That dress drives me crazy. So short, it scarcely covers her crotch. Even with the leggings underneath, I get more of an eyeful than I should. I let my gaze drop, half leering, half keeping track of her expression to see it’s having the desired effect.
She grabs her left elbow with her right hand. Nervous. My heart beats a little faster in sympathy. Or it could be because most of my blood flow has been redirected south.
I close the distance, raising my hand and she flinches away, bumping the back of her head against the wall, but not hard. Not enough to cause an injury.
Her eyelashes flutter as I continue the movement, taking her chin inside the curve of my thumb and forefinger, gently brushing my other fingertips against the softness of her hair.
“You’re still attending Kingswood?”
Esme wrinkles her nose. “Pretty obviously. Why? Were you thinking of joining us?”
The scoff in her voice is fair. My family’s income is roughly the same as being on an unemployment benefit. My grades were always laughable. When she moved here, I thought she’d gone outside of my reach. She probably thought the same.
Then the excess energy I poured into rugby paid off. I might be on a free ticket, but yeah, I’m now a student at Kingswood College, too.
A secret I think I’ll hold on to just a little longer.
“I’m bunking on a friend’s couch for a few nights,” I say instead. It’s true, something Esme’s internal barometer will accept without knowing storm clouds lurk just beyond the horizon. “He told me this was an unmissable rave.”
She rolls her eyes, making me laugh again. There isn’t a single thing about this girl that I don’t enjoy, even my unending hatred of her.
“I saw you with some friends, downstairs,” I continue, making her muscles tense again. “They seem like a nice crowd. It’s weird to see you with other people. You were always such a loner.”
Her eyes flash and I bite down on my smile. Esme might be introverted, but she always loved a few friends deeply, keeping them close to her with a mix of charm and fun. Until she crossed me, and I took friendships off her menu.
I know because one of them was mine.
I take my hand away from her face, flicking my fingers to rid them of the lingering sensation. Touching her skin gives me the same tingles as rubbing against a low-voltage electric fence.
“It’d be a pity—”
“What do you want?”
Her voice is brittle, hardened by disappointment. The light sheen of sweat on her cheekbones tells me panic isn’t far away.
I can hear the beats between breaths shortening as her lungs constrict. She wants me to tell her the worst so she can confront it and move on. An admirable trait. One that takes more bravery than I thought she possessed.
“So demanding.” I turn my voice into the sing-song sway that irritates the living fuck out of her. The cadence that drills into her brain like an earworm, relentless. “You know what I want, Esme. The same thing you promised before you went scuttling off to your high-brow school, thinking you’d never have to pay.”
Our eyes lock and the heat of her gaze melts into mine.
“And if I do that tonight, you’ll leave me alone?”
“Do you mean I won’t tell anybody? I won’t tell anybody what a manipulative lying shit you really are?”
Her eyelid twitches, but she continues to hold my gaze. “Yes. That’s what I mean. I’ve worked hard to—”
She breaks off when I snigger.Worked hard.Like she thinks ladling things into her mouth with her giant silver spoon actually counts. Perhaps among the glittering lives of the exorbitantly wealthy, it passes as work, but not with me.
Not in the real world.
Her chin juts up again, eyelid twitching again as the blow lands. “If I…”—she waves her hand—“you’ll leave me alone for the few days you’re here?”
The easy capitulation shoots adrenaline into my bloodstream. My depraved thoughts turn to every place I could shove my throbbing cock right this instant, blowing past any of her boundaries with my simple threat.
Or maybe it’s not my words. Perhaps the rich pricks who populate this school don’t have what she needs, what she’s gagging for.
The power thrills me, excites me, makes me hard enough to fuck concrete.
