I'm back with an early update! Also, it's a pretty long one! Hope you enjoy.
As always, please comment, share, and vote (if you think this chapter deserves it)!
—VIVKELLER23
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Teagan
Apparently helping Rain Sullivan knock down a would-be attacker wasn't good enough to warrant an invitation to her posh party. Sure, she called it a charity event but he knew that was just an expensive alternative to what was simply a rich get-together with fancy booze. At least, that's what he chose to believe. He wasn't an expert of the rich world, so he couldn't claim he had ever attended an event like the one Rain refused to invite him to.
Someone's feeling salty.
Teagan winced. Not salty. Just jilted.
It wasn't his fault he had expected the cordial invitation. Hell, he'd gotten invitations to every party of the week since he'd started attending Gray's as a student, and he hadn't even known half of the hosts' names! That hadn't stopped him from swinging by, drinking just enough to numb the disappointment of his sad existence, and drowning his troubles with a turn in the sheets of whoever happened to be interested.
He wasn't looking to get lucky with one of the wealthy, bored wives at Rain's event, if that was the reason Rain left his name off of the guest list.
But Rain seemed to forget one important thing. She didn't have the final say.
Teagan whistled as he swept the wet floor of the laundromat. At any other time, he would have complained about having to mop up after stupid people who couldn't work the latch on the washing machines well enough to make sure they were locked. Today was different.
Today, Teagan Miller, the man most girls' mamas would turn their nose up at, had received the golden ticket. Well, he wasn't going to the chocolate factory, but the idea was pretty much the same.
Sir Randolf Sullivan had deemed him worthy of being a guest to this year's festivities.
Was it wrong that he didn't care why the man had sent the crisp white invitation? He couldn't wait to see Rain's face when she realized she hadn't been able to shun him.
His excitement must have shown on his face. "You've got it bad," Gavin muttered with a disapproving shake of his head.
"What do you know about it?" he snapped. But he checked his jeans' pocket just to make sure the little demon hadn't taken the invitation out while he worked.
The boy lifted his hands, a sign of surrender. "Hey, I'm not complaining. If you were going to lose your head over a girl, I'm glad it was someone like that Rainy Lady."
It was pointless to argue that his head was on just fine. So he chose to make a different point.
"Her name's Rain." The boy had to have the worst memory.
Gavin smirked. "I know."
He's got his moves down. Teagan saw Gavin was going to be devastating when he grew up. That dimple was going to break hearts.
"So when are you going to tell her she's messing with your sleazy reputation?" the rascal asked.
Was there anything the boy didn't know? Teagan shook his head. "I don't even know why I'm so surprised anymore. You seem to know more about me than I do." Teagan abandoned the mop and glared down his nose. "Just how do you know about my questionable reputation and whether it's messed up?"
Gavin rolled his eyes, giving the impression that the answer was obvious. "You've got some pretty pissed off girls waiting for that booty call you promised them. I just happen to have a sister who knows a lot of the girls you've blown off."
Of course you do. "Am I the only juicy topic that ever comes up in your conversations? Because it seems to me, there's always something new you have to point out to me about the way I'm living my life."
"My sister would say you're meaty rather than juicy," was the dry response. "Whatever that means."
Teagan chuckled at the disgruntled look on Gavin's face, before silently sending a prayer of thanks skyward for sparing the boy from understanding his sister's raunchy joke. There were some things a boy was better off not knowing about until the later years in life.
"You aren't wrong," Teagan admitted at last. He walked over to the counter at the front of the half empty building to break an old lady's five into ones. He offered her a smile as he handed her the change.
"I'm not wrong," Gavin repeated, nodding his approval. "About what?"
Teagan sighed. He realized that talking about women and his less-than-stellar reputation with a would-be sixth grader wasn't exactly normal. On the other hand, he had no one else to talk to who would listen. Besides, the boy talked about him enough at home, so discussing his problems couldn't really hurt.
Right?
"She's messing up my game," Teagan explained. "Whatever your sister and grandmother have heard about me losing interest in the others... it's true." He ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. "I mean, technically, I could still... you know-" the disgusted look on the kid's face told him that Gavin did know- "but I have to work at it. It isn't fun anymore."
Gavin stared at him. "Well, I can't say I know what you're going through, but if it isn't fun, and you find yourself looking forward to spending time with my girl, there's only one thing you can do."
Somewhere faraway, someone was laughing at Teagan's little heart-to-heart with a child. Maybe God? But Teagan didn't care. The simple words out of Gavin's mouth made perfect sense.
Well, all the words minus two. "She's not your girl."
Gavin whistled, looking amused. "Don't be jealous."
"I'm not." Yeah, sure. "But what do you suggest I do?"
"How has Teagan "Tee" Miller gotten all the girls before? The same effort you put into flirting with your one night stands would be a good start."
Gavin Santos might have been a pain in the butt, but there was no denying that he also was wise beyond his years.
xXx
He was crazy for taking the advice of a second year fifth grader.
The process had always been simple when the goal had only been a night in a stranger's bed. Find a girl who looked interesting enough to give you some satisfaction at the end of the night, play up to her with some teasing, a flirty smile here and there, and bam! She was more than happy to give you the hot and heavy relief you were looking for.
But the process failed miserably when the girl in question was a beauty queen with enough class to want nothing to do with him.
Has the goal changed then? The voice in his head sounded very smug, which meant it knew the answer before it asked the question.
And it was right. The goal was different. It had been since the night of the party when he'd been the one rejecting her advances. If all he'd been looking for was a quick lay, the Ice Queen's attempt at seduction would have ended with them in the nearest bed, his morals buried in some deep hole until he worked up the strength to care.
The problem was that he did care. Too much for someone who had always taken pleasure where he wanted without a backward glance.
He cared even before he'd seen that beneath the indestructible facade she showed to the world, the Ice Queen was just a frightened, vulnerable woman trying to survive.
Her "please" had aroused something inside him that was stronger than any emotion he'd felt before.
That messed with a man's brain. Made him want things he had no business wanting.
Made him turn into someone he thought he'd lost a long time ago. Someone he hardly recognized in the mirror sometimes. All because of her.
And Gavin thought all he needed was some balls.
Well, he'd said a game plan, but the kind of games Teagan was used to playing required confidence, a great deal of it. And balls.
So when he strode into Tilden's class that Monday morning, he was more than ready to prove to the Ice Queen that he was worth bending the rules for.
"Aw, Miller, you've been improving greatly since you first crashed my course," Tilden greeted once the doors shut right as the clock tower chimed ten.
Teagan gave his signature smirk. "I aim to please," he replied. As he sat down beside a less than amused Rain, he bent close to her ear, trying not to notice the way she tensed when his breath moved the strands of her hair. "In all areas."
If he'd thought she would miss the meaning behind his words, her fierce glare confirmed she hadn't missed a thing. "I wouldn't know the areas you are referring to from experience, but from what I've seen in and out of the classroom, I'm not all that impressed."
He couldn't be blamed for thinking up a few moves he could use to change her mind. Given, they probably weren't the kind of experience she was looking for, but he couldn't rewire his mind to be appropriate after so many years of twisted humor.
"I'd be more than happy to show you what you're missing," Teagan drawled, wiggling his eyebrows at her when her glare only hardened.
"That's new," came the stony reply. "Then again, I guess passing up any opportunity to sleep with a female is too much temptation for you."
He frowned. "That's not true. I'm selective. I even turned you down, if I remember correctly?"
He should have kept his mouth shut.
The faint color in her cheeks and the flash of unease that appeared and vanished in her purple gaze was enough to tell him she remembered the night perfectly. "Thank goodness for that at least. You spared both of us one mistake that night."
One mistake? Had there been more?
And why did her words make him want to know more rather than back off? She was clearly telling him she wasn't interested, that there had been mistakes that night she hadn't escaped from, and all he cared about was finding out what those mistakes were.
Maybe even help her see them as happy accidents just like Bob Ross had once said.
"Today, we are going to step out of the role of student and teacher. We are going to be practitioners and observers." Tilden's voice boomed from his seat atop the old desk he kept cluttered with papers. He clapped his hands excitedly, a crazy gleam in his hawk-like eyes. "We're going to use what we know about how we're informed and how we form opinions based off of that information to tear down all the walls!"
God, help us all. The guy was insane.
"It's a mental revolution, people!"
And mental was definitely the word for it.
There was a chorus of groans as the class began to pack up to follow the old wizard outside. Teagan hadn't bothered to bring the necessary notebook and pencil, but he lingered just the same, watching as Rain carefully put her stuff back into her book bag. It was because he was looking at her so intently that he noticed the simple silver band on her ring finger.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, where he preferred to shove most of the unfortunate news he liked to forget, he remembered a conversation he hadn't been invited to listen to. "So it's finally official?" he asked, trying to ignore the sour taste in his mouth that came with the thought of Rain Sullivan engaged to a pompous idiot.
"What is?"
"The Ice Queen found some golden boy worth her time?" He hated the disappointment he couldn't keep from his voice.
She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. "That's the second time you've indirectly beat around that bush. I still don't see how that's your business, but the answer is no."
He gave a slight nod. He wasn't relieved. That would be stupid and imply he cared a lot more than he did. Uh huh, sure. "Then what's with the ring?"
"It was my mother's."
As soon as she offered that bit of information, Rain stood from her seat and followed the rest of the class outside. Teagan was left with more questions than before, but something about the way her face had closed up when she mentioned her mother made him stop.
There had been grief and guilt on her pale face, a look he knew all too well.
A look he'd seen reflected back at him for years before he'd learned to hide it behind a smirk and hooded eyes.
And Tilden's prophetic words came back to haunt him: search for what's just beneath the surface. Sometimes it's the most important bit of information, and everyone overlooks it in search of something bigger.
That old man knew more than he let on.
xXx
The old man was freaking stupid. He'd basically claimed Rain was going to marry a man who made her smile and possessed a heart full of love to give.
What the hell did he know?
Cause, as far as anyone knew, she was engaged to the younger son of the Jeffers family, who, by all accounts, had no issue whatsoever with his brother trying to force himself on his fiancé.
That didn't sound like a man with much heart.
Never mind that the conversation had started off as a hypothetical situation that Teagan had only half listened to. The end results of the Wizard had been enough to make Teagan want to spit.
What did looking at trees and watching students walk across campus with their noses buried in books have to do with data anyway?
"Rain effing Sullivan!"
Silence fell over the class as everyone looked away from the squirrel Tilden had been observing to look at the furious female with the pink and blue hair who had dared to yell at the Ice Queen. While everyone was busy ogling the fuming Gia Dyer, no one paid much attention to the pesky redhead scrambling along behind her.
Had Crue always been that invested in anything concerning Rain?
Rain remained true to her name. She was every inch the Ice Queen as she stared her old friend down. Nothing but cool indifference showed on that flawless face.
That set off an explosion in Gia. "What the hell do you think you're doing, flaunting your picture perfect lifestyle at me?" she hissed. "Did you forget that I know you? That I've seen what you're really like?"
Teagan had never regretted sleeping with someone so close to Rain, even if she was a part of her past. He understood then why Rain had been so distant, why she hadn't demanded an explanation from him for sleeping with Gia when his rules had always prohibited him from being with someone for longer than one night.
It was too close to what she wanted to forget.
There was pain and betrayal between them. A bridge neither had wanted to look back at.
A line he had unintentionally crossed while trying to fight off the need he felt for Rain. Not that he was trying to excuse what he had done. Lord knew he could have had his choice of any woman if he'd wanted the usual hookup. But something in his mind had wanted to bother her just a little. The same way she bothered him.
It was no secret the two didn't care much for each other. At least, that's what they made it look like. So it shouldn't have been such a shock that the two of them were finally letting the tension blow over.
But Teagan had seen Rain's furious defense of Gia not too many nights ago. She'd been willing to face down a mean drunk twice her size... all for a girl who had once been her friend.
For two girls who wanted so desperately to hate each other, they couldn't stay out of each other's way.
"You had no right to reach out now after the years you've pretended I didn't exist!" Gia shook her fist inches from Rain's unflinching face. Then she opened it, allowing a crisp white card to fall, crumpled at her feet.
An invitation to the Grand Sullivan Estate.
The Ice Queen simply raised an eyebrow. "I thought the whole years of ignoring each other was a mutual decision?"
Crue chose that exact moment to open her mouth. "Stop trying to play the innocent, you icy bit-"
"Crue." He hadn't realized he was going to speak until he growled her name in warning. By then it was too late to call back the underlying anger he heard in the way he said the other woman's name.
No one spoke to Rain that way. Especially not a shallow girl like Crue who clung to men like ivy and refused to let go when the game was over.
The redhead pouted her freshly painted, blood red mouth. "Ah, Tee. What's the matter? Hasn't the frigid Queen told you what kind of girl she really is?" Crue hissed with pure malice.
The students in Tilden's class murmured among each other, speculating on what Crue meant. Teagan watched Rain for any sign that she was cracking under the force of Crue's hatred, Gia's outburst, and the added drama of having all this unfold in public. The only outward break in her mask was a flicker of her eyelids. Quick and miniscule, like the flutter of a butterfly's wings.
To him, it may as well have been the collapse of the walls of Jericho.
"Has she told you how she made a grand show of sparing Gia from a rapist? A rapist, Tee! The great Rain Sullivan, Ice Queen of Granite Woods, defender of females, a freaking fraud." Crue's lip curled in a snarl and she made to step closer to Rain, but Gia's hand on her arm pulled her back.
"Stop it," Gia hissed in a desperate whisper.
"What's the matter, Gia? Isn't it true?"
"That isn't the issue here," Gia tried to reason.
But you couldn't reason with stupidity.
"Rain here is always playing the victim. From what I hear, she's untouchable." Crue raised a perfectly winged brow, and all Teagan could think about was taking a wipe to her forehead. Bye, bye, eyebrows. "Isn't that right, Rain? Or have you forgotten about the other Jeffers son you keep messing with?"
Teagan's ears started ringing at the sound of that family's name. He didn't have to look at Rain to know that name affected her, too.
He knew there was more to the relationship between the Sullivans and the Jefferses. He'd have to be blind not to have seen the signs every time the other family's name was even mentioned in Rain's presence. He had his suspicions, but pushing wasn't going to get him the answers he needed. Rain wasn't wired that way. The harder you pushed, the stronger her will to remain hidden.
She wouldn't break. She'd simply bury herself alive before she let anyone see into that part of her past.
Crue wasn't going to be the one to do that to her.
"That's a stupid thing to throw in her face when you know nothing about what happens in anyone's life unless it directly impacts your life." Teagan heard the excited whispers behind him as he spoke up, but that wasn't what drove him on. He was doing this because someone had to show Crue that making accusations wasn't how you got people on your side. "Yes, I'm calling you self-centered, in case you missed it."
Somewhere close behind him, Tilden hooted like an owl. Probably a wizard thing.
Rain cleared her throat. "It's okay."
But it wasn't. "No, not yet. But it will be."
Crue was sputtering while Gia fumed at her about not keeping her mouth shut. As far as Teagan was concerned, they were both at fault.
"And if you got your information from Gia, you should check the facts. Rain offered to help someone who hadn't spoken to her in years, not because she wanted to use it as an opportunity to gloat, but because it was the right thing to do." He shook his head, remembering how fiercely Rain had protected Gia.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Crue protested, rolling her eyes to show she was over being chastised.
Teagan gave her a pitying smile. "That's the problem. You don't know," he told her. "If you'd been in Gia's position, she'd have done the same for you, not because you're Crue and would probably run your mouth if she left you. She'd have helped you to save you from knowing firsthand what it feels like to be attacked by someone who doesn't understand the meaning of 'no.'"
That was one thing everyone needed to know about Rain Sullivan. She wasn't as frozen solid as it seemed at first glance.
And Tilden- God, that odd fool- clapped his hands.
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