Savage Love (Ash and Innocence 2)

“I’ll come.”

The corner of his mouth curved upward. “Yeah. You might.”

With that, he left. I saw a group of two equally huge and gorgeous guys join him outside as they walked toward a row of fancy cars. Although the tall one with shaggy, dark hair got into a beat-up truck.

I realized I’d been staring after them while Clint was still sitting there, watching me.

“God,” I said, sitting back down. “I’m sorry. That was so rude. Cassian was a friend of mine when we were kids. It has been like ten years since we’ve seen each other.”

Clint nodded, though he looked sad. “Just be careful with him.”

I frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He got up, shouldering his bag just as Zoe came back from the bathroom. “It means he’s a fucked up dude.” Clint licked his lips and shook his head. “Look. I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I just want you to know that he has a reputation. Be careful.”

Zoe stopped beside me, watching Clint go. “Wow. It seemed like it was going well. I kinda thought you two would be making out by the time I got back. What’d you do?”

I groaned. “I don’t know. But Cassian came up and invited me to his party. Then Clint got weird and left?”

“Yeah,” Zoe said slowly.

I threw my hands up, feeling frustrated. “Why is everyone acting like Cassian is literally the devil? First the old guy at his old house. Then Clint. Now you? Can anyone just tell me in plain English what is so dangerous about him?”

“Cassian is cold. He uses people up, and he fools around with any girl he decides is pretty enough to be worth an hour of his time. But it never means anything to him. He fights anybody who pisses him off, and he is always getting thrown out of football games for injuring people on purpose. He’s bad, Charli. I don’t know how else to say it.”

I didn’t want to be short with Zoe because I already appreciated what she’d done for me. She had plucked me from my house and done her best to bring me into her social circle. So I stopped myself from saying the words that wanted to come. Instead, I smiled. “I’m going to go to the party. But I will be careful. I promise.”6CharliDespite never being particularly popular, I’d been to parties. They were mostly all the same. Hormones flew, bodies grinded together, and people drank.

That’s all it really was. The high school party was essentially an outlet for all the carnal desires kids had to suppress at school and in front of their parents.

It was where people went to let loose.

But the party going on at Cassian’s house took everything I thought I knew about high school parties and cranked them up several notches. The sound system seemed to cover the entire property—not just the house. Music seeped from trees, the driveway, and even echoed out over the lake behind the house. Small pockets of people dancing were spread everywhere from the front yard to the second floor of the house, which was walled in with nothing but glass.

There was some sort of makeshift bar set up and even a grown man mixing drinks for clearly underaged kids on demand. I had no idea how Cassian managed to pull that off.

Zoe had insisted on coming with me, and she was hovering protectively by my side. Normally, another girl might not have felt like the most physically imposing escort, but I had a feeling Zoe could probably kick a fair share of ass if it came to it. She really was an impressive specimen. I was already making a mental note to set time aside to see her at one of her track or swimming events in person soon.

The lake behind Cassian’s house was spotted with little islands of grass. Most were too small for trees, but there was a central chunk of land with a couple trees on it and hammocks spread between them. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw two barely clothed kids somewhere between having sex and making out in one of the distant hammocks.

I shook my head. “This is wild.”

Zoe nodded. “Honestly, I don’t really come to parties the Greeks throw.”

“The Greeks?” I asked.

She laughed, almost self-consciously. “It’s kind of stupid. But everybody calls them that, and it’s just easier to go with it. But yeah, ‘the Greek Gods.’ Tristan Blackwood, Cassian Stone, Logan Cain, and Gage Winters. Kings of the football team and the school, basically.”

“People don’t seriously hold them on that high of a pedestal, do they? They’re just high school guys.”

“Who happen to be drop dead gorgeous. Three of them are filthy rich. All four could get scholarships for football in a heartbeat… What else am I forgetting?”