“Shut up! Both of you!” She turned back to me. “You know I hate attention.”
“But you love me.” I winked and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the chaos. Sloane was right at our backs.
“Everyone knows you two are a thing anyway. It won’t be much of a surprise to the students. But maybe to the teachers.” Sloane turned to me as we walked down the hall, which was much less wild now. How did they disappear that fast? “Are you off probation now? Or was that a lie too?”
I held back an eye roll. Sloane was still a little bitter that we hadn’t filled her in on everything when Gemma was taken. Eventually Cade and Brantley pulled her aside, along with Shiner, while I was at the hospital, and laid it all out for her. Well, Brantley was the one who’d straightened everything out. Cade was still in his feels about Journey showing up out of nowhere. I hadn’t talked with him much, but from the times that I did, I could tell he was completely fucked up—especially because she was still at the orphanage until Tate got things settled. It was slowly killing Cade.
“I’m off probation now. That wasn’t a lie. The SMC really was going to expel me if I didn’t stop fucking around and get my grades up.” I pulled Gemma into my chest for a second, pecking her on the nose before we descended the steps toward the dining hall. “Thank God for my tutor.”
Gemma laughed, but before we knew it, we were walking into the dining hall. The girl whose towel fell in front of me no more than twenty minutes ago darted past us with her head glued to her chest.
“What was that all about?” Gemma asked, looking back at the girl scurrying away.
I brushed it off, but Sloane answered as we made our way toward Cade, Brantley, Mercedes, and Shiner. “Her towel fell as your boyfriend was waiting in the hall to come into our room. Pretty sure she’s horrified.”
“Oh my God. That’s...embarrassing.”
Sloane shrugged. “She could have willingly opened her towel for him, and in that case, we would have had to set her straight. Isaiah Underwood is taken!”
Gemma’s face blushed as she elbowed her friend. “Oh my gosh. You’re as bad as him!”
Sloane pulled away from Gem and walked over to sit beside Mercedes as if Gemma hadn’t just elbowed her.
She and I were left in the middle of the dining hall, and fuck, I just got a little nervous. Did I seriously just get fucking butterflies?
Gemma’s green gaze tilted toward mine, and I dipped down, my tie hanging between us. I whispered into her ear, “I won’t do it if you don’t want me to.”
She paused, looking torn. Did she want me to? My lips curled, and she was pinned to them. The thought of her perfect ass on that table did all sorts of things to me. The memory of the last time I’d placed her on the table was not long forgotten. I dipped down to her ear again, seeing a flush creep up her cleavage that had been playing peek-a-boo with me all morning. “But I know damn well, deep down, you want me to. You know you like breaking rules with me, Gem. And I have to say, sitting on the table in the middle of breakfast, tongue-fucking your new boyfriend…is kind of against the rules.”
It took half a second for her lips to split in two and one more for my hands to dip underneath her skirt, gripping her firm ass that was hardly covered by her panties and plopping her down in front of everyone.
“You’re the baddest good girl I’ve ever met, Gemma Richardson.”
Her brow flicked. “Well, maybe I’m not a good girl, Isaiah Underwood.”
And then my mouth was on hers, and the entire dining hall fell silent.