Page 21 of Ruthless Deliverance

My attention is on Dani as she steps into the classroom because Thibaut immediately motions for her to approach his desk. No one is paying attention to the student-teacher conversation, but I am. And that’s when I see him gesture to her eye. I question why for a split second until I see his lips form the words, “I’m so sorry.”

What the fuck? Why would he apologize unless it was his doing? And how and where would that shit have even taken place? I knew he had a thing for her, and I can’t fault him, but he put his motherfucking hands on her.

Rising from my desk, my plan is to remain in control. But the closer I get to him, the clearer I envision him hitting her, the more my fury boils over.

Thibaut notes my approach, which is mostly controlled until I’m in front of him, then my hands immediately clasp his shirt as I shove him forcefully until his back hits the wall.

“Creed, stop. Let him go.” Dani’s pleas are drown out as she makes a failed attempt to wedge between us.

Bringing my fist back, I slam it into his face, my knuckles smashing into his jaw as Dani screams for me to halt. And I do. Wrapping my fingers around Thibaut’s throat, I pin him in place. “Don’t ever touch her again or I will kill you.”

“Creed, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dani says, making a little progress with wedging between us. Although her hands thrust against my chest, I keep my hold on the bastard, my fingers squeezing tighter as I look to the bruising around her eye. “Then explain it to me, Dani. Tell me how Thibaut managed to give you a black eye over the weekend, because you sure as fuck didn’t have it when you left campus on Friday.”

Shock covers her face, fear morphs over Thibaut’s.

“Are you fucking him?” I ask her. I don’t want to hear an affirmation, but if she did, I sure as fuck want to hear it from her mouth.

“No, dumbass. Will you just stop acting like a lunatic for five seconds?” Dani is more agitated than panicked, but Thibaut’s alarm is growing as he tells me to release him.

“Not until I get answers, Mr. Thibaut. Explain to the class what you were doing hitting a student. I knew you wanted to fuck her but didn’t think you’d have the balls to go after her or lay a hand on her. Big mistake.”

“It was an accident, Creed.” Dani shoves me again. “Now back the fuck off, or I’ll make you.”

“Ah, taking up for your incompetent teacher.” I let a sadistic laugh out because it’s all I can do to not finish what I started and beat the asshole to a pulp.

“It was,” Thibaut confesses, finally realizes he isn’t going anywhere until he does, “an accident. We ran into each other at the gym and were sparring. I didn’t mean to elbow her. It was an accident and completely platonic.”

Sparring at the gym—not what I expected. “Platonic, huh? Sparring with your student doesn’t seem like appropriate behavior for a teacher. Is that all that happened, teach?”

He quickly nods, his fingers grabbing at my hands still around his throat. It takes every ounce I strength I have to release. But I don’t let my guard down as I take a few steps back. Once I’m a few feet back, and the pussy has Dani in front of him as protection, he shouts, “Get out of my classroom.” When I don’t move, he adds, “Now. Cabot’s office. We will discuss this.”

“Yes. We will.” Because he will be away from her. I don’t buy for one second that anything about him running into her outside of school was an accident. But he will know not to let it happen again, accidental or not.

20

DANI

Not only am I failing to stay under the radar, but I’m in the center ring of the circus every goddamn time, courtesy of Creed motherfucking Kincaid. I barely know the bastard, yet he throws me a curveball at every turn. But maybe he won’t be a problem for long, he did just assault a staff member. Whether his family built the school or not, there’s no way they can overlook that. But I really didn’t need to be in Cabot’s office again. Philip is going to flip his lid eventually. Yet here I am, following behind the prick as he confidently makes his way to the front office. He truly has no care in the world. I’m sure even if he is kicked out, he has some fancy tutor on standby.

“I can’t believe you just did that.” He doesn’t slow, doesn’t miss a step. “You were out of line, Creed. It was truly an accident and none of your damn business.”

Swiftly, he rotates, walking the few steps until he stops in front of me. “Then why didn’t you say that at the diner?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” I lightly slap my forehead as I laugh. “Because you’re so understanding and wouldn’t have jumped to any conclusions like you just did.”

“Did you? Did you fuck him?”

The question pisses me off even more this time. The first time there had been some shock that he would automatically assume I screwed a teacher, but to ask again is straight up insulting. “No. And even if I had fucked him—or anyone else—it’s my decision and has nothing to do with you.”

He closes the distance between us, but I refuse to budge. Once I give him an inch, he’ll take a mile. He’s already proven that. “You’re scared. And it has everything to do with me. Because you know once you allow me to show you how it’s supposed to feel, you’ll never be satisfied again. Not that you have been in the first place.” Reaching his hand up, he threads his fingers in my hair, his fingers gripping slightly as he moves so close, I think he’s going to kiss me, but he stops, his lips brushing mine as he says, “It’s in your fuck-me eyes, your body melting into mine every time my mouth is on yours. Fight it. Fight me. It’s just gonna make it that much more satisfying when you admit defeat.”

“You thrive on panic and control. You’re an unhinged psychopath, you win that one hands down. But there is no part of me that fears you. I don’t even know you. You don’t know me. The only thing I want to admit is I hate what I do know about you and want you to stay far away from me until I can get the hell out of this godforsaken academy.” For so many reasons. And he is at the top of the list. He’s not supposed to say these things to me. He’s not supposed to make me feel anything. But he does. And it scares the shit out of me because he’s more than off-limits. He’s untouchable in every way possible.

“Oh, I’m certain you don’t fear me. What scares you is that even though I’m an unhinged psychopath, you still want me, and you don’t want to accept what that says about you. Because you’re as fucked up in the head as I am. I sensed it the moment I laid eyes on you. And the more I see, the more I wonder which one of us is worse off, because unlike you, I embrace my reality and all the fucked-up parts that come along with it.” His hand releases my hair, moving down to my neck, the other arm looping around my lower back. “Like right now, you’re allowing this to happen. Because if you really didn’t want me to touch you, you’d let me have it. But here we are.” His smiling lips feather over mine, his tongue quickly darting out to brush over my lips. “So, what’s that make you, Dani? The serpent or the apple?”

“It makes me a fucking idiot for thinking maybe there was something decent somewhere inside you.” But why was I looking for anything within him anyway? He shouldn’t even be near me. He’s someone with nothing to lose, who wants for nothing from another person, except control and pain. That’s what he prospers on.

“Everything decent in me died that night,” he whispers before he turns and walks away. For a second, I question if I’d imagined the confession. But I hadn’t. I felt the words as he breathed them on my lips. And I want him to take them back because they weren’t laced with his usual egotistically asinine attitude but with the same pain he drags out of others. And I want to know what he’s talking about. But that is a question I won’t ask, because I don’t want any reason to like him. Because hating him is hard enough, liking him would be a disaster.