A Gorgeous Villain (St. Mary's Rebels 2)

He didn’t kiss me there again though, no.

He just… breathed with an open mouth for a few moments like he couldn’t get enough air and I let him.

That was all.

That was all that happened last night.

We kissed, he made me come, I gave him his present and then he drove me back to school just in time for Con to pick me up from the parking lot.

I haven’t seen him since.

Which is understandable given the fact that his big game is currently underway, and I’ve been busy with my own practice for the show.

Maybe that’s why I’m feeling uneasy.

Because of the championship game.

Because I know how important it is to him and to Ledger. Oh, and it’s also the last game of their high school career.

Not to mention their last game together.

It should make me happy that they won’t butt heads anymore — they’re both going to different colleges on soccer scholarships — and this contest, no matter who wins, will finally be over.

But strangely I’m uneasy.

Ledger’s in possession of the ball and he’s running across the field with it. Just when he reaches a point where he can take a shot and score the goal, the winning goal no less, Reed barges in.

He swipes the ball from Ledger and there ensues a struggle between the two star players of Bardstown High.

They both grapple for the ball, trying to score the goal, somehow dodging the players from the opposite team as well.

Not that I had any doubts that they wouldn’t be able to.

Together, the Mustang and the Thorn can defeat every single team in the state and they have. They’re that talented.

I’m not afraid that they’ll lose the ball.

I’m afraid about something else.

Something that happens right in front of my eyes.

While struggling to get the ball, they’re both pushing at each other.

Until Ledger stops.

He comes to a dead halt because Reed has said something.

I see his lips move – the lips that I kissed last night in the rain and then in his Mustang, the lips that have made me smile and blush over the past months – and I see Ledger freezing over.

To the point where Reed finally steals the ball from my brother and scores the goal.

Sealing both the championship and his victory over my brother.

As the whole stadium erupts in cheers and laughter and happiness, I sit in my spot tense and shocked, afraid.

So afraid.

My eyes are glued to two of the most important people in my life.

He is that, isn’t he?

Somehow Reed Roman Jackson, my Roman, has become one of the most important people in my life and I don’t want to keep him a secret.

This is another thing that I’ve been feeling ever since last night.

Along with this premonition, I’ve been wanting to tell my brothers about him. Make them understand that he’s not as bad as they all think he is.

But like yesterday at practice when they fought, Reed is in no mood to be good.

Even though he’s gotten the thing that he wanted, the title of reigning champion, his mood is so black and so bitter that even I can feel it from here.

Even I can feel his fury.

And the only thing that matches Reed’s fury and his agitated breaths as he glares at my brother while the Mustang camp of the team pats him on the back, is Ledger.

He matches Reed’s black mood.

In fact, he’s surpassed it.

And it’s nothing new, see.

Reed has always been the one to provoke my brother and my brother has always been the one to give in to it.

So this scene shouldn’t be too alarming, but it is for so many reasons, and when Ledger closes the distance between them, I can’t sit still.

And neither can Tempest, who’s also been glued to her spot through all the happiness and enthusiasm around us. Together, we manage to grapple through the thick, happy crowd and bound down the stairs to get to the front.

So we can see what’s happening.

So we can see if our brothers are okay.

God, please let them be okay.

Please.

I’m chanting it in my head all through the journey that should’ve only been a few seconds but takes an age due to the excited and exiting crowd.

When we do reach our destination, I exhale a relieved breath.

But it only lasts for a few seconds.

Because the moment we get to the front and have a clear view of the field, somehow, someway, he sees me.

His eyes fall on me through the incoming crowd, through all the chaos, and I don’t know what I see in the depths of them.

I don’t understand the intense emotion reflected in them and it scares me even more.

It scares me that as he runs his eyes over my body it feels like the last time. Like he’ll never see me again after this.

Like this is goodbye.