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“Well, we were here first, so you can leave now.”
“Last time I checked, Einstein, I lived here too. Which means, if me and the guys want to use the pool, we will.” Max looked back at his friends, snickering. A couple of them high-fived, leering at us as if we would ever be interested in their barely pubescent teenage boy bodies.
“Go fuck yourself, Maximilian,” Celeste drawled, mocking the name Max hated so much.
“Come on, guys, last one in has to pay for the pizza.” Max ripped off his t-shirt and took a running jump, water spraying everywhere as he cannonballed into the pool. Celeste shrieked, swimming to the far end away from her annoying brother.
She began climbing out when a figure loomed over me. I held up an arm to the sun, blocking it out so I could see whoever it was.
“Nate,” I said dryly. “What a surprise.”
“Don’t sound so pleased to see me, baby.”
“Baby, really?” I sneered.
Nate was just another entitled asshole who liked lording it over people, reminding them they were beneath him. Thankfully, I’d managed to avoid him all week at school despite his efforts at catching my attention in class, but my good luck had obviously run out.
“Always so salty, Maguire.”
“How’s the hand?” My mouth twisted into a smug smile.
He flexed his hand as if he felt the phantom pain of me stabbing him with the fork. But he’d deserved it, putting his hands on me after I’d repeatedly told him I wasn’t interested.
Nate murmured something under his breath.
“Why are you even here? Isn’t hanging out with your kid brother and his friends a little pathetic?”
“Maybe I wanted to see you?”
A derisive noise caught in my throat.
“You know, if you weren’t such a bitch, we could have a lot of fun, Harleigh Wren.” His brow lifted, a suggestive smile gracing his stupidly handsome face.
“I don’t think so somehow.”
“Because you’re still hung up on Wilder?”
“How do you…?” I stopped myself. Of course he knew. People talked. In a place like Old Darling Hill all people did was talk. And he knew Marc Denby and his friends.
“I can see I hit a nerve. You know, Wilder’s beneath you now, Maguire. Besides, I can give you something he can’t on this side of the reservoir.”
“What could you possibly give me?” I drawled with fake bravado.
“Protection. Just… think about it.”
Protection?
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
I didn’t ask though, watching him walk over to an empty lounger instead and pull his white t-shirt over his head. There was no denying Nate was gorgeous. Tall, lean body with a hint of muscle, dirty blond hair, and a smile that spelled trouble; but I knew all about bad apples wrapped up in pretty packages, and I wanted nothing to do with him.
Or whatever he was offering.
“What was that about?” Celeste flopped down beside me, kicking her foot through the water to cover Max and his friend Toby in a spray of water. They both flipped her off but didn’t make a play for her.
“Just Nate being Nate.” I shrugged, smoothing my hands over the tiled edge of the pool.
“He’s a creep,” she hissed. “If he bothers you again, tell me and I’ll—”
