Never His Girl: Dark High School Bully Romance (Kings of Cypress Pointe Book 2)

BLUE

‘For your safety, for Scar’s… I’m begging you to let this go, Blue. Please’

Hunter’s words have been swimming around in my head since he spoke them hours ago. They’re the reason I called Uncle Dusty on my way home, asking him to watch Scar this coming weekend, instead of Jules. Simply because, by comparison, Uncle Dusty is way more capable of protecting Scar should something happen.

Should someone come after her.

I hate that I even have to worry about this, but crying about it won’t change things. The situation could definitely be worse, though, and that isn’t lost on me. Scar and I are together, and we’re fine.

For now, anyway.

As a loud laugh from the living room floats into my bedroom, I smile a little, grateful Scar has no clue how bad things really are. She deserves to just be a kid, not concerned with all the other B.S. that haunts our family like ghosts.

“No!” Shane yells when Scar beats him in another round of whatever they’re playing, on a gaming system I couldn’t even dream of buying her.

My first thought when she walked through the door carrying that huge box was that Ricky had slipped her some cash, before his Aunt Carla took her and Shane to the mall. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d done something like that. However, I quickly learned I assumed wrong. The one who brought that huge smile to my sister’s face was the last person I expected.

West.

I almost told her she couldn’t keep it. Not because it came from him, but because I don’t want her getting used to people giving her things so freely. Mostly, because I know for a fact that there aren’t many who do so as ‘freely’ as they pretend to, but I decided not to take this from her. She’s endured some pretty ugly shit. One gift won’t spoil her.

Settling on the edge of my bed, needing a break from packing for the bus ride to the game tomorrow, I glance toward my phone. Despite nearly a week passing since West left his number, I haven’t called. Maybe it’s pride? Maybe it’s knowing that a phone call would further build the bridge between us? One I waver between being ready to mend, and also kind of uncertain about.

Although, I’m positive that kiss on Monday told us both all we need to know.

It dawns on me that I’m probably overthinking all of this, so I stop being wishy-washy and just grab the phone.

It only rings twice, which is unexpected.

“Shut the fuck up,” he whispers first, catching me off guard before a rushed “Hello?” touches my ears

I hold back a smile. “Uh… not sure if I should say ‘hello’ or if I should just shut the fuck up.”

West lets out a quiet laugh and I melt at the sound of it. It always gets to me when he’s softer like this, easy.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Tried to quiet down Dane and Sterling before I picked up, but I guess my timing was off,” he explains, sounding sort of surprised to hear from me.

Can’t blame the guy. I haven’t exactly been easy on him lately. Or maybe not ever, but that goes both ways.

Scar lets out another noisy laugh and I’m reminded why I called.

“Listen, thanks for what you did for Scar today.”

“No problem. I don’t think those pieces of shit will bother her again, but if they do, I know my way to South Cypress High.”

My brow tenses when his response isn’t quite what I was expecting. “I was talking about the game system. What were you talking about?”

The silence on the other end lets me know he’s starting to wonder if he’s said too much. And it has me wondering if Scarlett didn’t say enough. Her story was that she ran into West and he just handed these things over to her and Shane. There was no mention of anything else going down.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. I thought—”

“Was someone messing with her at the mall?” I cut in.

West hesitates again, but likely knows that when it comes to Scar, I won’t let up.

“There was a group of them. Kids about her age. Guys and girls.”

My breathing turns shallow as rage sets in. Sounds like the same group of assholes who chased her into the bathroom the other week.

“They pretty much bailed when I walked up. Just took me getting in their faces, talking shit,” he explains.

Hearing this, I imagine it, West coming to Scar’s rescue this evening.

I’ve threatened to kick his ass on many occasions for even mentioning her name, but tonight I was grateful he’d been around when she needed him.

“Sounds like I have two things to thank you for,” I say quietly, still trying to shed the anger from what I’ve just been told.

“Not a problem.” He pauses, but I sense that he’s not finished. “Those kids the same ones from the other week?”

I don’t talk about my homelife with most people, but he’s not exactly ‘most people’ at this point.

“Yeah,” I confess. “They’ve been giving her a hard time lately.”

“Since the video,” he adds.

I don’t confirm or deny, because he already knows.

“Shit.”

“It’s not on you,” I remind him. “This was Parker’s doing.”

I’m almost shocked by how easy that is for me to say, which is telling of how I’ve come to believe West’s story. Our talk the night he stayed over impacted me more than I realized, I guess, removing the lingering doubt that he hadn’t been the one behind leaking our footage.

“Just wish I could undo it all,” he admits, but then another of those sexy, quiet laughs leaves him. “Well, maybe not all of it. The sex part was pretty damn good.”

Not sure how he draws a smile out of me, feeling as low as I do right now, but he does.

“Shut up.”

“Just telling it like it is,” he adds.

He isn’t wrong. Before we started down this road to forgiveness, my biggest battle was separating how he set my body on fire from how he broke my heart. Now, since things have been getting better, I haven’t been nearly as vigilant about keeping thoughts of him at bay. Shit, who can blame me? Boy’s touch has me sweating just thinking about it. And don’t even get me started on his—

“We should hang out this weekend,” he suggests, cutting my lust-filled thought short. “The team usually hits a party the night before a big game.”

Did I hear that right?

Did West Golden just invite me to a party with him?

From what I’ve come to know about his history, he’s only ever seen stag, never with a girl on his arm anywhere. Even when he and Parker were somewhat solid, he attended things alone.

But, apparently, he doesn’t want that tomorrow.

“You sure your brothers won’t mind sharing you for the night?” I ask, smiling as I fall back against my pillow, twirling the end of my ponytail around my finger.

“There should be plenty of girls around. Pretty sure they won’t even notice they don’t have my full attention,” he answers, sounding amused.

“Then, in that case, sure,” I finally answer. “Sounds fun.”

Also sounds like I need to go raid Jules’s closet before I seal my suitcase.

“I’ll make sure you have a good time,” he promises.

I draw in a breath and accept that I’m much more excited about this than I’m letting on. It’s been a hard day. Hell, a hard few months. I could use some fun.

“Will there be a honeymoon suite waiting for me when we get there?” I tease.

“Hey, if you want to trade rooms, just say the word.” He laughs when he finishes speaking, but I don’t doubt for a minute he means that.

I’ve come to learn that Joss wasn’t too far off with what she said about him. There is a side to him I missed—because it was buried in a shit-ton of anger and hatred—but it’s there and it runs deep. Granted, he’s still kind of an asshole by nature, but I’ve seen that he’s capable of dialing that back for the people he cares about.

It isn’t until I think these words that I realize I consider myself to be one of those people. Whether that’s naïve or not, I suppose I’ll find out, but it feels real.

So real.

“See you in the morning?” he asks, as if he suddenly wants permission to stalk me at my locker, and then walk me to class.

I laugh a bit before answering. “Like I can stop you.”

He laughs, too, but I think he knows I’m only teasing.

“Looking forward to it,” I add, hoping he knows all his effort to change my mind about him hasn’t been in vain. I’ve noticed.

You wanted me to see you, KingMidas, and my eyes are wide open. Also, damn you for making me admit this, but… I’m open to wherever this is headed.

Just don’t make me regret it this time.