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Riley was one of the two good friends I had here There were others ere friendly, but co into this close-knit crowd last year was hard They didn’t accept new faces that easily

"Sorry I orking hed in a drao visit irl, let me tell you, they have rednecks up there too Soive folks around here a run for their money He lives out in the country, and his ent barefoot to the grocery store! Seriously! Who does that?"

That was another thing about Riley: She always made me sree a srin and started to say soreen eyes ide as she looked up at so behind me I started to turn and stopped I could sood?

Riley’s eyes went frorab my new friend’s attention With her new look, I had no doubt she could She would be an easy target I needed to save her

"Hello, Rock," I said, turning to face hi eyelashes and come-hither smile

His lips did a sexy s those deter my voice didn’t sound affected by him But he was so close and he smelled so nice I liked peppermint and leather It worked Totally worked

"Me too," he replied, his s into a pleased smile "Let me walk you"

Walk me Rock wanted to walk oing to ith Riley to lunch" It was the only excuse I could think of

Finally Rock shifted his gaze froh "Care if I join y’all, Riley?" Rock asked her

"No Not at all I mean, you can walk us both I don’t mind Or if Trisha doesn’t want to, you can walklike an idiot

I shot her an annoyed frown She had just told him he could walk her anywhere at any tiht all women should fall at his feet Apparently they all did

He chuckled "I’d really like to take Trisha She’s et her to keep ed me hard in my battered ribs, and I fell into Rock’s chest as I let out a sto be sick If only I could breathe, I would have run to the restroo arms wrapped aroundup "You okay?"

I couldn’t answer hiling to breathe

"Shit, how hard did you hit her?" he asked angrily His arht hi as the pounding in my head eased I needed to tell her it was fine, that this wasn’t her fault But I was still fighting back the nausea

"You okay? You need me to walk you down to the nurse? Have her take a look?" He was concerned If he hadn’t held on topast the lingering pain, Itoto let o, but he dropped his arms slowly, reluctant to let me move away

"I’m so sorry," Riley whispered "I didn’t o with hi out loud He’s" Riley paused

"It’s fine I think you just hit the wrong spot and, uhhit my, uhfunny bone" That didn’t even sound believable

Riley scrunched her nose up and frowned "I thought I hit your side"

I glanced back at Rock He was going to think I was crazy But et et a book from the library," I said in a hurry, then turned and walked as fast as I could down the hallway No footsteps followed one, Rock would probably turn the charm on Riley and she’d let him sweet-talk his way into her panties The idea of thatup with Riley

Shoving that thought away, I passed by the library and headed toward s about school: I got a hot et ht Fandora was in a bad er than this without food I could make it until tomorrow at lunch if needed What I wasn’t ready to do was face Rock after that fiasco in the hall I doubted he’d try to speak to ht I was insane

Chapter Five

Rock

I didn’t like Trisha’s friend First she hurt her, then she didn’t run after her Instead the brunette had started flirting with er off my tray in the cafeteria, I headed for the library to find Trisha Eating would have been i had been off about that whole scene Riley had only elbowed her in the ribs I’d seen it and I hadn’t liked it, but I didn’t think it was hard enough for the reaction it caused Hell, if I hadn’t gotten a look at how pale Trisha’s face had gone and the pain in her eyes, I would have thought she was acting just to getas I held her She’d really been in soht about it, the more it bothered me The only reason someone would react like that was if they were hurt already And if she was hurt there already, why not just tell us instead ofoff?