at him.
“Go for it,” he says, unconcerned. “You don’t really know anything, you just suspect. Surely you don’t think there’s any actual evidence that I’ve done anything wrong, right? Tell me you don’t think I’m that sloppy.”
“Maybe I’m recording this conversation,” I offer.
“Maybe you are.” His gaze moves over my body, lingering on my breasts, then dropping lower. “Maybe I should do a strip search, just to be safe.”
Arousal stirs at the mental image of his hands running down my sides, moving over every inch of my bare body. Languidness follows, making me wish for a bed so we could work out all these frustrations.
It’s entirely off-topic, but since my mind has gone there, I ask, “When are you planning to cash in on round two?”
Carter smirks at me. “I’ll get around to it. Getting impatient? I can buy you a toy to tide you over until I fuck you again.”
“I think for simplicity’s sake, we should establish a time frame. An expiration date of sorts. If you don’t use your two remaining passes before a certain date, they expire.”
“Coupon prostitution, huh? That sounds cheap.”
Ignoring him, I plod on. “I suggest fall break. If you haven’t cashed in by fall break, you don’t get to.”
“Hmm.” Carter pretends to consider for a moment, then says, “No.”
“Winter break, then. That’s plenty of time.”
“No expiration date. That’s not what we agreed to, and I’m not amenable to changing the terms. Sorry, princess.”
“I don’t like being on your hook indefinitely,” I tell him honestly.
“Too bad. Back to the dog. I can’t imagine you showed up to a hostage negotiation without an offer to put on the table? Don’t you know how this works?”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I mutter, “You already have me on the hook for two more rounds. What do you want this time?”