I opened my eyes, hating the fact that my lashes felt damp. This was not me. I was not this kind of girl. I was not—

Two headlights lit up the road, quickly bearing down on me. I twisted halfway, and my heart plummeted. It was a Jeep, but it couldn’t be.

No way.

Brakes squealed as the car screeched to a halt beside me, and I was suddenly staring at Jase’s face through the open passenger window. His eyes were shadowed, but his lips were pressed into a tight, furious thin line. “I’ve been calling you.”

I didn’t have a response to that which didn’t include fuck off.

Jase leaned half of his long body into the passenger seat, and now that I could see his eyes, they were a deep, stormy gray. “Get in the car.”

“No.” The word came out, and fuck, if it didn’t feel good saying it.

He glared at me. “Get in the car, Tess.”

“I don’t think so.”

He looked away, taking a deep breath before returning his attention to me. “What are you doing all the way out here? It better not be what I think you’re doing, because you cannot possibly be that stupid.”

And just like that, an emotional switch was thrown. Anger flooded my system. I skipped right out of drama llama land and straight into crazy bitch land. “I’m not that stupid? The fact that you have to ask me what I’m doing is pretty stupid when it’s damn obvious. I’m walking home.”

He stared at me like I’d just admitted to having a penis. “You’re walking home?”

“Did I stutter?” I snapped. Not my most clever of all comebacks, but I was rewarded when his expression clouded over.

“Are you fucking insane?” When I didn’t respond, he cursed and then jerked the wheel to the curb. Leaving the engine running, he hopped out of the Jeep and was in front of me in an instant. With his height, he towered over me, but all I saw was that his shirt was still unbuttoned. “First off, you are walking on a major highway. A car could come flying down too close to the shoulder and hit you! Kill you, Tess.”

As if to prove his point, a car flew down the road, music thumping from its speakers. Perfect timing. I folded my arms. “I—”

“Or someone could stop.” He caught the edge of my chin, forcing me to hold his gaze when I started to look away. “And not someone who’s interested in just giving you a ride home. Do you understand me?”

I blanched. “I do, but—”

“And then there’s your knee. Did you even think about that?” Man, he was on a roll. He still had my chin, daring me to even blink. “You think it’s good for your injury to walk that far? And because of what?”

I opened my mouth to say something that was probably not going to make this situation any better, but that’s not what came out of my mouth. “Was the cupcake for her?”

Damn me straight to hell and back. I was never drinking again. Fuck beer and the keg it rode in on.

Jase’s eyes held mine, and what felt like an eternity stretched out before he dropped his hand and cursed. “Get in the car, Tess. And do not argue with me.” He started to turn, but then whipped back toward me. “Fuck it.”

He didn’t even give me a chance to follow him. Like the first day he joined music class, one second I was standing and the next second I was over his shoulder. The world tilted and my hair fell forward in a tangled mess.

“What the hell?” I shrieked, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt. “Put me down!”

“Hell no. I’m not standing out here arguing with you.” He stalked over to the Jeep and yanked open the door. “You and I are going to talk—”

“I don’t want to talk to you!” I slammed my palm into his back. He didn’t make a sound as he turned around, dropping me onto the front seat. “You—”

“You move out of that seat, I swear to God, I will sit on you,” he warned.

“I don’t—what? Sit on me? What are you? Two?”

Jase gripped the door. “Stay there.”

“I’m not a dog.”

He leaned in, putting his face right in mine. Up close, his eyes were a stunning shade of silver. “Stay here. If you get out, I will chase after you. Like a dog.”

I scrunched up my nose. “That’s an attractive mental image.”

“Focus on that image for a few seconds.” Backing up, he slammed the door shut.

There wasn’t enough time to truly debate the whole running and him chasing me option. He was in the car and it was moving before my brain caught up with what was happening.

“That cupcake wasn’t for her.”

I didn’t believe him.

“It was for you. Shit, I can’t believe you were going to walk home,” he said, shaking his head as he thrust his fingers through his hair. “Why? Because of me?”

“No. Absolutely not. I just wanted to go home.”

“Yeah. You’re a terrible liar.”

“You have terrible perception,” I snapped, folding my arms. The beer sloshed in my stomach. “And why are you even here? Don’t you have a half-naked chick waiting for you in your bedroom?”

“And that didn’t have anything to do with why you left?”

I opened my mouth, but closed it. Crap. I stared out the window, pressing my lips together. “I was obviously interrupting.”

“Actually, I was glad you interrupted.”

I barked out a laugh. “Sure you were.”

There was a beat of silence as he hooked a right. “That wasn’t what you thought. What was going on in there? Nothing was going to happen.”

“I’m not stupid, Jase. And, honestly, do you even owe me an explanation? No. We’re friends, remember? You can talk to or screw whoever. And I can talk to and screw whoever. After all, I just want to get—”

“I do owe you an explanation, damnit.” He gripped the steering wheel. “And wait—screwing whoever? Who the fuck do you—”

My breath caught in a god-awful way, burning my eyes. “I don’t want to talk.”

“We need to talk,” he interrupted, voice hard. “We needed to talk since yesterday.”

“And I have a phone.” I whipped toward him in the seat, planting my hand on the dashboard. “You haven’t called or anything.”

He sent me a side look. “I figured I’d let you calm down. I would’ve talked to you tonight if Cam wasn’t around.”

“Oh, but I guess you were too busy, huh?” God, I knew I sounded snide and snotty. I needed to shut up.

Jase took a deep breath. “I didn’t invite her up there, Tess. She came up on her own.”

“And I guess she just took her shirt off? Does that happen to you a lot without any warning?” I laughed harshly. “What an interesting life you must lead. Falling on girls’ mouths and having them whipping their shirts off.”

That half grin appeared. “Well, I do live a charmed life . . .”

“Shut up.”

He sighed. “Tess, I’m not lying to you. Okay? Her name is Steph. We’ve messed around a few times, but not recently. I didn’t even know she was going to be here tonight. She came up and she took her shirt off.”

I snorted.

A muscle throbbed along his jaw. “She wanted to do more. I’m not going to lie, I briefly considered it because I’m a guy, but I didn’t, because she’s not who I want. And nothing happened. Her shirt came off a minute before you walked in.”

I stared at him for a moment and then looked away. Believing him was equivalent to walking in front of a car. And damn, I wanted to believe him. The thumping in my chest was begging me to believe him.

“Shit, Tess, I even picked up that cupcake for you.” There was a pause. “Do you really think I would’ve been screwing a girl knowing you were at the party?”

“You didn’t know I was there.”

“I did,” he shot back.

Okay. Whatever. I shrugged.

“Damnit, Tess, you really think that?” He swore again. “You think that?”

“You’ve kissed me and regretted it. You’ve said things you didn’t remember when you were drunk, so—”

Jase hit the brakes and we stopped in the middle of the dark street. My eyes widened as I twisted toward him. “What are you—”

“Nothing has happened between Steph and me for months, Tess. Nothing. And you know what? I’ve never kissed her.”