Page 10 (1/2)

And after all of that, I wasn’t tired any awesome

I made sure the doors were locked, out of habit, and ran up the stairs, two steps at a tihts off, went to the French doors and peered outside in hopes of seeing the party disperse I scanned the front and back yards, and, thankfully, saw a few people heading to their cars I gri drunken people on the road wasn’t the s to their cars and so to walk down the street to their hoet the electricity back on was by cutting the lock or calling the electric colanced around, from the front to the back, ht I did see Jared was standing at his bedrooht in one hand and both hands on either side of thefra atheat washed over my body My sheer, black curtains were drawn, but I was positive he could see me His head was bowed inoffif he caht It wasn’t like he could do a da about it, anyway Maybe I wanted hi the urge to investigate as going on outside It wasn’t hard to figure out that the party was dispersing, though, as the sound of engines fading away filled the neighborhood Thrill surged through h to want to hop out of bed and start dancing

I’ toand da shut through the house

My house!

Chapter 10

"What the…" Tres down toout of the covers, I grabbed my baseball bat from under the bed and ran out of the rooh that’s where I’d stupidly left the pistol I just needed to peek over the railing to see if I’d actually heard so ht of shirtless Jared rounding the corner into the foyer and flying up the stairs He was definitely pissed and pried up the staircase, taking two at a ti out a little yelp as I tried to run for the French doors and escape I had no idea what Jared’s plan was or if I should be afraid, but I was He’d just broken into my house and that freaked h ainst the wall, probably denting it

There was no way I’d make it out the door on ti the bat Jared yanked it out of

"Get out! Are you crazy?" I started to veer around hiet back to my bedroolingby the look on his face Lava was about to come out his nose, I was sure

"You cut the electricity to ot an inch from my face and staredin my chest No, more like the Paso Doble

He cocked his head to the side, lips curling dangerously

"How’d you get in here? I’ll call the police!" Again, I thought Not that it did ood when I called earlier about the noise Maybe they’d show up if I was murdered?

"I have a key" Every as slow and threatening

"How do you have a key to my house?" If he had a key, I wasn’t sure if I could call the police

"You and your dad were in Europe all suot the h The irony of hi so mundane slowed my heartbeat a bit

"Your dad trusts me," Jared continued "He shouldn’t have"

I clenched randma knew very little about the state of Jared’s and otten, then they would’ve spoken to his mother I wasn’t a whiner, and I didn’t want to be rescued It hurt that Jared was pleasant with h ainst the French doors "You’re a nosy bitch, Tatu ass on your own side of the fence"

"Keeping the neighborhood awake makes people irritable," I spit back

I crossed ainst the ith both hands positioned on either side of my head I don’t know if it was from the adrenaline or his proxiive

I looked anywhere but in his eyes The burning lantern tattoo on his arrays I wondered what it ht with tension--at least I hoped they weren’t norid The other tattoo on the side of his torso was in script lettering and iht His skin looked snore the tingling sensation in my core It’s best to just look him in the eye We hadn’t been this close to each other in a long time, and we’d been nose to nose a lot since , because his eyes hardened on aze drifted down my neck to my ca and straightening his expression, he inhaled deeply "No one else is co So why don’t you shut up and leave it alone?" Pushing off the wall, he started to walk away

"Leave the key" I called out, getting used to this new boldness

"You know" He laughed under his breath and turned around "I underestimated you You haven’t cried yet, have you?"

"Because of the rumor you started this week? Not a chance" My voice was even, but a s off on our confrontation, and the realization that things between us were finally "co to a head" as KC had said Look at us already Jared and I hadn’t been alone in ress Of course, he was uninvited, but I wasn’t going to nit-pick