Exposed Read Free Page B

was spending practically every waking moment with Skyler, while she hadn’t seen all that much of Jake. And she had been keeping her cell phone shut off at Skyler’s suggestion.
    And then there was the matter of a little thingcalled the prom. Which she had told Jake she would be attending with Skyler.
    Come to think of it, it was easy enough to see how these rumors had gotten started.
    Under normal circumstances, Gaia would have told Megan off and walked away or simply ignored her. But these weren’t normal circumstances. Until she got to the bottom of the Skyler mystery, Gaia had to maintain her fearful persona on all fronts. Just to be on the safe side. “Skyler’s just a friend, Megan, you know that,’” she said softly. “You know I’m totally into Jake.”
    Megan’s eyes flashed with envious anger. “Actions speak louder than words, Gaia,” she snapped. “You better hope that
Jake
knows how ‘into’ him you are. For the sake of your relationship,” she warned darkly. “Not that I care,” she added as an afterthought, flouncing off haughtily.
    Like hell you don’t
, Gaia thought, knowing full well that once she was out of Gaia’s range of vision, Megan would call half the school to report that she had caught Gaia Moore in the red-hot act of cheating on her man. She suppressed a sigh. She really
did
hope that Jake trusted her.
    She hoped that Skyler did, too. She turned to him, smiling hesitantly. “Ugh.” She grimaced. “She’s awful.”
    â€œThank God I’ve got you,” he said.
    â€œI’VE GOT AN IDEA,” SKYLER suggested, toying with the wineglass that sat in front of him on the wooden table.
    Compliance As promised, he had lured Gaia to Vino. It was the perfect place—tucked away in the cozy recesses of Bedford Street and too European to care about carding. The restaurant had a warm, relaxed vibe to it, and most nights patrons who were lucky enough to snag a table made a practice of camping out for hours at a time. Skyler had suggested a drink after their encounter with Megan, and Gaia had gladly accepted. Now she ran her fingers around the rim of her glass of Chianti. Getting drunk wasn’t going to help her cause any. “What?” she asked, smiling at Skyler.
    It wasn’t too hard to smile at him. Despite her many misgivings, Gaia still found herself irresistibly drawn to Skyler’s magnetic smile. He was a good-looking guy with a very easygoing charm. As far as undercover work went, this was pretty painless.
    â€œLet’s go back to my place and have a Brando fest. In the spirit of
Streetcar
, you know?” He grinned.
“Stella!”
    â€œI don’t know,” Gaia said reluctantly. “I’m really not supposed to stay out, and I’ve been pushing my luck with Suko lately. Eventually she’s going to catch on to my ‘studying with a friend’ alibi.”
    â€œCome on, Gaia,” Skyler insisted. “Since when does Gaia Moore care what anyone thinks of her? Do you really expect me to think you give a crap what Suko wants?”
    Gaia shrugged. “Say what you want, but I do have to live with her. Her opinion does matter. She could make my life very difficult.”
    It was true: Suko could be a real battle-ax. But Gaia didn’t care. She’d already figured out how to shimmy in and out of her bedroom window after curfew. And Zan, one of the other girls in the house, was always having unauthorized guests over. It wasn’t as though it was impossible to circumvent the rules. Gaia simply didn’t want to come across as
too
pliable.
    Skyler took her hand. “Suko could make your life difficult,” he agreed. “True. But I really want to be with you. Isn’t this—our time together—isn’t that worth a little bit of a hassle?”
    Not meeting Skyler’s gaze, Gaia took a healthy sip of her wine. She