Nero (Made Men #1) (8 page)

Chapter
Nine

Walk Beside the Beast

Nero forced Elle inside the closet
. She seriously regretted teasing him now. As he shut the door, it was no longer funny.

Nero pushed her against the wall
.

“I’m
—I’m sorry. I won’t joke about how cute it is again.” She thought Nero looked at her like a wolf and she was his prey. He grabbed a piece of her hair and spun it around his finger. “I mean, it definitely isn’t cute. Nope, it’s manly that all the fathers and sons are all best friends.” Elle was more and more nervous with each word she spoke. She knew she wasn’t making it better.

“You
’re not helping yourself out here, Elle.” He placed his hand under her ear, his fingers grasping her hair with his palm resting on the side of her neck, positioning her for the taking.

Elle didn’t know what to do
. She blurted out something she hoped would save her. “Don’t. I’ve never been kissed before.”

Nero looked at her
a second and saw she wasn’t lying. He rubbed his thumb back and forth across her jawline. “All right. Well, for the first time only, I’ll just take a small kiss.”

Elle’s heart stopped beating
. “Here?”

Nero nodded and leaned his face down, his mouth an inch from hers
. “Here.”

Her stomach filled with butterflies
. Elle could only close her eyes as his lips touched hers. He didn’t force it; he’d said it perfectly, just a small kiss. It was just a brief second of his lips closing over her bottom lip, and then it was gone.

When Elle opened her eyes
, the fluttering in her stomach didn’t stop. He looked hungrier than before, but he pulled away. Elle knew she better leave before the wolf changed his mind about a small kiss. Without a word or sound, she scooted out the door, keeping her head down. Elle was too embarrassed to look at anyone who might have noticed her and Nero going in the closet. She took her seat, staring at the table, her mind a jumbled mess.

She saw her
poster appear on the table before her, and then Nero took his seat beside her. She definitely couldn’t look at him after that, so she quickly pulled out some paper and started writing, spending most of her time at the task. It was hard to concentrate after what had happened, yet she really was too embarrassed to even look at him.

She would
peer out of the corner of her eyes every now and then when she knew he wasn’t paying any attention to her. The next time, when her eyes glanced out, she noticed his knuckles. She had felt the scrapes but hadn’t realized how inflamed they were. They were all bright red. Before she put much thought into it, the bell rang. Instinct kicked in, and she stood up to retrieve Chloe.

Nero took her hand
. “No, Amo is bringing her to you, and we’ll all walk out together.”

Elle watched the students leave before her
, feeling odd; she was always the first one out. “Please, let me go get her.”

“Elle
, look at me.” Elle looked down at Nero after she realized he wasn’t going to let her go if she didn’t. “Do you trust me?”

Elle looked at Nero hard
. For some reason, she knew, when he made a promise, he would keep it. He was just that type of guy. She couldn’t explain it.

Elle quietly said, “Yes.”

“Okay, well, sit then.” Elle didn’t want to sit; she wanted to wait outside the door for Chloe. Nero sighed and pulled her down on his lap. “You should really start listening to me.”

She
tried to get up, however, one arm rested behind her back, holding her hip, and the other arm rested on her lap, his hand gripping her leg. When she struggled, he only held tighter, his hand moving farther up her leg.

“Relax
, Elle. They will be here in a minute.”

She
didn’t want to feel stupid, so she quit struggling and just sunk into his lap. She felt calm after a minute. For the first time, she felt almost safe within these walls.

The moment Elle saw Amo in the
distance, she jumped off Nero’s lap. She waited by the door where Vincent had arrived a minute earlier for Amo to reach them. When Amo stopped in front of her, Chloe emerged from behind him.

“Nero
, we need to talk. Chloe will not get off my ass. I told her,” Amo looked right at Chloe in the eyes, “to walk beside me, but she refuses to even say a word to me.”

“T-
that’s how I walk!” Chloe blurted.

Elle started laughing
; it was too hard not to.

“Oh
, now you can talk because Elle’s around.” Elle only laughed harder. “I blame you!” He pointed at Elle.

“
Me? What did I do?”

“You taught her to walk like that.”

Elle took a step forward, going toe to toe with Amo.
Yes, he is big. And yes, he is scary, but he knows nothing.

“No
, I didn’t teach her shit. She learned to walk behind me when everyone started bullying us.”

“We never bullied you.”

“No, but you all sure as hell didn’t stop it. Come on, Chloe; we’re leaving.”

“Al
l right, calm down.” Nero grabbed her hand, stopping her again.
That is really pissing me off
.

“
You’re right. We’re just as guilty. All three of us are sorry, and we are trying to make it up from now on. But you and Chloe need to help us out here. Chloe, listen to Amo and try to talk to him every now and then.”

“And…” Amo
got out.

“And get off Amo’s ass
. Walk beside him from now on. It’s safer there, anyway. Someone could grab you from behind him if they wanted.”

Chloe swallowed and nodded.

“Yeah, like she’ll have much room to walk beside the beast.” Elle stuck out her tongue.

Amo was about to say something
, but Nero held up his hand. Instead, Amo started the walk to the school’s front doors. Nero tugged Elle to walk beside him and Chloe fell in behind with Vincent following them all.

“Chloe
, beside.”

Chloe moved out from behind Elle with her head down
while Amo shook his head in front of them.
He is really rubbing me the wrong way.

When Chloe finally looked up
, she gave her a sympathetic smile, but Elle thought it was nice to finally walk beside her friend again.

As
they reached outside the doors, the cold air whipped her face and Nero pulled her closer. She did love the cold, but she also liked the warmth of Nero.

Elle
noticed Sebastian staring at them before he entered his car. She also noticed his black eye, which is when it clicked for her.
Nero doesn’t punch walls, just faces.

They reached Chloe’s BMW and Amo was the first to notice something wasn’t right.

“Someone slashed her fucking tires.”

Nero ran his hands through his hair
, pushing back the dark strands from his face. “All right. Elle and Chloe, I’ll take you both home.”

“It
’s okay. I’ve gotten flat tires before. I can drive on them for a few miles to the dealership.”

“Oh
, God, is she serious?” Elle was shocked it had come from Vincent.

“Chloe
, you are not driving on flat tires, and not with Elle. I’ll take you home. Your dad can take care of the car, right?”

“I-I can drive it
. That was the whole point of buying the tires.” Elle felt for Chloe. She definitely wasn’t going to tell her dad. It wasn’t like he was going to give a shit, anyway.

“Jesus Christ, I
gotta get out of here. I’ll take Leo home for you. Good luck with these crazies.” Amo walked off and yelled for Leo to come on.

“Chloe
, you’re either going home with me and Elle, or Vincent will take you home.”

Vincent gave Chloe a wicked smile.
Although he was the shortest of the three, Amo and Nero were freakishly tall. Additionally, Vincent was the pretty boy of their group; he was perfectly tall and had the perfect body type.
Well, if you were into the whole perfect thing.

His light
-blond hair and baby-blue eyes, paired with his pretty face, had all the girls vying for his attention.

“I’ll go with you and Elle.”

“I thought so. Later, man.” They went their separate ways, with Elle and Chloe going with Nero and Vincent heading toward his own car.

Nero held onto Elle’s hand as he opened the back door for Chloe to get in. She slid in and shut her door,
and he then opened the passenger side door for Elle to get in. Elle climbed into Nero’s Cadillac, thinking about how practically all the other girls in the school had climbed into this seat, as well. She hated thinking about it; it made her sick. She knew, no matter what, she wasn’t going to be like one of those girls, though.

Nero didn’t have to be told the way to go to Chloe’s house
; he knew exactly where she lived without asking. The whole city knew. He pulled up to her house, swinging in the cul-de-sac and stopping the car right in front of the picture-perfect, big white house.

Chloe opened the door
. “I’ll text you later, Elle.”

Elle turned her head over the seat and smiled
. “Okay. Bye, Chloe.”

Chloe got out of the car and shut the door
then turned around and waved goodbye to her friend. Elle waved back and mouthed “good luck” to her before Nero drove off.

When they reached the long
, paved road, realization hit Elle as she told him where she lived. She was now alone, with Nero, in his car.

Wonderful.

Chapter Ten

I’m Not a Rat

Elle
, finally being alone with Nero in a confined space, really studied him. His battered hand held the steering wheel not too tightly. He was calm, looking like he was almost at peace. She could tell he was thinking, that maybe he drove to think. He looked like he loved being behind the wheel. His eyes, that looked like they belonged to an animal, were pinned to the road ahead of him. Why had she thought of him like a wolf earlier?
Maybe that’s because of the color.

His black hair was just slightly in his face
. She could tell he was still getting used to his shorter hair by the way he would push his hair straight back to smooth it down. She liked when he did that because he only did it when he was feeling something.
Because he acts like he has no emotions
.

His tan contrasted
with his white shirt, making him look possibly tanner than he was. He always wore a light-colored, expensive button-up shirt, but he never buttoned it all the way up; consequently, you could always see a hint of his chest. He wore dark trousers, as well, always in dark gray, navy, or black. This actually was typical for a prep school; every student dressed to impress. However, Nero’s look was very dull compared to the other male students who dressed rather flamboyantly. They would have finished it off with a hideously-colored jacket and made it a full suit.

Nero’s smile drew her out of her thoughts
. “What are you thinking about?”

“Trying to figure out what you’re thinking.”

“Oh, so that’s why you haven’t pulled your eyes away from me.”

Elle moved her eyes to the road
. She was embarrassed he had caught her gawking.

“I was thinking about what you said earlier
. About how we never did anything to stop them from hurting you.”

Elle kept her eyes on the road
, not saying anything. The thing was, there wasn’t anything to say.

“I don’t know why we didn’t
. I thought only the girls were doing it, to be honest. I didn’t know that Sebastian was, too.” Elle saw his hand grip the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.

She turned her head to look out the passenger window
. She didn’t want her face to show anything.

Nero took his injured right hand off the steering wheel and
grasped Elle’s hand. “He has done something to you before, hasn’t he?”

Elle looked down at his hand in hers and observed his knuckles. She touched the scrape that lay on his middle knuckle and ran her fingertip along
each red and swollen area, weaving in and out of all four knuckles. “I saw Sebastian’s face in the parking lot. You should really put some ice on this.”

Elle
’s silence answered his question.

“Then
he and I are even now.” She kept the pace of running her finger along his knuckles as his hand lay in her lap.

“You
’re not going to tell me what he did, are you?” He pulled his eyes off the road for a second to look at her.

“No
, I’m not.”

“Why not?”

Elle thought about those two words. ‘
Why not?’
After these last years, she had never told a soul about what happened to her in school, and had never revealed to anyone about what had happened to Chloe. Then, just two nights before, she had seen someone murdered and had instantly been certain she was never going to tell anyone in her life. So, why not? Elle felt like maybe she was wired that way—to keep secrets, to keep her mouth shut. She was always like that. It was in her DNA. She pictured the boss in her mind and that brought her to exactly why she would never tell.

“Because I’m not a rat.”

As Nero looked at her at that last word, she looked back at him and felt like he was almost smiling on the inside; his eyes, at least, looked like he was.

“Al
l right, I can respect that.”

The car ride was nice
. She was very comfortable there, holding his hand. They didn’t have to force conversation; they both liked the silence at times.

When they were about
halfway to her house, he asked her, “Can I take you out sometime?”

“Like on a date?” Elle
hadn’t been expecting that.

Nero laughed
. “Yeah, like on a date.”

Elle didn’t know how to respond.

“Let me guess, you’ve never been on a date before?”

“Uh
, no, I haven’t. I work, you know, so I don’t know if I can.”

Nero removed his hand from hers
. “Give me your phone.”

“Why?”

When Nero gave her a look to not question him, she reached in her bag and then handed him her phone. It was perfect timing because he had stopped at a stop sign.

“What the hell
kinda phone is this? It has fucking buttons.”

“You mean a keyboard, yes.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” He punched in some buttons and she heard his phone ring. “All right, add that number in your phone.”

She took her phone back and started saving his contact
. “Okay, A-S-S-H-O-L-E. Got it.” She smiled really big, proud of her quip.

“Very funny
. Text me your schedule later so I can decide when we can go out.”

“We
’re not going on a date.”

“And why is that?”

“Because you’ve dated every girl in school since this semester started.” Sure, she might have been exaggerating, but only a little. He
had
practically dated every girl in school, and three within the last week. The three that made her life a living hell every day.

“I don’t date them
, Elle.”

“Like that makes it better!” Elle crossed her arms
.
He is literally an asshole.

His voice became dark
. “Elle, did I ask to fuck you?”

Elle became uncomfortable
, refusing to answer him.

“No, I asked to take you out on a date. Something that I haven’t
asked any girl before.”

Elle turned her head toward him. She knew he wasn’t lying
. Nero wasn’t the type to take a girl out on a date; he was the type to take them to his bed. She still wasn’t going to respond to him, however.

“I’m done with those girls
. I know you don’t believe me, and that’s fine, but I’m telling you anyways.”

“It
’s still a no.”

“You know
, that’s really hard for me to believe when you’ve been holding my hand for practically the whole car ride.”

Elle didn’t care
, she wasn’t holding it now.

He pulled up to her curb and jumped out before she could even put her hand on the door handle.
He opened her door and she stood up from the car while he blocked her with his body, his hand holding the door so she couldn’t move.

“What are you doing now?”

“I need another thank you.”

She put her hands on his chest to protest
, but before she could say anything, his lips planted on hers.

This kiss was different
than the one before. This time, he was greedy and tried to take more, but Elle wouldn’t open her mouth. He grabbed the back of her head to position her face higher, hoping she would slightly open. She didn’t. His tongue outlined her bottom lip right before he pulled away.

She noticed her hands
had continued resting on his chest when she was brought back to reality. She wasn’t quite sure if she’d even kissed him back. She was actually pretty sure he had done all the work. The butterflies from earlier had returned the moment his lips had been on hers, and they were still there.

“I
’ll pick you up tomorrow morning for school.”

“What?” Her mind was still jumbled after the kiss.

“Chloe can’t pick you up tomorrow with her car in the shop. I doubt whoever drives her to school tomorrow will want to come out of their way to pick you up.”

Yeah
, they weren’t.
“So, I can catch the bus.”

“Really
, Elle? The bus?”

“Yes
, I ride it practically every day to the diner downtown.”

Nero
’s face looked shocked almost. “You ride the fucking bus that goes downtown, at night?”

“Yeah
. So?”

“Do you realize how unsafe that is for a
seventeen-year-old girl?”

“Do you realize I don’t have a choice?”

“Well, now you do. What time do you work tonight?”

“No, you are not taking me to work. I’ve survived this long
riding the bus.”

“Jesus
, Elle, I am taking you to work.” Nero’s eyes started to get that scary look again.

“No
, you are not!” When she pushed at his chest to get him to move, he didn’t even budge. Instead, Nero thrust his body closer to her, pinning her body to his. He took her chin in his hand to make sure she saw his face. His look became hungry again, as though the wolf had returned.

“That shit has the opposite effect on me
, Elle, so be careful the next time your temper comes out.” Nero took a deep breath in and out. “Go to work on your bus. Enjoy it, though, because it won’t last much longer.”

Elle tried to open her mouth to speak
, but he wouldn’t let a word come out.

“I will be here tomorrow morning to drive you to school
. If your ass gets on the bus, there will be repercussions. I dare you to ride the bus tomorrow because, either way, I’ll win.” His grin was almost deadly.

“Just because you think you’re the big bad wolf
, I should do as you say? Well, it doesn’t work that way with me.”

Nero blinked a few times
. He clearly looked confused. “The big bad wolf?”

“Yes
, that’s what you remind me of—a wolf,” Elle said it matter-of-factly.

Nero shook his head
. “Elle, lay off the movies a little.”

“No
. Can I go now?”

N
ero smiled. “Sure, if you give me a kiss goodbye.”

“So
, if I kiss you, I can go?”

Nero smiled wider
. “Yep.”

“Promise?”

When Nero nodded, Elle rose up on her toes. She put her mouth close to his. Right when she went in, she moved her face slightly and gave him a peck on the cheek. Elle returned to her heels, laughing.

“That doesn’t count.”

Elle, still laughing, said, “Yes it does. You said I could leave if I kiss you. It’s your fault you didn’t say where. You promised.” She knew she had him. He had promised.

“You
’re right. I keep my promises, Elle. Just remember that.” Nero removed his hand from the car door to let her pass. “Don’t forget to text me your schedule. Actually, let’s make it a picture of your schedule,” he said, smiling.

Elle
had really had enough. She walked past him, holding up her hand and pointing at it with the other. “Actually, go rub some dirt on it.”

Nero laughed
, shutting the door to lean on his car. “Seven-thirty, Elle. I’ll be right here.” Nero leaned there, watching Elle run up to her house.

T
here was an upside to her running from him. The view was great.