Dirty Truth: A High School Bully Romance (Forrest Grove Academy Book 2) Read online

  When I came to a stop near the edge, I grabbed onto the concrete and held myself there, taking slow breaths to bring my heart rate back down. God, that swim had really helped push everything else out of my mind. I wished I had thought of it sooner.

  “So, I guess you’re just going to ignore me from now on?” Wes’s sudden voice made me jump as I let out a squeak. Whirling around in the direction the voice had come from, I was just barely able to make out his shadow in one of the lounge chairs on the opposite end of the pool.

  Christ, had he been there the entire time? Had I really been so lost in my own little bubble that I hadn’t noticed him sitting there? I hadn’t bothered to turn on any of the exterior lights when I had come out, so the only illumination in this part of the yard was the colored light from the pool itself and what little bit of light spilled out from the kitchen.

  “I didn’t even know you were there,” I said, honestly. Part of me had wanted to ignore him, but ignoring a direct question like that was just a bit ruder than I was comfortable with.

  What could I say? Momma had at least tried to raise me as a lady, even if she’d only had limited success.

  Wes snorted. Metal ground against the concrete as he stood, the chair sliding a bit. As he walked around the edge of the pool, clearly heading in my direction, I cursed myself for having answered him. Of course, he’d take that as an invitation to keep talking. But he didn’t say a word until he sat on the edge of the pool, his feet in the water.

  He had a joint in his right hand, which clued me in on why he’d been hiding out here in the dark. No doubt he’d needed to relieve a bit of tension as well, and after the argument, he’d had with his father before dinner, I doubted he wanted to get caught smoking pot.

  And damn if I didn’t want to take the joint from him and take a hit myself. I hadn’t smoked any since before Mom had died. I’d been stressed as hell, but when I was staying at JP’s, it hadn’t seemed right, getting high right after her death. And once I had moved in here, I hadn’t wanted to risk getting busted by Lucas and tossed back out onto the street.

  It was sure tempting though, now more than ever.

  “So, are you gonna tell me why you’re so pissed at me? Because I told you I would talk to Dad for you.”

  “Yeah, well, I figured I would do it myself,” I said with a shrug. “Doubt it would’ve gone much different if you’d been the one to talk to him anyway.”

  Lucas had seemed pretty adamant about not giving me details about my father. What could Wes possibly say that would change his mind? At this point, Lucas would either tell me or he wouldn’t. Fighting with him about it wasn’t going to change anything.

  “He might’ve. You blindsided him by bringing it up like that. Especially after the shit with Kathy.” Wes let out a sigh, cutting himself off. Whatever the fight had been about, he really didn’t want me to know.

  Another secret in the Cabot family—how shocking.

  “Well, maybe you should’ve asked him then like you said you would.”

  “Christ, Bella, it’s been like three days! You couldn’t give me more time than that?” Wes ran a hand through his hair, then shook his head. “Look, I’m sorry for not asking him right away, all right? I was just trying to wait until it was a good time. He’s got a lot of shit going on, and I didn’t want to add any more stress to it, okay?”

  Sighing, I nodded. I wasn’t being fair to him, getting mad about him not having talked to Lucas already. I was just in a shitty mood with everything else going on, and Wes made it easy to take out my aggression on him.

  “I’m just... I’m tired of all the lies, okay? Ever since my Mom died, it’s been lie after lie from everyone around me. I just... I want to go back to when things were simple; when it wasn’t a game of cat and mouse between everyone. I just feel so damned alone here without her. She was the one person I could always count on to be there for me.”

  “You can count on me,” Wes said, his voice soft. He reached out, offering me his hand. I just stared at it, though, and then glared up at him.

  “And I’m supposed to believe that? Christ, Wes, you’re one of the biggest liars in this house. You sit there, pretending like you give a rats ass about me when the only reason you even come near me is because your father seems to think I need you to look after me.”

  Wes stared at me, his mouth hanging open. For a long while, the only sounds we heard came from the motor running in the hot tub a few feet away. Wes’s hand fell to his side as his expression fell at the same time. “You heard the argument we had a couple of days ago, didn’t you?”

  I snorted. “I’m surprised the people back in Compton couldn’t hear it, the way the two of you were shouting at each other.”

  “Look, Bella, I’m sorry you had to hear that. Yes, my father wants me to look out for you. He wants all of us to keep an eye on you, but it’s just because he cares about you. He doesn’t want anything to happen to you. And after that creep at the party, he’s been even more worried than usual.”

  “I can take care of myself, you know. Even if you and your friends hadn’t been there, I’d have figured something out. It’s not like there weren’t a hundred other people around. Sebastian was right there, too.” Wes smirked at the mention of his younger brother, giving me a look I couldn’t quite argue with. “Okay, so maybe Sebastian is about as helpful as a twig when it comes to a fight, but the point is he was there to help. I don’t need you on my ass, pretending you care about me just to appease your father.”

  “Just because I told my father I would keep an eye on you doesn’t mean I’m pretending to care about you. I do care about you, Bella. Really. I admit I wasn’t thrilled about you coming to stay with us, but now that I’ve gotten to know you, I really do like you.”

  I looked up into his eyes, trying to see through his lie. But, the more I looked at him, the more I became sure he wasn’t lying to me. It really did look like he was telling the truth, that he actually did care about me.

  This time, when he offered me his hand, I took it. With far too little effort, he hoisted me right up out of the water and into his lap. I giggled and squirmed, water soaking into Wes’s clothes. He didn’t seem to care, though. He kept his arms around me, holding me tight against him.

  “I love you, Isabella,” he whispered, his mouth only centimeters from my ear. His hot breath washed over me, making me shiver. “No matter what my father says. I really do love you.”

  “I love you, too,” I whispered back, unable to stop the words from coming out. As much as I hated to admit it, I did love Wes. That was part of the reason it’d hurt so much, thinking he had been lying to me the entire time. If I hadn’t loved him, it would’ve been so much easier to have just walked away from him.

  When Wes brought his lips to mine, and I kissed him right back. All the anger I’d had floated away as we made out, all of my doubts going away right along with it. I didn’t even fight it when Wes’s hands start roaming over my body.

  His touch sent goosebumps through me. I continued to squirm on his lap. After a few more minutes, a hard lump pressed into my bottom, and I groaned into his mouth. I wasn’t the only one getting turned on by all of this. Feeling Wes’s erection pressed into me made me squirm even more as pressure built up inside me.

  Wes held me tight, not letting me wiggle away. When he slid a hand between my legs, though, I thought I was going to explode. Normally, I would have slapped someone for touching me there without asking first. With Wes, though, I wanted him to touch me there. I wanted him to do that and so, so, much more.

  He lit a fire inside me, one that spread the longer he kissed and touched me. I wanted this moment to go on forever. I didn’t want to ever have to go back to reality. I just wanted it to be Wes and me for the rest of my life, without all the other worries that always got in the way. When I was in his arms, nothing else really mattered. Nothing could hurt me.

  It was heaven.

  But it couldn’t last forever, no matter how much I wished
it was. Wes hadn’t put his hand inside my bikini, but he didn’t need to. Just rubbing me through the thin material was enough to stoke that fire to its breaking point. I moaned into his mouth as wave after wave of heat washed over me.

  The world around us spun, and I squeezed my eyes closed as it turned to a blinding white light. It’d never felt anything so intense before. Certainly not from any of the other guys I’d been with before. Not even all the times I’d been alone in the shower or in bed, dreaming about someone like Wes.

  When I came crashing back down to earth, all I could do was gasp for air. Wes and I had broken the kiss at some point, both of us breathless and struggling to breathe. When I looked into his eyes, he grinned at me, this dopey, silly, smile.

  “I love you,” he said again, and I repeated the words without even having to think about them.

  The lump in Wes’s lap slowly went down, and my eyes widened. “Did... did you?” I asked, unable to even say what was going through my mind.

  Wes’s cheeks flushed red, but he nodded. Then, he leaned and gave me another quick kiss. “Because of you.”

  I shuddered. I’d never gotten a guy off just from just grinding against his lap before. I giggled as I grinned at him, batting my eyelashes and doing my best to look innocent. “Just imagine what I could do if I was actually trying,” I whispered into his ear.

  Wes sucked in a breath and held it. Then, without warning, he dumped me back into the pool. I squealed before slipping beneath the water. When I came up, sputtering, Wes was laughing and grinning. “That’s what you get for being a tease!”

  “Asshole,” I grumbled, swimming over to the edge and hoisting myself up out of the water. Then, I stood there and stretched, letting droplets of water cascade down my body. I could feel Wes’s eyes on me even without looking at him. So I sauntered over to the towels and grabbed one, taking my time to dry off, putting on a good show for Wes.

  Then, I looked over at him and winked. “Better hope your father doesn’t catch you with that,” I teased, seeing a very visible tent in his wet clothes. “Otherwise, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”

  Without another word, I sauntered back inside, leaving Wes to groan. One of these days, he’d learn I could give just as well as I took.

  Chapter 5

  “You’re not serious,” Wes said with a frown. He stared at the massive stuffed duck hanging above the prize counter in horror. Bright yellow, the thing stood at least five feet tall, plump with stuffing. “Will that even fit in the car?”

  I shrugged. I was sure it would. It wasn’t much bigger than Sebastian, and if we could fit him in the backseat, we could fit the duck in there, I figured. Getting it home wasn’t the hard part. Wes winning it for me was going to be the hard part. It cost an astronomical amount of tickets, and Wes would either have to get very, very lucky on the right games, or spend a small fortune buying tokens.

  But even since Wes had called me a tease after dumping me in the pool, I was taking great pleasure in actually teasing him. It’d been a week since then, a week that seemed to have gone by in the blink of an eye, but I still hadn’t finished torturing the poor guy.

  But I told him I would give him a break and stop being so mean if he won me that giant stuffed duck.

  Jaxson and Hunter started cackling, smirking at their best friend. Even Adrian, standing between the two, was giggling. Sebastian and Todd had run off together somewhere, agreeing to meet back up with us around sunset. There was supposed to be a giant party down on the beach tonight, and we’d all agreed to come early to spend some time on the pier.

  Wes looked over at me one more time, and I just grinned at him. He groaned, then reached for his wallet and headed over to the little machine that would turn his money into shiny little tokens. “This better be worth it,” he grumbled under his breath.

  Standing on my toes, I leaned over to whisper right into his ear. “You know I’m worth it.”

  The shiver that went through his body made me grin even broader. It was so easy to tease him, which was actually kind of surprising. Since he had a reputation for sleeping his way through the school, I figured it’d have been more of a challenge. But simple looks and light touches were enough to drive him bonkers.

  When I turned to look at Adrian, I winked at her, and she laughed. Returning my grin, she started nodding. There was a mischievous fire in her eyes now. “I think you’ve got the right idea.” Lips pursed in thought, she turned and surveyed the amassed collection of prizes the arcade had displayed. Then, her eyes locked onto two massive stuffed monkeys, one in neon green, and the other in bright blue. “I think the two of you better get busy.”

  Hunter and Jaxson exchanged looks of horror. When Adrian just kept smiling at them, they groaned simultaneously and trudged over to the machine for their turn at cashing in their money.

  “You’ve got those boys whipped,” I whispered to Adrian, proud of how quickly she’d tamed not just one man-whore, but two. “The girls at school aren’t going to know what to do with a sudden lack of horny men that’ll drop their pants at the drop of a hat.”

  Adrian and I burst into laughter, and then went to get ourselves some sodas and french fries while the boys got to work. It was going to take them quite a while to earn those prizes, and we were going to need snacks to enjoy the show with!

  Adrian and I giggled as the poor arcade attendant stared at the three massive piles of tickets the guys had just dumped onto the counter in front of him. Pretty much the entire arcade was staring too. Little kids had circled around in awe, watching the totals add up as the guy fed the tickets into his little counting machine.

  He had to empty it twice before it’d finished counting all the tickets. Each of them had indeed earned enough for the massive stuffed animals hanging on the wall. The sigh of resignation that came from the clerk when they all pointed out which prizes they wanted made me feel a bit guilty for him.

  The idea had been to punish Wes a little more, not the kid who was probably making minimum wage at this place. But he went to the back and retrieved a ladder, then dutifully climbed up it to unhook the stuffed animals before presenting them to the guys.

  Who, of course, sauntered over to us with their hard-earned prizes in hand. Well, not so much hard-earned as hard paid for. I hadn’t kept track of how much money each of them had fed into the machine throughout the afternoon, but I was sure it was far more than those stuffed animals were worth.

  I scowled as Wes stood there smirking, the big yellow duck in his arms. Even held up against his hulking frame, the thing really was massive. And while I was glad Wes had been able to win it for me, I could’ve done without his ego and cockiness that had come along with it. He was just a bit too proud of himself, especially since it’d been Lucas’s money he’d spent dollar after dollar.

  He still had a cup half full of tokens; along with the remaining tickets he’d had leftover. I grinned at him, then walked over and kissed him on the cheek. “Congratulations,” I told him, batting my eyelashes. “You’re going to look so manly carrying that around with you for the rest of the night!”

  Before he could respond, I plucked the cup out of his hands and walked away. I had to fight the urge to giggle as she started sputtering behind me.

  There was a little girl, maybe seven or eight years old, in a wheelchair who’d been watching in amazement as the guys had their tickets counted and collected their prizes. So I went over to her and squatted down until we were eye level. “Since I got the prize I wanted, I figured you could make better use of these than we could,” I said as I handed her the cup.

  The girl squealed with delight, and she threw her arms around me in a hug. The way her eyes lit up with excitement was well worth having to put up with Wes and the other’s doing their macho men routine for the rest of the night.

  “Are... are you sure?” the man behind her wheelchair asked. His eyes were wide as he stared into the cup of tokens, no doubt knowing just how much money all those tokens had
cost. I wasn’t quite sure myself, but I had a feeling it was more than he could’ve afforded to spend on his daughter in one outing.

  I smiled at him and nodded. “Have some fun with them for me, okay? And win yourself a good prize. Maybe one day, when you’re older, you’ll find someone special who will win you the biggest stuffy they have, too.”

  After both the father and daughter thanked me profusely, I went back over to Wes, who was looking at me with pink cheeks. I kissed him again, and then hooked arms with him. “You didn’t need those, did you?” I asked in a light, airy tone.

  Wes chuckled and rolled his eyes. He knew better than to argue with me over something like that. Besides, he really hadn’t needed the tokens anymore. And it may have been a small fortune to that girl and her father, but it was still just pocket change to Wes. “Nope, not at all,” he said before kissing me on the cheek. “And that was very sweet of you. I’m sure you just made that little girl’s day.”

  Adrian once again followed in my footsteps. But she didn’t even have to say a word to Jaxson or Hunter. She just stood there, hands-on-hips, and smiled at the two of them. They both handed over their massive stuffed bears for her to hold, then each found a kid to give the rest of their tokens and tickets to. When she handed them back the bears to carry for her, she winked, and I grinned at her.

  A bit more time and we might just turn all three of them into respectable members of society!

  We did take pity on them, only forcing them to carry the stuffed animals until it was time for the beach party to start, and then we stowed them in the cars. As much fun as it would’ve been to make Wes carry the giant duck for the rest of the night, I didn’t want it to get covered in sand.

  “What made you wanna come to the pier before the party?” I asked, leaning against Wes’s side as we walked down the beach. The sun was just starting to set, and we could already hear the music blasting in the distance. The vibrant reds and purples from the sun cast a gorgeous view, one that had me staying close to Wes and wishing we weren’t on our way to a crowded party.