Love Me: The Complete Series by Shelley K. Wall

annoying.
    Carter wadded the paper he’d just read and tossed it at him.
    The guy darted out the door but not before throwing another question at him. “Hey, did you find out if they’re real?”
    Carter growled and shook his head. When his cell beeped with a group message from Roger, he glanced at the screen and ignored it. Childish idiot. None of his business.
    • • •
    Carter took runner in lunchroom. I mean to lunch
    Abby didn’t care much for Carter’s friend, or his comments. What a slimeball. Carter did NOT tell them that, did he? Abby stared at the screen, her face heating. The message was a reply to the lunch message from before. Was that what the whole thing was about? A guy’s curiosity on the status of her breasts? We’d just see about that, wouldn’t we?
    A dozen other comments flashed after the first, which made her blood boil more. Nothing from Carter though. He was irritatingly silent. She wasn’t sure whether to be glad or furious. What a bunch of losers. Well, according to the rule “judge a man by the friends he keeps,” Carter was given a verdict. Over. Not that they’d even started anything yet. Or would, because she wasn’t interested—not anymore.
    Still he’d kissed the brain cells right out of her head.
And gossiped to his friends immediately after.
She’d fix that. Why not? His friend had already screwed
one
ex, why not make it two? Technically, she wasn’t an ex but still—she picked up the phone and punched in a message.
    Oh, they’re real alright. Perky too. U should see the rest of her.
    There. What do you think of that, Mr. Kiss-and-Tell? Her stomach clenched. She should feel better about standing up for herself with a bunch of sex-starved gossiping never-left-high-school boys. She didn’t. A flurry of text responses chorused and she couldn’t bear to see what other gross remarks they’d made.
    In fact, the rest of the day her body ached with the realization she’d been a conquest in his circle of friends. Something they’d goaded him to prove, and he’d done it. He’d done a hell of a job too. All she could think about was that damned lunchroom door and his mouth trailing kisses across hers while his hands did other things.
Dammit. I’m such an idiot.
    “Well, you sure showed him.” Caroline gave her the eyebrow-hovering look that plainly said
and made a fool of yourself to boot.
    “Who cares? Those guys are a bunch of teenagers—talking about things like that. He set me up to go out with him so he could test out their theory. You think they made a bet on it? I mean, look at these babies. Can I help it if I have kind genetics?” Abby thrust her chest out and lowered her eyes to observe. Genetics were only part of it, and Caroline knew as much. She ran several miles a week and spent at least another hour at the gym every other day. Releasing the breath she’d held, Abby grimaced. She’d had little time to exercise since the store opened and she needed to get back to the routine.
    “Well, if they made a bet, I wonder which way he picked. Real or bedazzled?”
    “Does it matter? I mean what kind of guy does that? The wrong kind, obviously. No wonder the chick dumped him for his best friend.” Abby threw a hand to her mouth, embarrassed at the insult. “Do you think that was a set-up too? Maybe one of the guys goaded him into it just to see what would happen?”
    “Wow, did you really turn that jaded over night? Talking about the silicone hills on a woman isn’t the same as stealing her.”
    Abby rolled her eyes. Caroline didn’t get it. “Need I remind you he wasn’t just talking about them? He was actually tasting and feeling and—”
    Caroline held up a hand to stop the conversation. “Please, spare me the details. I don’t want to know. Okay, wait, yes, I do. Exactly how far
did
he get? I mean, were you horizontal when he felt you up? Or just getting started?”
    Abby threw the tape dispenser at her. Fortunately, it was plastic and Caroline was