Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 220
Estimated words: 215301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1077(@200wpm)___ 861(@250wpm)___ 718(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1077(@200wpm)___ 861(@250wpm)___ 718(@300wpm)
Ben clasps her wrist and pulls her on the bed.
Her red plaid pants are so low-rise, I see her black thong sticking out. Why, God, are you doing this to me? I’m not even religious, but someone is out to get me. I grab my guitar. “Later, Ben Pirrip,” I say. “Suck a dick, Avril Lavigne knockoff.”
“Tom,” Ben growls.
“I meant your dick,” I say fast.
Harriet flips me off. “Get bent, MCR wannabe.”
I motion to Ben. “See, she started it.”
“She finished it,” Ben says with a growing laugh.
I smile back at him, and I think he knows I’d never intentionally cause harm to his girlfriend. Harry can handle being teased.
Right before I go, I ask him, “What coursework did you have?”
“Ecology paper,” Ben says, watching Harriet reach over for her science textbooks and a stuffed animal lion they named Son of Ben. His frat made him carry the lion around as a pledge initiation thing. He ditched Kappa Phi Delta but kept the stuffed animal. Good call.
“Ecology,” I repeat so I won’t forget.
I’m at the door when he says, “Tom.” Worried blue eyes stare back at me. “Just promise you aren’t avoiding RJ because of me.”
Harriet casts a glance at me, then over to Ben. She has a highlighter cap between her teeth, and something tells me Ben has already shared his concerns with her. She’s unsurprised, just cautious of my response. Like I hold the pin to a grenade.
I am very used to blowing shit up, but I’m not trying to hurt them. I can’t hurt them. Harriet, too. She might bug me, but she means everything to Ben, and therefore, she means too much to me.
“I promise.”
Thank fuck he doesn’t ask me to promise in French.
Silence is too loud as I walk through the hall. I’m a second from telling our stereo system to play Jimmy Eat World when I enter the dark living room, but I stop short, seeing I’m not alone.
8
TOM COBALT
The only light on—a reading lamp—illuminates Charlie in an ethereal glow. He rotates a pen absentmindedly between his fingers and flips a page in a paperback. It’s late, but not so late that the room should look like the inside of a sarcophagus.
“Let there be light.” I tug the cord of the nearest lamp.
Charlie’s golden-brown hair is disheveled, and he wears an emerald silk robe, the ties undone. Only black boxer-briefs underneath. He doesn’t even break his attention off his book.
Which is fine. I’m used to Charlie ignoring me. What I’m not used to is his consistent presence this week.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him.
He flips a page, and his eyes remain on the book. “I live here.”
“Yeah, but you’ve been here four nights in a row. That has to be some sort of Charlie Cobalt world record.” I lean my guitar against the wall and sit on the arm of the couch, facing him while he’s on a midnight-blue chair. “Don’t you have places to be? People to aggrieve?”
He looks up at me at this. Getting his attention is a full-on art form. I grin.
“What are you doing here?” he shoots back. “Don’t you have a new bandmate to piss off until they quit?”
“Straight to the heart, Charlie Keating.” I’m not at all wounded. Charlie’s digs don’t really hurt me since I’m well-equipped to launch them back. It makes Charlie one of my favorite people to be around. Bantering with him is like a master class in verbal warfare. “And I’m so glad you asked about my new bandmate.” I slide down to the couch cushion.
“I didn’t ask.”
“He’s arguing with me over the font of the band name. Can you believe that?”
Charlie folds his paperback over his thumb. “Yeah, I can. Now, why don’t you go tell Eliot?”
“He’s at auditions.” Eliot had been cast in a huge production of The Mousetrap, but its run on Broadway ended, so now he’s trying to book a new role in another play.
Charlie checks his watch. “Unless he’s fucking the casting director, he’s not at auditions this late.”
I check the time on my phone.
It’s already midnight?
My brain has been so mentally wrapped around Phoenix that the time snuck past me. “Then he’s with Rachel…or Regina…No, I think her name is Rachel.” I nod a couple times, going with my first guess.
Charlie looks like he wishes he didn’t entertain the subject. “So go talk to Ben.”
“He’s either doing college stuff or doing his girlfriend. I’m trying not to bother him.”
“So you decided to bother me instead.”
“It’s your lucky night.” I kick my legs up on the coffee table. “You have me all to yourself.”
Charlie exhales a sharp breath through his nose. He puts two fingers to his temple. “You aren’t going to annoy Ben so badly that he books a one-way ticket back to Alaska.”
Am I afraid of that? My eyes burn, and I push a tense hand through my hair. “I didn’t say I was scared of that happening.”