Of course my gaze zeroed right in on a certain asset of hers.

I managed to pull my gaze away before I gave myself a damn eyestrain. Walking toward my car, I opened the passenger door and tossed my books on the seat. I closed the door and then walked across the small patch of grass and onto her driveway.

Kat stiffened but ignored me as I walked up the side of the car. “I don’t think wiggling wires is going to help.”

Letting go of the hood, she glared in my direction with stormy eyes. “Are you a mechanic or something? A special hidden car talent I know nothing about?”

I laughed under my breath. “You actually don’t know anything about me.”

Her lips pursed. “I count that as a blessing.”

“I bet you do,” I murmured as I stepped closer to the front of her car, forcing her to take a step back.

She sighed. “Hello. I was standing there.”

I winked at her. “You’re not standing there anymore.” Using my body to shield what I was doing, I ran the tips of my fingers along the battery, sending a jolt of high-powered energy into it. “Anyway, can you try turning it on one more time?”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“It’s not going to work.”

Turning to her, I smiled tightly. “Just try it, Kitten.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Don’t call me that.”

“I wouldn’t call you that if you were sitting in your car, turning it on,” I replied reasonably.

“Oh my God,” she griped and then pivoted. She stomped around to the driver’s side. “Whatever.”

I arched a brow as she all but threw herself into the car and turned the ignition. The battery sparked to life and the engine turned over, starting the car. Too bad the hood blocked the windshield, because I would’ve paid good money to see her face. That being said, I really didn’t have time for this crap. This was not part of “the plan” I’d devised last night to push her even further away.

I sighed and lowered the bar, closed the hood, and locked it into place.

Kat was staring out the windshield, lips parted.

“See you at school.” I paused, unable to resist adding, “Kitten.”

I grinned as I heard her shriek.

When I moseyed on into trig later that morning, the first thing I noticed was that her hair was down where it had been up earlier that morning, and the fact that I noticed the change didn’t even register on the screwed-up scale. I liked her hair down. It was long and a little wild-looking, like her hair was constantly in a state of rebellion.

I really needed to stop thinking of her hair as if it had a personality.

Kat was whispering with the two girls—Carissa, and the curly-haired one was Lesa. Yeah, those were their names. Their mouths clamped shut, all three of them, the moment they saw me.

Interesting.

Kat bit down on her lip as she sank into her chair.

Even more interesting.

I made my way past her and the girls, taking my seat right behind Kat. Carissa spun around, facing the front, while Lesa kept peeking over her shoulder.

Hmm.

I had a plan when it came to dealing with Kat. I needed to stick to said plan.

Pulling the pen out of my notebook, I poked Kat in the back. She stiffened, but didn’t turn around, so I poked her again, this time with a little more effort. She whipped around, her long dark hair flying out around her. “What?”

I smiled at the irritation in her tone. Behind her, I could see that everyone was watching us. They were probably worried she was going to whip out another plate of food, maybe syrupy pancakes this time, and dump it on my head.

Tipping my chin down, I lowered my gaze. “You owe me a new shirt.”

Her jaw came unhinged.

“Come to find out,” I continued, voice low, “spaghetti sauce doesn’t always come out of clothes.”

Kat’s pink lips parted. “I’m sure you have enough shirts.”

“I do, but that was my favorite.”

“You have a favorite shirt?” Her nose wrinkled. Cute.

Dammit. Not cute.

“And I also think you ruined Ash’s favorite shirt, too,” I pointed out.

She tilted her head to the side. “Well, I’m sure you were there to comfort her during such a traumatic situation.”

“I’m not sure she’ll recover,” I replied drily.

Kat rolled her eyes and then started to turn around.

The plan—stick to the plan. “You owe me. Again.”

The warning bell rang as she stared at me. “I don’t owe you anything.”

Tipping the desk down, I leaned in. Scant inches separated our mouths. “I have to disagree.” And then, because apparently I sucked at keeping to the plan, I said, “You’re nothing like I expected.”

Her gaze dropped to my mouth. “What did you expect?”

A hundred things that she wasn’t. “You and I have to talk.”

“We have nothing to talk about.”

I watched her lips form those words, and then I lifted my eyes to hers. “Yes. We do. Tonight.”

The tip of Kat’s tongue darted out, wetting her upper lip. Holy crap, that got me in a lot of areas. My fingers tightened around the edge of the desk. She nodded and then turned around slowly. Satisfaction flooded me, and I smiled tightly.

And then noticed the teacher and the class were staring at us. Oh well. I lowered my desk back onto all four legs. Someone cleared their throat. The teacher began calling names. I lifted my fingers, one by one off the edge of the desk.

As plain as day, the edge of the desk was sunken along eight different areas. Melted, as if it been too close to an extreme heat. Without even testing it out, I knew the indents would match my fingers.

After school, I ended up getting waylaid by Matthew. He’d wanted to know how I was handling the situation between Ash and Kat. He was actually worried that Ash would do something to harm Kat and potentially expose us.

I wasn’t so sure about that.

If Kat had dumped food on Ash somewhere more private, yeah, there would’ve been a good chance that Ash would’ve tried to fry her. And Ash had the potential to make Kat’s life a living hell at school, but I liked to think that she realized Dee wouldn’t stand for it.

I wouldn’t stand for it.

What went down in the cafeteria, though, reinforced the likelihood of bad stuff going down the more Kat was around us. She’d already been targeted by an Arum, and that could—that would—happen again. It wasn’t necessarily Kat’s fault. Actually, it wasn’t her fault at all. She didn’t understand the dynamics or what she was getting herself into.

Dee had human friends before, but they were more like acquaintances, people she wasn’t entirely close to. Kat was different. If she didn’t live next door and so close to the colony, then maybe she wouldn’t pose such a problem.

Maybe I wouldn’t think twice about her.

But none of that was either here or there. With school back in session, there were other people that Kat could buddy up with. Dee would eventually get over it. And everything would go back to being normal.

Time for me to stop screwing around with this.

It was close to eight when I knocked on Kat’s door. Her mom’s car was gone from the driveway, and for some reason, as I walked over to the porch railing, I wondered if that was why Kat was so into reading. With her mom never around, I imagined she had to be lonely.

Or maybe she just enjoyed reading that much.

The door opened, and Kat stepped out. I opened my mouth, but immediately closed it. Kat had changed since school. And it wasn’t just the missing cast, which was thankfully off her arm now. She also had a dress on—a pale blue dress with tiny straps and a lacy hem that showed off her legs and the slope of her shoulders.

Her hair was still down, cascading down her back, and as she closed the door behind her, I had a hard time focusing on what the hell I was doing over here.

She walked over to me, and moonlight sliced over her cheek as she lifted her gaze to mine. “Is Dee home?”