She ripped herself out of my grasp and darted underneath my arm, panic set deep into her features. My eyes narrowed. It was damn hard to read her. One second, she was acting timid and innocent, the next she was rolling her eyes and spouting off insults.
“I can’t figure you out.” My sentence came out as a whisper, and to be honest, I didn’t even mean to say it out loud.
Gemma put enough distance between us that the entire line of lacrosse players could stand comfortably.
She wrapped her arms around her slender waist. “Why would I lie for you? And to whom?” Her left eyebrow was raised, and her lips were pursed. “And tutor you in what class?”
I stayed put, giving her the space she desperately sought after I had leaned into her warmth. “All of them. After lacrosse each night, I’ll need you to tutor me in the library after curfew.” She opened her mouth to protest, but I held up my hand. “The headmaster already said he would write us a note, excusing us if anyone asked what we were doing out past 7:00.”
Gemma seemed to think that over carefully as her fingers clenched even tighter over the sleeves of her shirt. “We don’t even have any classes together.”
My head slanted as I took a step toward her. “We have art together.”
She huffed. “How could I forget that? You shoved me into a closet the first day here.”
There she was. That fiery girl who excited me more than I’d like to admit came back just as quickly as she’d left. I took another step toward her as she sighed loudly. “I can’t tutor you, and I definitely can’t lie for you.” She took a step back.
Hope crashed and burned around me. “Why not?”
She shifted, her feet shuffling on the floor. “Because I’m…supposed to be focusing on my own studies.” She hesitated for a quick second. “And my uncle doesn’t allow me to be alone with boys.”
With boys, she said. As if I were a boy. The things I’d seen and done made me lose my boyish vibe years ago. But I already knew this would be an issue with her, given the conversation I’d overheard earlier. I didn’t hear the entire conversation between her and my uncle, but I heard enough. Her uncle was strict. I got it.
“Your uncle doesn’t have to know. He won’t find out.”
Skepticism washed off of her in waves as she shook her head and glanced to her feet.
I took a step closer to her. “I can promise you that he won’t.” Was it an empty promise? Maybe. But who was going to run to Gemma’s uncle and tell him that she was tutoring someone? Who even cared? It seemed so trivial.
Gemma began biting her pale lip, and there was a strong urge that begged me to swipe at it. It began at my neck and traveled down to my fingertips, causing them to twitch. Her lips looked soft, and her mouth was kissable as fuck—especially when she insulted me.
Gemma began shaking her head again as she took another step back. I could feel my grasp on her loosening. The war she had brewing on whether to consider my proposition was slowly becoming nothing but useless words floating around an empty room. My tone was eager and almost pleading. “He hasn’t found out about the blog, right?”
She paused, looking right past me, as if looking me in the eye was going to do something. “No thanks to you.”
I fought a sm
ile. “That’s because no one knows about it but the students. It’s for school gossip. Most of the parents and guardians that send their children here want rid of them. What makes you think they’re checking some random blog on the Internet? Everyone outside of these walls is under an illusion that St. Mary’s is a strict boarding school without the normal shit that comes with teenagers, like drama and gossip.” Among other things.
“The two things teenagers thrive on.”
My eyes slanted as I tried to read her again. There was a hitch of melancholy in the way she’d said that. “But not you?”
Gemma finally brought her emerald eyes back to mine, the shine in them a little dimmer now. “No. Not me. I prefer to stay away from the spotlight.”
I clenched my teeth because, unfortunately, even just tutoring a guy like me would bring nothing but the spotlight. Rumors would spread like wildfire. They already were just from me asking her to “talk” in the lounge moments ago.
“I really need this,” I whispered, showing her a side of myself that I’d never in my entire life showed anyone before. Desperation. But shit. I was. I was desperate. Jack wouldn’t survive at the Covens. He was a good kid. And if I got expelled, that was exactly where he’d go. My father did not bluff. I was in a shit position.
Gemma paused, her tightened features dropping for a fraction as she scanned over my face. Her lips softened into a sad smile, though the moment was fleeting because, after a second, she seemed to clam up as she shook out her long brown hair and breezed past me. Her clean and girly scent clogged up my senses for a second, making me forget my purpose.
But when I heard the door open, I quickly spun around. “I’ll give you whatever you want,” I said with her back to me. She peered over her shoulder, giving me a glimpse of her smooth cheek. “It doesn’t have to be a favor. Let’s make a deal. You give me what I need, and I’ll give you something in return. What do you need? Money? I have plenty.” Shit. Now I truly was sounding desperate. Money? Did I just offer her money? What the fuck was I doing? I was quick to change my pace. “You name whatever you want, Gemma. I’ll give it to you.”
A loud swallow came from her throat, and I felt the hope lingering in the air right in front of me. But then poof, it was gone within a flash. Gemma clenched her eyes, and instead of saying anything, she stepped out the door, leaving the echoing slam the only thing I could hear.
Fuck. That did not go as planned.
Chapter Sixteen