10.

My eyes searched around until my gaze fell upon.....him. My face screwed up in annoyance as I realized it was him, the guy from yesterday, the guy who'd made me blush more times than I could count on my two hands. The guy who'd teased me more times than Rose had in the past 9 years. His smile made my insides warm.

Now, he was exactly the kind of guy I'm supposed to avoid.

Continued of the last episode ...

~~~

The girl next to me suddenly jumped in on our conversation.

"There's not much anyone knows except the fact that he's filthy rich and comes from a very wealthy family. No one knows where he's from or anything." The girl chimed in.

I couldn't stop myself from asking this, curiosity got the best of me," What's his name anyway?" I airily said, trying to look as indifferent as I could.

"Adrian. Oh and I'm Claire." The girl said, extending her hand for me to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you Claire." I politely said, shaking her hand.

"Adrian. Now that's a sexy name." Rose said, not giving the slightest attention to Claire.

Rose was nice and I was very grateful to her parents for taking me in when I had no one. But the girl could be mean at times.

I gave Claire a half-hearted smile, trying to make her feel welcome.

I turned around and chanced a glance at him.

Only to find him looking right at me. His eyes alone expressed so much emotion, not allowing me to look away.

He gave me that devious smirk of his again as I quickly reverted my gaze, turning red in the face.

~~~~

That's it, I'm done.

I plopped down on the lush, green grass whilst everybody ran rounds on the track.

I always tired easily, so the coach was a bit lenient with me.

I just laid there, well hidden from anyone's view, my body flat on the ground as sweat dripped down my neck to my shoulder as it made it's way down to my bare stomach.

Just when I was thinking I was all alone and free to get lost in my own thoughts, a husky voice broke my reverie.

"What are you VIP or something? Everyone's running track, why aren't you?" He rasped, making my stomach flutter.

I closed my eyes....hoping it wasn't the person's voice who I was thinking it was.

I opened my eyes.... his face was right against mine, our noses were nearly touching, his hands on either side of me.

I nearly screamed in surprise at this closeness but he covered up my mouth, muffling my screams.

I beat against him, trying to make him let me go but his legs trapped mine as he was hunched over me, his face hovering above mine, just inches away.

His eyes were clouded, his emotions unreadable.

This scared me and excited me at the same

time.

He abruptly leaned in, making my body shudder as I tried to remember how to breathe.

He whispered in my ear, his hot breath making my whole body shiver,"I'll let you speak if you promise not to scream."

I reluctantly nodded as he removed his hand.

"Get off me." I snapped at him, indignantly.

"What if I don't?" He cajoled, grinning at me.

I tried to shake my hands free but they didn't move an inch, he held them securely in his iron grip. I winced in pain, the wounds from when I almost got...., I couldn't bring myself to say that word.

I shuddered at the thought of those God-awful mechanics forcing themselves on me....tears stung my eyes but I tried to not let them fall.

The scars were quite prominent. I tried to twist my wrist away from his hawk-like eyes so he wouldn't notice.

His eyes suddenly fell onto the little brownish-purple mark just below my palm. Crap!

"What happened to your wrist?" He asked, I noticed a flurry of emotions raging within him but I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was he was feeling!

"What's it to you? You don't even know me." I haughtily stated, I know I was being a bitch but crying my heart out and revealing the darkest of my secrets to a complete stranger isn't the kind of thing I do.

Wait...did he actually look hurt? The emotion was gone before I could even be sure if it was there, the mask of indifference was back on his face.

"You're right, you don't have any reason to tell me anything about yourself." He simply stated.

Adrian looked deep into my eyes, like he was looking into my soul, reading my mind.

The thought of him doing just that seemed disturbingly discerning.

"Let. Me. Go." I muttered, glaring at him.

"Ooo, I'm so scared." He mocked, making me flare with anger.

"Adrian, let me go or I swear to God, I'll...."

"How'd you know my name?" He asked with genuine curiosity.

A blush was starting to spread across my face, there was no way I was admitting I asked around about him.

The last thing the guy needed was another ego boost.

"I heard." I casually stated.

"Looks like someone's been asking around about me." He smugly said, knowing perfectly well I'd been lying.

"Fine, you won. You've completed your daily quota of embarrassing me. Just for general information, do you make it a habit of making meek girls like me blush with embarrassment?" I haughtily said.

He just laughed, not fazed at all.

Damn him and his smile.

His muscles flexed in the most enticing way as he laughed heartily. I had to force myself to look away from his muscular arms.

"No, not really. There's just this blue-eyed blonde who I like to tease very much." He chided, still not getting off me.

"Do you remember what I promised you earlier?" He said, a certain edge to his tone.

"What?" I asked, momentarily confused.

"I promised you that the next time we met, I'd take much more than your name from you." He breathed out, making my insides quiver as he gripped my forearms even tighter.

He leaned in even more, leaving just an inch of gap between us. He smelt so good.... of fresh mint I think.

"I know your name is Ivy. Now... about that something more." He whispered ever so softly, making every fiber of my being want to close the distance between us.

But I held back....the last thing I needed was some boy in my life.

"Tell me Ivy, what can you give me?" He asked, his voice hoarse. There was again that look in his eyes.....a look which was foreign to me. That look of want.