Even though I had my plan to take them down, I still had to play along with their rules in the meantime. Kyan liked to flirt, but I didn’t think I was making much headway with getting under his skin. I didn’t really understand why Monroe thought I could get to him when he clearly kept his heart in an iron cage. It probably took part in its own illegal fighting games while it was in there too. But I was still determined to try and crack him. I just didn’t know how I was going to manage it.
One good thing had come out of the four am madness; that little mission to fetch food and toilet paper had shown me just how Saint reacted when the ground got shaky beneath his feet. At the slightest whiff of a supply shortage, he’d taken nearly everything for himself. The school was going to be living on tinned soup, potatoes and beans for the foreseeable future until another delivery came in. And when they ran out of toilet paper in their rooms and the school bathrooms, there was gonna be a flood of followers showing up here to offer god only knew what in exchange for some.
Saint had ensured he remained a king while the rest of the world fell to ruin around him. It was people like that who thrived in world-wide disasters. He’d no doubt come out the other end of this richer and more powerful than he’d been before. And that was the sad truth about life. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
I considered spitting in their food, but figured that wasn’t really my style and at least one of the little psychos would probably like it. I didn’t want any piece of me in their mouths anyway. Though sometimes, the darker part of me had filthy daydreams about each of them raking their tongues across her flesh. But that was just in my mind. No way in hell were those fantasies going to manifest.
I placed Blake’s pancakes down followed by Saint’s eggs and avocado on toast, then Kyan’s greasy fried everything. I’d arranged his fry-up into the shape of a smiley face with streaky bacon eyebrows and a runny egg for a nose. He seemed to like my humour, so maybe that was a way to win him over.
He barked a laugh, before grabbing his fork and digging in. I smirked as I handed them all coffees, having learned their preferences already. Blake drank his black while Kyan had his with a load of milk and three freaking sugars. Saint had a triple shot of espresso of course- he probably needed the overdose of caffeine to keep his dead heart beating.
When I was done, I headed around to the other side of the table and waited to be dismissed.
“I hope you like the broken glass topping I added to yours, Saint,” I said sweetly. “Oh sorry, I meant salt. I get those two things confused sometimes.”
Kyan laughed through a mouthful of food while Blake ignored me and Saint glared evenly at me over his plate.
“You think you’re funny, Barbie?” he asked coolly. “Because humour will only get you one place with me. Bent over my knee with my hand against your ass. Now sit down and eat your own breakfast.”
My heart lurched and heat spilled through my body at his words. I tried not to blush, but shit, that image had been kinda hot.
I frowned as I thought of his command. I hadn’t even bothered to make myself anything despite the fact that my stomach had been growling at me for it. The pasta Saint had offered me last night had turned out to be laced with vodka too so if it hadn’t been for Monroe’s protein bars, I probably would have been coping a lot worse right now. As it was, I had a fair bit of resolve left so I sashayed my way to the fridge and plucked out a crispy lettuce leaf, fighting a grin.
I walked back towards their table, running my tongue up the leaf and moaning like it was my favourite food in the world. I took large bites of it, swallowing it down as I dropped into my seat, making a show of how much I was enjoying it.
When I was done, I found them all looking at me like starving men and I was surprised the table hadn’t risen a few inches, propped up on their boners. Holy shit, those crazy assholes seriously enjoyed that.
“Delicious.” I smacked my lips together and Kyan snorted as he drank his coffee.
“You’re one crazy bitch,” Blake commented and I offered him a blank look.
“Takes one to know one, huh Blake?”
“You’ll start calling each of us master as of now,” Saint cut in icily, a cruel flare in his eyes.
I breathed out slowly, trying to keep my anger in check before nodding. Blake sniggered, leaning back in his seat and sipping his coffee with victory in his eyes.
“Of course, master,” I put too much emphasis on the word, mocking Saint, but he clearly liked it anyway. Dammit.
“By the way, Cinderella, your Fairy God Mother showed up here last night,” Blake said offhandedly, taking a long drink of his coffee as he smirked. “She was a real fighter but I managed to stuff her in a bag and drown her in the lake.”
“Damn, I’ve been tending to my pumpkin patch all week waiting for her to arrive,” I played along instead of rising to his shit.
He leaned his elbows on the table, making his muscles flex beneath his school shirt in a way that I couldn’t ignore. “Guess there’ll be no royal ball for you to attend, Cinders.”
“I’ve got a couple of royal balls you can tend to,” Kyan chipped in and a laugh escaped me. Even Blake’s mouth pulled up at the corner for half a second before he vanquished it from his face. For a moment, I’d seen a glimmer of the guy I’d been addicted to at the initiation party. His eyes locked on mine and his throat bobbed before he drained his coffee and took out his phone, giving his full attention to the screen. My heart tugged and I realised I actually missed the fun, golden boy I’d known for half a second.
“Enough chit chat. Go and fetch a banana,” Saint instructed me sharply and I slipped out of my seat, grabbing one for him and placing it down beside his plate. Before I could escape, he caught my wrist, yanking me down to sit on his knee and dropping his hand onto my thigh.
He pulled me closer into the arc of his powerful body and my heart thrashed wildly against my chest as he brought his face near to mine. He reached out to brush a lock of hair behind my ear, but it wasn’t tender. He was trying to perfect my imperfections, tidying back the stray hairs and eyeing my makeup for blemishes. Seemingly satisfied, he jerked his chin at the banana.
“Peel it,” he demanded.
I picked it up, clearing my throat as I caught Kyan’s eye and saw the flash of jealousy in his gaze. I realised I could use this to my advantage despite the fact that being this close to Saint made my skin prickle and my blood burn with hate. But he was a sinful temptation I could pretend to want easily enough, and maybe it wasn’t all a pretence, because as I met his inky gaze, heat gathered between my thighs.
I peeled the banana, placing the skin down on the table, expecting to feed him like I had the other day. Instead, he took it from my hands and pressed it to my lips, his hand inching up my thigh at the same moment.
I inhaled sharply and he pushed the banana between my lips, leaning in close to my ear. “Eat,” he commanded and it wasn’t like when Monroe had said it. This was as much of a threat as it was a command. I closed my mouth around the fruit and Kyan continued to glance this way. Apparently he liked what I was doing so I even let out a little moan of delight at how good it tasted. And in fairness, it did taste fucking good. I wasn’t normally a noisy eater, but it was worth the overreaction as Kyan’s expression grew fiercer.