“That’s all we gotta do, huh?”

“Yeah,” I say, my mouth going dry. “You wanna go first?”

“Fuck, no, girl. This is all you.”

A nervous laugh rumbles through my chest as I step toward the tree, looking directly up, wondering how the hell I’m going to make this work.

“Here,” Arizona says, dashing across the yard to grab a large rock. She bends down to try and hoist it up and groans, her cheeks blowing out. “Fuck, that’s heavy,” she says, giving up and rolling it instead. She pushes it right to the base of the trunk and I test its stability, knowing damn well that the slightest wobble could send me crashing and burning in a big way.

“You good?” she asks as I step up, holding her hand up toward my back in case I fall.

Hoisting myself up, I grip the lowest branch and pull, feeling like a damn queen for even attempting this. There’s still a long way before I reach Tanner’s bedroom window, and I'm not entirely sure I'll make it. “I’m good,” I call down to her, pretty damn pleased with myself. “You sure Tanner’s got football practice? Like, he’s not just going to show up, is he?”

“Certain,” she laughs.

I crouch down on the thick branch and catch her hand as she steps up onto the rock below me and help pull her up until she’s safely beside me. We straighten up, looking up at our next step and when her eyes meet mine, we each grin like fucking idiots. “Oh, we so got this,” she says.

I muffle my laugh, all too aware that while Tanner and his family aren’t home, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have other neighbors who are probably just as snoopy as the rest of us.

Arizona and I fly up the tree, the dash to the top a lot easier than we anticipated, and before we know it, we’re clutching onto the side of his second story roof and shuffling across the tiles to his bedroom window.

Dropping to my knees, I slip my fingers through the small crack and jimmy it open, both of us laughing like hyenas as it slides open with ease.

The nerves have completely faded away, and I’m left with nothing but the thrill of being one step closer to revenge. We slip inside his bedroom, and I’m immediately hit with that same manly scent that captivated me at the end of history class. It’s intoxicating and makes my heart thrum a little faster.

“Well, well,” Arizona says, her feet dropping to the plush carpet beside mine. “I never thought I’d step foot in the devil’s lair.”

She doesn’t waste time breaking free and exploring just as I do. “Tell me more about him,” I say. “What’s there to know about the star of the school?”

“Uhhhh, not much,” she says, distracted by his bedside table, which surprise, surprise, is filled with condoms. “He has a younger sister, Addison, but she goes by Addie. She was supposed to be a junior at Bradford this year, but she wasn’t there today. No one has really seen her for a few weeks and the rumor going around school was that she got a late acceptance into some big-time performing arts school.”

“No way,” I say, moving through the room, scanning over the framed pictures, and taking in the books on his desk, each of them focusing on football.

“Yeah, she’s talented, just like her brother.”

“What else?”

“Umm, I don’t know. He’s pretty much been the popular football star since the start of high school. He’s got his crew—the Bradford Bastards—him, his best friend, Riley, the twins Logan and Jax, who are also his cousins, and then Hudson Bellamy. He’s kinda the black sheep of the group, but he just kinda fits in. I don’t doubt that all five of them will have colleges fighting for them come the end of the season.”

“Oh, really? I ask. “They’re that good?”

“Hell yeah, just you wait until the first game. It’s insane.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to make me go to that shit.”

“School spirit, baby!” she sings. “Besides, you kinda have to go. It’s practically social suicide to not attend.”

Dread sinks heavily into my gut. The last thing I want to spend my time doing is sitting in a packed grandstand watching the school assholes strut around the field, pretending to be gods while allowing the rest of the school to treat them as such. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tanner literally had girls falling at his feet.

His room is big, much bigger than it appears looking in from across the yard. He’s got the typical rich kid bedroom, almost mirroring the room that I just moved into, only instead of whites and soft pink hues on the bedsheets, they’re gray. His room is tidy and put together and I just know this is the kind of man who puts his laundry away as soon as it’s done.

Tags: Sheridan Anne Bradford Bastard Erotic
Source: readsnovelonline.net