“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Palmer? You don’t exactly come off as the kind of girl with a permanent penicillin drip attached to her arm.”
“Not exactly what I meant, Marek. You’re smart though. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Maybe next time you’ll be a little smarter, and not take something that isn’t freely given.”
In a flash, his hands are wrapped around my neck like they were in the shower, except this time, it’s menacing, not thrilling. My naked body is pinned against the front door, the handle forced into my back. There will be a bruise there tomorrow.
“Don’t pretend like I pushed anything on you that you didn’t want.”
“Did you ask?” I grab his wrist, trying to gain some relief.
“Oh, we’re going to play it that way, then?” He pries my hand off and pins it above my head. “You didn’t have to ask with words, Palmer. All you had to do was look at me for me to know exactly how eager you are.” He examines my body like it belongs to him.
“You’re hurting me,” I whisper, clawing at his hand.
He releases me, as if my words have burned him, and eyes my neck. Without a response, he scoops up his shoes and pushes me away from the door.
He’s barely had the chance to storm off in his show of dominance when I call out, “Oh, Marek?”
Marek stops at the top of the stairwell, shuffling one shoe on, followed by the other. When he turns, I grin, knowing I’ll have the last word for today.
“What exactly are you smiling about?” he spits out.
“Thinking about how cute you’ll be next year, walking around your fancy college with a baby strapped to your chest.” At my taunt, his jaw bottoms out.
I’ve never seen Marek Hawthorne rattled. There’s something so rewarding about seeing someone so powerful and indestructible become a little weak at the knees and pale as a ghost.
As he takes a large step towards my dorm, I slam the door, and with my back pressed against it, I reach behind me and click the lock shut. The pounding I’m waiting for never comes, so I head into the bathroom.
In the mirror, I check my back to see the beginning of a bruise. My fingers run over my neck where Marek left red marks. A short-lived smile settles on my lips. My body knows what it means to have his strong, able hands on me. He’s cruel, but I’m not afraid of the pain, welcoming it in a way I can’t understand yet.
I’ve been right all along.
Sex makes Marek weak. He may hate me, may even be desperate to destroy me in ways he sees fit, but he’ll never win when his mind isn’t fully in the game.
If I have a say in it, it won’t be.
Chapter Ten
Marek
“Seems big sister left a little bit out of their circle of trust, huh?” Dixon nods at the front door.
Palmer waltzes into the party like she owns the damn place. A short black skirt, fitting her like a second skin, and a white top that shows most of her midriff, expose almost every blessed inch of her body. My eyes fall to her flat stomach. There’s no way she’s dumb enough to go without birth control. She said that to fuck with me. She had to have. I’ll admit, she got me good.
Whatever game this chick is playing, she has no idea who she’s matched up against. Saturday nights at Peter Tillison’s house are always packed. She had to know she’d bump into us here. Maybe that is her plan. After the four of us cornered her in the classroom and courtyard, I’d stupidly assumed she’d hide away. That isn’t what we wanted, but it would give us time to figure our shit out. Every chance this girl gets, she throws us for a curve.
“Should we get rid of her?” Breaker settles in next to me, lining up his shot. He tosses the ball and banks it right into the cup.
The two sophomore girls across from us grin, simply happy to be in our presence. One of them picks up the cup and chugs the contents, drying her lips with the back of her hand. Sloppy is what they are. Undesirable is what they’ll always be.
Not like her, though.
A little wild paired with grace.
Palmer Weston is the kind of girl you hope you end up with in the end.
“No, let her stay. Let her get comfortable.”
Breaker turns his attention back to the game until Delaney waltzes into the house, and then he shakes his head.
“She still not talking to you, I take it?”
“I tried twice, and that’s all I have in me. She was only going to be a hook-up, anyway.” He sinks the ball in the last cup and stands. “Girls like her are complicated, much like Palmer.”
Before I can argue with him, he meets the two sophomore girls in the middle of the room. Breaker is good at compartmentalizing his bullshit. He’ll use these two to forget what little bit of humanity Delaney managed to dredge up in their short time together. He can say what he wants, but he feels a certain kind of way for Delaney. And how she turns up her nose as he leads the two girls upstairs, she sure as hell feels the same way.
Palmer rolls her eyes, clearly not entertained by his antics. She has no idea of the things he’s going to do with those girls, or she’d be blushing. She may have played our game for a night, but she’s not one of us.
At the memory, I adjust myself in my jeans and storm off, frustrated that even the simplest thought has brought me a bit of trouble. Proof of what Palmer does to me strains against my zipper.
I push through the party, stopping in the kitchen. A freshman on the football team holds the nozzle up and fills a cup to the top, sloshing it on the floor as he hands it to me. He’s eager as hell, like we want the next generation of players to be.
The Bulldogs haven’t lost a game in the last three years, and we don’t plan on letting anyone past us the next nine, either. The last five will be what solidifies Glass Heart Academy as the best, once again.
I’m team captain, and nothing short of perfection will be acceptable. On and off the field, we Bulldogs are expected to behave a certain way. An unspoken code of conduct is woven through this entire campus. If administrators knew of the parties, drugs, and sex happening in every building of this campus, they’d shut this place down. They stay blissfully unaware, and the ones who do know, turn their cheeks because it’s not worth losing their careers at the hands of teenagers.
A girl I recognize from our rival prep school, locks her gaze on me. I may be a little drunker than I care to be right now, but I still know when I’m wanted. I sit on the half-wall that surrounds Peter’s house, knowing damn well she’s coming over here. She’s pretty in the way that screams I’m into your money and nothing else.
I check to make sure, and sure as shit, she saunters over to me like a thirsty gazelle to a ravine. From behind me, she leans over to wrap her arms around my shoulders, and her hand grazes my dick. By the hunger in her eyes, it’s no accident. She does it again, and my primal hiss cuts through her talking about how bad she wants me.
“If you want it, come and get it.” I tug on the tips of her hair, making her believe I actually give a fuck about the person her lips are attached to. “No one is stopping you.”
She hops over the wall, unbuttons my jeans, and lowers my zipper. My hand rests heavily on the back of her head. She grins up at me as she frees me and wraps her mouth around my length. I clench my eyes shut, focusing on the feel of her tongue licking the tip of my dick and plummeting me to the back of her throat. She makes a show of gagging, and like I’ve lost the strength in my arm, my hand goes slack, applying full pressure on her.