Double Clutch - Реинхардт Лиз (хороший книги онлайн бесплатно .TXT) 📗

After a few heavy breaths, Saxon’s cocky smile came back out. He straightened his shirt and shook the hair out of his eyes, then ran a look from my head to my toes that made a blush burn on my skin. “Whatever. But don’t think you’re going to tell me who to like or not. And we’ll let the lady decide in the end. Best man wins?”

His look was all swaggering arrogance. I was torn between fear that he’d tell Jake the secrets we had and the urge to do it myself. I hated that he knew he had a stacked deck. Jake was furious, his fists balled.

“Come on, Jake,” I willed him. “If a teacher finds us, we’re all screwed. Let’s go now.”

“I’ll call you later, Brenna.” Saxon grinned and smacked his lips at me in a kissy face.

Jake was at him in a split second, his fist flying through the air and straight into Saxon’s jaw. I heared the thick thud of skin and bone crashing against itself.

“Jake!” I cried.

Just then a teacher appeared at the end of the hall. “What’s going on down there?”

Saxon stood up woozily and moved his jaw back and forth a few times. “Nothing. I was just headed to calculus.” He pointed up. Before he walked away, he spit a tooth on the floor.

“You two, get a move on!” the teacher snapped, looking absently at our passes. I bent down and grabbed the tooth before he noticed it. We ducked into the stairwell, waited a minute, the slid out the side doors while no one was looking.

Jake and I ran back to the truck. He still opened my door, though I would have preferred for him to step on it and rush a little.

“Have you been talking to Saxon?” Jake asked, his voice cold.

I sighed. It was truth time. “I want to tell you…”

Jake cut in. “Never mind, Brenna. That’s exactly what Saxon would want. Me to doubt you.” He shook his head. “That prick. He knows what he’s doing five moves ahead of everyone else. Don’t even acknowledge I just asked you anything.”

I clamped my mouth shut and held it shut. What else was I supposed to do?

“You hit him really hard,” I said softly.

“I’m sorry, Bren.” He leaned his forehead on the steering wheel and shook his head from side to side. “I dropped my basket. I know it. Are you alright?”

“Sort of.” I felt tears prick my eyes. “I’ve never seen you just lose it like that.” I opened my fist. Saxon’s shiny white tooth was in my hand.

“Saxon’s tooth.” Jake swallowed so hard I could see his Adam’s apple jump.

“That was pretty Biblical of you, Jake.” We both looked at the white calcified piece of Saxon.

“A tooth for a tooth. Holy crap.” Jake shook his head. “I guess I should just let it go with Saxon now. I’m sorry you’re in his classes. I’m sure I made this a shitstorm for you.” He pulled out and drove slowly, focused on the road and all the thoughts I’m sure were running through his head.

I unclipped my seatbelt, slid to the middle, buckled the lap belt, and leaned against Jake’s upper body. He felt good and solid under my cheek. I dropped the tooth into the rusted ashtray.

“Don’t worry. It will be fine.” I hoped it would be. I debated telling Jake about the government project, but I didn’t know if I should. I didn’t know if maybe I should just bury it with all of my other Saxon secrets. It was hard to know.

We drove for a while and finally pulled into a local state park overlook. The lot was completely empty. Below us was the spread of trees, gold and red and orange in the afternoon sun. Jake turned the engine off and grabbed an old blanket from the back. He took my seatbelt off and made me lay down on his lap, my head nestled against the muscles of his thighs. He ran his hand along the lines of my face.

“My race is in a few days,” he said in the quiet of the cab.

“Are you excited?” I tilted my head to look up at his face.

“Yeah,” he said, but his voice was a little dull for Jake. “I don’t really know if I’m ready.”

“Maybe you should practice. Is that how it works?” I rubbed my hand under his shirt, along the hot, soft skin of his stomach.

“Yeah.” He laughed, but it was muted. “But I don’t have a lot of time now. I’m bumped to full time at Zinga’s. Just getting the day off for the race was a big deal.”

“So, no weekends together for a while?” My heart sank a little.

“Sorry, Bren. But now I can drive you back and forth to school.” His palm scratched along my cheek, and I pushed my face against it.

“Jake, I can’t take rides back and forth with you.”

“Why?” His voice was clipped, because he knew the answer.

I sighed. “Mom will not be cool with it. And you’ll be going out of your way. It’s too much time added on to your day.”

His hand stopped for a few seconds, then he started rubbing my head. “You were pretty pissed at me when I said I didn’t want to go farther, uh, physically.”

“Yeah.” I felt a deep hussy blush. “Sorry.”

“You are not.” He looked down at me, his wide grin. “It’s okay, you don’t need to be. I should have been more sensitive about your feelings, and I wasn’t.”

I sat up on one elbow and craned my neck to look at him. “This isn’t an apology, is it?”

He shook his head and said, “Nope. It’s a point. If I’m going to try to respect your wishes even though it makes me uncomfortable, shouldn’t you do the same for me?”

“So you want me to be cool with you getting a lot less sleep and spending a fortune in gas?” I crossed my arms, annoyed.

“Yeah, Bren. And I’ll try to be cool about you throwing yourself at me.”

I slapped him on the arm, and he laughed. I sat up and twisted myself around so I was facing him, and then nestled myself on his lap, my legs on either side of him and my knees pressed on the worn seat. The steering wheel was close at my back, so I was squashed against Jake.

“I’ll let you pick me up tomorrow.” I ran my finger down his nose and to his lips, then pressed on them to keep him quiet. “But you have to wait at the end of the road for me. I’m not going to have this fight with Mom. And I promise I will ask her if you can pick me up on Saturday.”

He kissed my finger. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” I warned. “It’s a trade.”

He closed his gray eyes and groaned. “What do you want?”

“A lot of guys would be happy to have such a shameless girlfriend,” I balked.

“Well, I’m not one of them,” he growled. “We don’t have to rush things. There’s plenty of time.”