Page 181 of Their Cruel Play
“You mean the one Rebecca works at?” My eyes widen. After what they told me about Rebecca, I figured we could avoid her for a while. I don’t know how to behave around her. What they did to her wasn’t right, but what she did to those freshmenwasn’t right either. And taking advantage of Eli... I don’t know how to wrap my head around it.
“Yeah, but she typically doesn’t work evenings, just weekends.” He takes a turn.
“You know her schedule?” I cock an eyebrow. That seems like too much information for someone he doesn’t care about.
“No, princess, but we tend to notice things about the people around us. Especially ones who may have a reason to come back on us.” He glances my way. “If you don’t want to go there, we can go somewhere else.”
I breathe out. If this is what he wants, I can’t really think of any other reason to avoid it. “We can go there. I’m sure it will be fine.”
He smiles and pulls into the parking lot. When he parks, he turns to me and cups my cheek. “She’s our past. She’s not you.”
I lean into his touch for a moment. He closes the distance between us and gives me one of those soft kisses. My heart thunders in my ears. When he draws away, he gets out of the car and I take a minute to compose myself.
It’s not just that Rebecca works here. Lots of students come here. Which means guys who might have seen that picture and jerked off to it. Ew. Even if it’s not my body, it’s my face.
Luke opens the door and holds his hand down to me. He helps me out of the car.
“You’re with me,” he says softly. “No one will do anything when you’re with me.”
I’d like to believe that’s true as he leads me in. The host shows us a booth toward the back. It’s a wraparound style so we’re basically sitting catty-corner from each other. Our knees brush, settling me.
I haven’t dared to look around to see how many other students are here, or to check out the servers to make suresheisn’t here.
Luke’s hand curls around my thigh and I jump a little. “Relax. We’re just here to eat, and then we’ll join the others at Caden’s.”
I set down my menu and release the breath pent up in my chest. “Thank you for still taking me out.”
He smiles and his thumb swipes at the corner of my lips. My lips part, and his eyes darken. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter who else is here as long as he’s here.
“What can I serve you this evening?” The girl’s voice makes me pause. My breath catches. I don’t want to turn and look. My chest burns. My gaze remains fixed on Luke, but the butterflies have traded places with a stone heavy in my gut.
“We’ll start with two diet Cokes.” Luke doesn’t smile.
“I’ll be right back with that.” She walks away.
“I didn’t know.” Luke’s words are lost on me as I finally turn and see Rebecca Forester disappear into the kitchen. “Do you want to leave?”
I draw in a breath. “Is there really anywhere we can go that I won’t run into a woman some of you have slept with?”
“Probably not in this town.” Luke sighs. His gaze is steady on me. “We can go somewhere else.”
“No.” I look around for the first time. There are several tables of other high schoolers. They’re minding their business, but if we get up and leave now, it would cause a stir. Especially if they draw the line between Luke and Rebecca. There’s enough crap going around the school about me and the guys.
“You sure?” He tucks my hair behind my ear.
“Yeah.” I give him a smile. This will be fine. She only needs to come to our table a few times. It will be just like when we were here for breakfast. Well, maybe not just like that.
She sets the glasses on the table. “Are you ready to order?”
“Burger and fries please.” Luke looks at me.
“Same.” I hand her my menu and she walks off. My breath eases out of me.
“So how does this date thing work?” Luke takes my hand on the table and squeezes it.
“How should I know?” I chuckle.
“You’ve been out on one already.” His gaze locks with mine. “What did Nico do to wow you?”
