“I wouldn’t have gotten intoNYHSMSA if I weren’t.” I watch as his brows furrow. “They really need to give the school a different name. It’s too damn long.”
I throw my head back with a laugh as he twirls me out and back in with his typical flair and nearly break my neck. I don’t dance. I can’t even slow dance, but the distraction was needed. “Why don’t you give them some suggestions?”
“I might do that,” he says with a laugh. “So, what are you going to do about your two admirers?”
I glance over his shoulder to see the four guys laughing. There have been a couple of additions that have firmly perched themselves onto Dane and Jake’s laps, but Ryder and Maddox’s eyes are firmly planted on me with devilish grins.
“I don’t have a clue. I’ve never had this problem before.”
“Oh, honey, you’ve had the problem. You’ve just never been interested before. But if you don’t want them, can I have them?” He waggles his brows at me.
“And what, pray tell, would you do with them?” I laugh.
“I don’t have any idea.” He grins widely, showing his perfectly straight teeth. I don’t know why I am always noticing a person’s teeth. “I think they would eat me alive, but it would be a fun way to go.”
“Oh God.” My stomach lurches. “If you think they would eat you alive, what do you think they’d do to me?”
We dance to a few more songs before I excuse myself back to the table for a breather. Maddox and Ryder are still sitting at the table, long legs stretched out lazily. They both seem so perfectly comfortable in their skin, it’s baffling. I’ve never seen anyone exude so much confidence. And that’s what it is. Pure confidence, not arrogance or swagger. Though they have plenty of swagger too.
I look around, noticing Dane and Jake have vanished. I ask about them. Maddox tips his bottle of water in the direction of the bar where Dane is in deepconversationwith some redhead, then to the dance floor where Jake is with some blond.
I slide into the booth on the opposite side of both of them. Ryder arches a brow with a grin. “I get the feeling we make you nervous, love.”
I shake my head with denial. A lie to be sure, but they don’t need to know that. “I just don’t really know you. It’s kind of strange for you to just show up at my dorm like you did, don’t you think?”
“You didn’t call,” Maddox shrugs. “So, we came to you. But how about we get to know each other now, cupcake?”
I tilt my head in question. “Why do you keep calling me cupcake?”
He points a twirling finger toward my head. “It looks like icing on a cupcake.”
My face flames even though I try to stop it.
“So, what would you like to know, love? We’re an open book.”
An unattractive sound escapes my throat. “Yeah, I figured that out once I was told who you were. Found all sorts of things online.”
“And you think that tells you something about us?” Ryder grits out.
Clearly, I’ve offended him, but I don’t backpedal. “Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?”
“Right,” he sneers. “Know what? I don’t know why we invited you either. Pretty obvious you’ve made up your mind about us.”
“Calm down, Ry,” Maddox tells him with a hand to his shoulder. “It’s a normal assumption for most people, remember?”
“Yeah. Whatever. I’m going to get another drink. You coming?”
Maddox shakes his head, and Ryder wastes no time getting away from me. I suppose that’s one way to get rid of a distraction.
“He’s a little sensitive, isn’t he?” I continue to watch as he walks across the room to the bar.
“You mean like you were earlier, right?” Maddox says with a grin. I flinch at the comment. “He doesn’t like it when people assume they know him based on a photo or because of his last name. Just like you didn’t like it when I said I could tell you weren’t the type for a fake ID. The difference is, I wasn’t wrong.”
“So, what makes me wrong then?” I cross my arms over my chest, trying to hide my embarrassment of doing to them exactly what I got upset about earlier.
“Everyone looks at pictures of tabloids or whatever and assumes we’re spoiled, brainless playboys. Maybe we are.” He shrugs as he sips his water. “But don’t assume because we have money that we haven’t experienced hardship. We have depth and intelligence. We’ve experienced more in our lives than most, but people like us are expected to put on a smile and pretend life is grand. We have reputations and images to maintain.”
“Yeah, because maintaining models is such a hardship,” I grumble.
