“You wanted to talk, so talk.”
“Here?”
“I figured you won’t try to kill me if we’re doing eighty down the highway, unless you’re hoping to die with me.”
Until today, I wouldn’t have considered myself a particularly violent person. But beating the absolute shit out of him sounds like heaven right now. “God forbid, you just talk to me when I asked you, like a normal person. I’m sure Sophia is already sobbing in Principal Schneider’s office. Thanks for getting me suspended.”
He has the nerve to laugh. “If it comes to that, then you got yourself suspended. Nobody told you to give her a lesson in proper form for a basic uppercut. You’ll have to tell me where you learned that someday.”
The Gulch isn’t exactly a safe place for a girl who spends all of her time alone. You learn what you need to learn.
“I’m not telling you shit.”
“Except the reason you were stomping around the cafeteria like Godzilla and threw my lunch away. An explanation would be welcome anytime now, by the way.”
That move in the cafeteria was supposed to make him angry, but he seems more amused than anything. Changing moods more frequently than underwear is just another way he likes to mess with me so I never know what to expect.
But the fight has drained me, and I suddenly don’t have the energy to go back and forth with him.
“Did you have my brother arrested?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Why would I do that?”
“To blackmail me into marrying you,” I snap, glaring at his profile. Even when I’m furious, it’s hard not to notice that he looks like a Greek statue. “Because you’re the kind of asshole who doesn’t feel guilty about fucking with people’s lives, and you know my brother is one of the few ways you can get to me.”
“I’m flattered that you think I have that much control over police resources.” Vin glances at me, his smile mocking. “Of course, if I did have something to do with it, coming at me like that might not be the best way to ask for help.”
I glare at his profile, starkly illuminated by the midday sun. He looks like a fallen angel, come down to earth to wreak havoc on susceptible mortals.
“That isn’t a no.”
“Would you believe me if I said no?”
“Maybe.”
“That isn’t a yes.”
I just shake my head, because I don’t ever believe a single word that comes out of his mouth. “Are you going to help me get him out of trouble?”
“Is this the part where I ask what’s in it for me?”
“Stop playing with me.” My hand slams down on the dashboard, and I ignore the aching stab of pain in my palm. “Everything isn’t a game.”
“Oh, it is a game.” He turns in the seat to look at me, ignoring the road as he stares me down. “And both of us are going to play. It’s your move, by the way.”
I look nervously out the windshield at the empty road ahead of us as he continues to watch me. “Will you help me?”
“Will you marry me?”
A romantic proposal if I ever heard one.
“You seemed pretty happy with Sophia.” The words don’t sound jealous in my head. But judging from the smirk on his face, they come out more strident than I intended. “Not that I care what you do with your dirty dick.”
Vin opens his mouth to say something, probably along the lines of reminding me what I’ve let him do with the dick in question, but he shuts it again. He seems to consider his words for the barest moment.
“I wouldn’t marry Sophia if she were the last woman on earth.”
I know there are any number things he isn’t telling me, but that at least sounds like the truth. “But you want to marry me?”
“Out of the currently available options, sure.” He hesitates, but then shrugs. “But this is Deception, so that isn’t really saying much.”
“How romantic.”
“This isn’t about romance. It’s a business transaction.”
A pang of hurt accompanies his words, even though it shouldn’t. I know who he is. “If this is all about business, then you shouldn’t have any problem negotiating.”
His smile of dark anticipation makes my knees go weak.
“Give me your terms.”
“You get my brother out of jail, or at least get his charges knocked down to something that will have him out well before he dies of old age.”
“Is that it?”
I force a deep inhalation of air into my lungs, preparing myself. “And if this is a business arrangement, which I agree is the only way it makes sense, then sex has to be off the table.”
I expect him to fight me, but instead he just smiles. I feel reassured for about a millisecond.
“No.”
I jerk back like I’ve been slapped. “What do you mean no?”
“I mean that your terms are unacceptable, but I’m open to making a counter offer.” He navigates the car onto the exit for the coastal highway, and the ocean looms big and bright ahead of us. “I will do whatever I can to help your brother. But sex is definitely on the table. And in the car, the pool house, my parent’s bed, even in the school cafeteria if the mood strikes us.”
“That’s disgusting,” I scoff.
“Is it? I bet if I stuck my hands down your pants right now, you’d be wet and ready for me.”
I clamp my hands together in my lap to stop them from trembling. “You don’t get to talk to me like this.”
“I’m Vin Cortland, sweetheart. I can do whatever I want.”
My lips thin as I glare at his profile. “Then maybe you should just take me back to school, and we can forget all about it.”
“Take a joke, Milbourne.” He signals to exit for the beach, and the car slows down as we end up on one of the meandering roads that wind toward the ocean. “We are negotiating, after all. But
