Page 123 of Always: A Legacy Novel

“My house is full of people, in case you didn’t know. Constantly. Michel is leaving, so people keep coming. All the time.”

“So let’s do something this weekend,” he suggested.

“Can’t. Party and dinner on Saturday for my grandmother, and there’s a church thing on Sunday after Mass I have to go to.”

Cross groaned. “Throw me a bone here, Catherine.”

“The Lexus has, like, really tinted windows.”

“Not that kind of bone. I swear, I would drive your car back to drop you off and pick up the Rover, and your dad would know somehow that I fucked his daughter in the back of that car.”

“You should tuck that paranoia back in or get it checked before it spreads.”

Cross rolled his eyes. “I love how you never take anything I tell you seriously when it comes to that man, and his hatred of me.”

She did.

She currently just didn’t care.

“And the school is pretty much empty, so …” Catherine trailed off with a grin, saying, “Let’s just go, hmm.”

“Wicked,” he said under his breath again.

Catherine was already walking away, laughing over her shoulder when Cross jogged to catch up. He caught her wrist in his grasp, spun her into the wall, and kissed her hard, taking away her breath and making her smile grow sinful.

“You’re lucky the hallway is empty,” she said. “No teachers to shout at you for being … well, you.”

“Yes, Catherine. The school is practically empty. I hear you loud and clear. You’re teasing me for a reason. It’s still not going to happen, babe.”

She snuck her hand up under his shirt and let her fingernails drag over his skin again. She found he liked that a lot, her nails on his body, leaving marks and digging in when she was breathless and under him.

“Fuck,” Cross muttered.

“So … yeah?”

“You’re gonna kill me.”

“But it’ll be fun.”

The principal’s voice droned on, but all Catherine could hear was her rising embarrassment flooding her blood and rushing in her ears. Still, she caught a few things in between her desire to melt into the chair and disappear forever.

“Hallway cameras caught the beginning of the … incident,” the woman explained.

Catherine used the heels of her palms to rub her eyes.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“The outside cameras, however, were only placed to see a portion of the car, but it was enough to suspect—”

“Suspecting,” Catherine’s father interjected, “is not proof.”

“Hush,” her mother uttered. “This isn’t a damn courtroom, Dante.”

“No, but we are discussing expelling Catherine right now, Catrina. Expelling her. For a fucking kiss in a hallway, and the sight of two kids climbing into the backseat of a car instead of sitting in the front. That’s it. That’s what we know—what they know. So if we’re going to discuss the expulsion of my daughter from a school I pay a lot of goddamn money for her to attend, there better be something better than them suspecting shit.”

“Mr. Marcello, that language—”

“Fuck off,” Dante barked.