Page 57 of Twisting Beauty

“You prick,” Elias spat as he rubbed his neck. “You can’t threaten me like that.”

“Run on home to daddy, Eli,” Finn said, shooing him away like a stray dog. “Maybe he’ll give you a lollipop to make ye feel better.”

Elias’s face twisted into something ugly. “I bet Rua will call me daddy. But to be fair, she won’t be able to call me anything”—his grin turned predatory—“with my cock shoved down her throat.”

I spun toward him, but Breezy and Rafe grabbed my arms.

“Don’t do it, Lorc,” Breezy grunted, struggling to hold me back.

“That’s what he wants,” Rafe added as he tried to twist the hurley out of my hands. “A reason to get you expelled.”

My periphery reduced to Elias’s smirking face.

“Touch her and I’ll kill you,” I said, my voice low and hard. “I’ll fucking kill you and bury you so deep even the maggots won’t be able to find you.”

Finn shoved Elias back. “Fuck off, you pest.”

Elias backed away but kept that smug smile. “Funny how karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?” he called out. “All those girls you ruin, and the only one you want is the one you can’t have.”

I shrugged my friends off and sat down hard on the bleachers, my hands shaking as I ran them through my hair.

The lads went quiet, but I could feel Breezy and Rafe watching me like I was a bomb that might go off.

The field had gone quiet around us. Teammates, students, even a teacher at the far edge of the pitch had stopped to watch.

Finn stood near me like a guard, shooing away the hangers-on who kept drifting too close to be nosy or to ask if I was okay.

He stepped in beside me, his voice low enough that only I could hear him. “Lorcan… whatever this is, don’t make it a weakness.”

My jaw tightened before I could stop it. “I don’t give enough shites for her to be a weakness.”

The lie sat between us, ugly and obvious.

I locked eyes with her as she sat across the courtyard within sight of it all, watching me, the birds forgotten.

Annoyance sat under my skin. She was no longer just a lie in my house or a problem in my school.

She was getting under my skin, making me act in ways that destabilized me.

And I had just shown my hand in front of her, let her see exactly how far off-balance she could throw me, and that made her dangerous in a way I would not accept.

I would unravel her properly. I would strip back every lie and force the truth out of her one way or another.

Whatever game she thought she was playing in my house and my school, it was mine now.

My little back to college party at Lasair Manor wasn’t a celebration. It was a lure, bait strung with candlelight and velvet, a stage set for her. With Alistair gone for the weekend, there was no leash on my collar, no one to temper my plans.

The manor had been transformed into a gothic spectacle, flickering candelabras throwing long, trembling shadows across marble floors, dresses and diamond cuff links glittering in the shifting light. The gold champagne tower gleamed like bait in a trap, the masked faces beneath the candlelight warping into grotesque smiles and sharp edges. Even the music seemed to wind tighter, melodies pulling taut in anticipation.

I sat back in a high-backed chair, whiskey glass heavy in my hand, one ankle hooked over my knee. To anyone looking, I was relaxed, but inside the coil tightened with every tick of the clock.

My friends surrounded me, Finn, Rafe, Breezy, but their voices blurred into noise I didn’t bother to answer.

Every corner of this night was designed for her.

Girls in tight dresses danced nearby, tossing glances in my direction, their movements suggestive, deliberate. My gaze skimmed past them, the bright red of their lips, the glint of sequins. None of it stirred me. They were mere shadows in gray scale, background noise compared to the anticipation of her arrival.

The front door opened. I stiffened, waiting to see who stepped in.