All eyes shifted to me, and I stood a little straighter. If they wanted to watch me, I’d give them something to watch. I squared my shoulders and lifted my head, making each step purposeful. Graceful. Hearts raced. Breaths caught. Eyes widened as girls swooned over me. And I ignored all of them. Except one.
Chloe’s gaze was glued to me, and an unexpected thrill shot through me. Her heart was racing faster than anyone else’s in the room. Fear and curiosity swirled around her. I had this inexplicable compulsion to talk to her. I needed to, because if I didn’t, I quite literally felt like I might die.
I stopped in front of her desk and crossed my arms. “I was going to sit there.”
God, I was a certified idiot. Of all the things I could’ve said, I chose that? This girl was making me crazy.
“You were?” she asked.
I nodded. “I sat at that desk for two other classes. It’s my seat.”
Shut up! But I’d started this, so I needed to commit. At least she was talking to me, which was what I’d wanted. And in my defense, that desk was in the perfect spot—I could see the entire room, and it was positioned so the sun didn’t shine on my face.
She stared at me for a moment, and then she swiped her bag onto the floor and studied the top of the desk. What is she doing?
“I don’t see your name anywhere.” She stood and checked the chair, too. “Nope. No name.” She plopped back down and gave me the sweetest smile.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. She’d caught me off guard, and that was almost impossible to do. I admired the hell out of her for her courage, and her willingness to stand up for herself. Still, someone needed to tell her it wasn’t wise to a pick fight with a vampire.
I could easily remove her from that seat, show her exactly who and what I was. That would definitely help end whatever fascination we seemed to have with one another. But I wanted her closer, not farther away. That thought made me scowl.
Jax barged past me, his shoulder bumping mine—a clear warning to knock it off. But when did I ever listen to my brother?
“Please move,” I said.
“No,” she said.
“All right. Fine.” I slid into the seat beside her and then moved the desk closer, scraping the metal legs across the floor in an obnoxious, grating noise.
Everyone in the room had stopped to watch our exchange. I was tempted to shout at all of them to mind their own business, or take a page from Jax’s playbook and just kill all of them. That seemed a little extreme, so I did what I did best—I ignored them.
Someone near the front of the room coughed the word “fight,” which caused a ripple of laughter. Except that guy—that guy I was going to kill. A slow rage built inside of me. Why did people insist on being jerks?
Jaw clenched, Chloe turned toward me. “Why are you telling everyone I punched you?”
Wait… she thought I was telling people? Well, that was interesting. Let’s see where this goes… “You did,” I said simply.
“It was an accident.”
I knew that, but clearly, someone else in this school thought it was a bigger deal than it was. Chloe curled her hands into fists, her fingernails biting into her palms hard enough I could smell the blood rushing to the surface. Need and desire exploded in my gums, and I forced my fangs back.
Her brown eyes blazed with a mixture of anger and desperation, and everything inside of me wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her it would be all right, that I’d never let anything or anyone harm her. But damn, she was incredibly sexy when she was angry.
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