“Just let him send Rebecca in,” she urged. “Otherwise he’ll end up coming up here on his own and scrubbing it clean himself.”
“Yeah, Barbie liked the sight of me doing that in The Temple,” Saint agreed. “I just haven’t decided if that’s because she enjoyed me being on my hands and knees scrubbing or if she just wanted to see me beneath her.”
“Both,” Tatum replied easily and I smirked at her as I pulled another beer from the pack and tossed it to Saint. It made bile rise in my throat to act like we were friends after everything his family had done to mine but I needed to win his trust, his dependence, his secrets.
I needn’t have worried about sharing my beer with the devil though. The can hit him in the chest as he made no attempt to catch it and fell to the carpet with a sold thump as his jaw ticked.
“I only drink from a glass,” he said, eyeing the fallen beer like it had personally offended him. “I’ll take vodka if you have it, any other spirit if you don’t. Either way I’ll have it neat.”
“I’ve got rum,” I said, trying not to snarl as I hooked the can from the floor and set it on the counter.
Saint shuddered. “On second thought, I’m not thirsty. Besides, we really shouldn’t be staying. We just came to drop off Barbie and I’ve got a workout to fit in before bed.”
“Look, I get that it’s the rules or whatever, but I really don’t think she should sleep here,” I began on the speech I’d been practicing in my head all day. “She’s my student and if-”
“So don’t fuck her then,” Saint drawled. “But the sleepover is non negotiable. The rules bend for no man. They are forged in dragon fire and kept strong by the heat of the sun.”
“They’re just some things you scribbled on a bit of paper,” Tatum pointed out.
“I assure you Barbie, they are the bars on my cage. You should be glad to have them, because they offer you some assurances that I am muzzled. Who knows what I might do without rules to keep me in check?” Saint smiled like a predator and I shifted an inch to my left so that I was between him and Tatum.
Kyan barked a laugh as he looked over at us from his position on the couch.
“She sleeps in a different bed on rotation,” Saint went on. “Tonight is your night so she’s in with you. She has to sleep in your bed.”
“Or else what?” I asked, fully intending to break his fucking rules and tell him where to stick them. This whole thing was insanity. But as his gaze darkened, I realised it wouldn’t be as simple as that.
“Or else, she gets punished for breaking the rule. And I have several things in mind - I’m just waiting for her to give me an excuse.”
My gut twisted at his words and I glanced at Tatum beside me. She didn’t even seem shocked, just resigned to what he was saying. It was so fucked up. I didn’t know where they all got off claiming ownership of her, but I was going to make it my mission to set her free.
“Fine,” I ground out. “But I’ve had a long day and I wanna turn in soon.”
“Perfect, we won’t hold you up then,” Saint agreed.
“Are we going already?” Blake pouted like a petulant child.
“I packed a bag for her,” Saint said, ignoring Blake and pointing at the bag Kyan had dropped on the coffee table. “You have to choose what she wears to bed, so I gave you options. If there’s nothing to your taste you can always come to The Temple and select an alternative or put up with it for tonight then send me some ideas of what you like and I’ll order it in for next time.”
I opened my mouth to tell him I wouldn’t be picking her fucking clothes for her like a controlling psychopath, but she caught my eye and gave me a warning look that asked me not to comment.
“Alright, fine,” I muttered.
There were far bigger reasons for me to want to see Saint suffer but right now, I was hungering for his blood on behalf of the girl beside me and my fingers were twitching with the desire to wrap them around his throat.
The smirk he offered me said he could see that desire in me even though I knew for a fact that my poker face was second to none.
“C’mon, assholes, we’re going,” Saint announced and the other two got up, grumbling complaints about walking all the way over here for nothing as they closed in on us.
Kyan crushed his empty beer can in his fist and tossed it at the trash can where it bounced off onto the floor. Saint gritted his jaw, taking Blake’s can and throwing it away as he moved to pick Kyan’s up too. I couldn’t say I hated to see him cleaning up my house like that either.
“See you tomorrow, Cinders,” Blake said, leaning in to press a kiss to Tatum’s cheek.
Kyan knocked him aside with his shoulder and pulled her into his arms, squeezing her ass with both hands as he murmured something in her ear which included something along the lines of him tasting her again and taking his punishment for it with a smile on his face.
She cursed him out, shoving him back a step and he laughed loudly as he released her.
Saint tutted irritably as he stepped forward to say goodbye to her last, but he didn’t try and hug or kiss her. Instead, he trailed his fingers through her long hair, positioning it carefully and straightening her dress with a critical eye. She pouted through it but he didn’t seem to care, he even tugged the tie holding her dress together open before knotting it again carefully so that it hung perfectly.
When he was finished, he stepped back, his eyes lighting hungrily as he took her in.
“Beautiful,” he announced and though I agreed with him, I didn’t like the tone of his voice. Like he was claiming some responsibility for her looking that way.
“Look after our girl tonight, Nash,” Blake warned as he swept towards the door.
“We’re trusting you,” Saint added, making it sound like a threat.
“Nothing will happen to her while she’s with me,” I said darkly. If there was one thing we could all agree on, it was that. Tatum Rivers was worth killing for. She was definitely worth protecting. I just intended on protecting her from them too.
The Night Keepers left and I moved to lock the door behind them for good measure. It was already dark out so I’d drawn the blinds before they arrived and I was suddenly very alone with Tatum in a very quiet house.
“This is weird,” she admitted, breaking the silence.
“You’ve got that right,” I muttered, running a hand over the back of my neck. The tattoo Kyan had given me was still sore, but I’d looked at it in the mirror and most of the redness had gone down. I didn’t even hate it. I had to admit he knew how to create art even though he was generally more suited to destroying things.
I moved towards Tatum slowly and reached out to grab a can of beer from the counter beside her. The moment I lifted the ring pull, the whole thing exploded and I cursed as I was drenched, tossing it into the sink as Tatum laughed, scrambling away from me to avoid the worst of it.
Fucking Saint!
I yanked my saturated shirt off and used the back of it to wipe the drink from my face as the beer continued to bubble out of the can and down the drain in the sink.
“Well, at least it’s not awkward now,” Tatum joked. “I’m in my teacher’s house and he’s just started stripping for me.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I cursed, turning to look at her with a snort of laughter. “This whole thing is so fucked up.”
“At least we have an excuse to hang out alone regularly and talk cunning plans,” she said.
“We already had that with kickboxing,” I pointed out.
“Well, this way I can focus more on my training then and save our diabolical schemes for our sleepovers.”
“Great, now I’m a thirteen year old girl.” I rolled my eyes at the situation and glanced towards the bathroom. “I need to have a shower and wash this beer off of me. You can just make yourself comfortable. You can have the bed tonight anyway so if you just wanna sleep you can. I’ll take the couch.”
“Do you wanna pick out my sleeping stuff so I can get chan
ged?” she asked, fiddling with the knot on her dress.
“I don’t give a fuck, just pick whatever.”
“Great.” She grinned at me like she really appreciated being left to make her own clothing choices and I fought the urge to start ranting about Saint Memphis and his crazy control issues. “But…Saint will ask about it and it’s technically a rule break on my part if you haven’t picked it. You should probably at least look at the options so you can tell him what you thought of them.”
“Fine.” I gave in, deciding to just give the stuff a cursory glance as I strode over to the coffee table and opened her bag, tugging out a fistful of silk and lace.
I swallowed thickly. They were all skimpy, clearly very expensive bits of lingerie. I guessed technically they were night dresses, but they were seriously lacking substance. Half of them were transparent. Scratch that, all of them were transparent, particularly over the breasts.
“I…you can’t wear one of these,” I forced out. My dick could not cope with her in that. I’d fucking combust. Nope. No. No fucking way.
Tatum laughed like she’d read my mind and I really hoped she hadn’t. “Kyan prefers me to sleep in his shirts,” she suggested.
“Yes,” I agreed instantly. “That. I’ll get one.”
I dropped the lacy shit and tried not to think about Saint sleeping in a bed with her dressed that way as I headed into my bedroom, finding a plaid button down that I never wore. It was big on me so it would swamp her. Not attractive at all. Perfect.
I tossed her the shirt and she smiled as she caught it.
I headed to the bathroom and quickly showered, washing the beer off of my skin and out of my hair before dressing in grey sweatpants and a white wifebeater.
When I returned to the front room, I found her waiting for me, dressed in my shirt with her long hair tied in a messy knot on top of her head while she sat on the couch before the fire. Her bronzed legs were bare and her pedicured toes balanced on the edge of the table, I stared at the exposed flesh for too long, wondering if grabbing her a pair of sweatpants would be too obvious. But it probably was, so I couldn’t say anything about it.
Her attention was on her school diary in her lap, but she glanced up with a slight smile as I entered before looking back down at it.
I grabbed a couple of cans of coke from the fridge and tossed a pizza into the oven while she scribbled something in her diary. I knew she must have had dinner already, but I also knew Saint had been denying her access to junk food. So the first thing I’d done when I’d accepted that she’d probably be staying here tonight despite my protests was stock up.
I grabbed a bag of maltesers from the cupboard and pack of twizzlers and moved to sit beside her with them.
She looked up from her diary, setting it aside as I tossed the snacks down beside her and her eyes lit up as I opened them.
“No fucking way,” she groaned.
“I’ve got access to the school stores. Plus I sign off on the food orders before they get placed now. You can eat as much junk food as you like whenever you come here, princess.” I grinned at her as she practically drooled.
“Fuck, you just made my goddamn life,” she announced, reaching out to open the twizzlers and wrapping one around her finger as she started eating it.
“So, do you wanna tell me exactly what Kyan did to earn himself a fish face pack earlier?” I asked as I opened the maltesers and scooped a handful out. “Saint just said he’d broken some of your rules. But I didn’t get a chance to ask which one before he was herding us all down to the lake.”
“Oh. Well, yeah, he crossed a line. So...” Her cheeks heated and her jaw ticked as she looked into the fire which really just made me want to know more.
“Come on, princess, don’t hold me in suspense,” I pushed.
“Well…” Her blue eyes flicked up to meet mine and she bit down on her bottom lip guiltily. “We just fooled around a bit. And the rules say no foreplay, so…”
My heart lurched and my fist curled tightly around the maltesers I hadn’t managed to eat yet and I crushed them without meaning to.
“I thought you hated them?” I growled, wondering why the fuck this bothered me so much. I certainly wasn’t allowed to be bothered by it. And I’d been the one encouraging her to make Kyan fall for her, but I hadn’t really expected her to do anything physical with him. Or maybe I had but I hadn’t wanted to think about it. But that shouldn’t have mattered. I shouldn’t have cared.
“I do,” she snarled, her eyes flaring. “I hate all of them. But…sometimes they make me feel things that I can’t just explain away…” She looked into the fire for a long moment then shrugged in a nonchalant way. “Besides, why isn’t it okay for me to fool around with them if I want to? If I was a guy and they were girls, people would slap me on the back and high five me for making all of them want me or getting in their pants. But just because I’m a girl I’m supposed to dampen my sexuality? I can’t take satisfaction from a guy for no other reason than they’re hot and I like the way their body feels against mine? I don’t see why I should have to justify-”
“Alright, alright, get off your soapbox. I’m worried about you getting hurt, not trying to stand in the way of your feminine right to fuck as many guys as you like. I was just taken off guard is all. First Blake, now Kyan, what are they going to say when they realise you’ve played them both?”
I forced myself to smirk at her like I was impressed and in a way, I was. She was doing what we’d said, weaving a web around them, drawing them in and making them ache for her so bad that they wouldn’t even see it coming when she ripped the rug right out from under them and made them bleed. But on the other hand, I now had a fistful of crushed maltesers which were melting into a blob as liquid hot as my rage over the thought of them putting their hands on her after what they’d done.
“You don’t need to protect me,” she said slowly, like she was trying to figure out what I was thinking and if she did then I wouldn’t mind a pointer too. There was only one real reason for me to feel this way and I didn’t want to admit it. Because I couldn’t be jealous. I had no right to be. And I certainly couldn’t hold her accountable for any stupid fucking feelings like that which I might have. She didn’t owe me anything when I couldn’t offer her anything.
“We’re in this together,” I reminded her. “And I will protect you whether you want me to or not. In whatever ways I can.”
“Okay,” she said, giving me a real smile which took my breath away.
“So, what’s the next part of your plan?” I asked.
“So far, they’re playing right into my hands, giving me the excuse to strike at them with punishments which they can’t even fight back against. The rules I set mean they can’t touch me, but they keep doing it anyway – well, Blake and Kyan do, I haven’t had an excuse to punish Saint yet.”
I tried not to sag in relief as she admitted she hadn’t done anything with Saint. The other two I could cope with. She’d chosen to be with Blake before all of this had started and I knew Kyan well enough to understand where a lot of his pain came from. In fact, it made me feel kinda shitty to stand back while she worked her way beneath his skin, knowing that he was in such need of something real while she was only playing him. But I understood why she had to do it. I knew what he’d done to her. And I could also allow the sacrifice in the name of bringing me closer to Saint Memphis. I’d just feel like an asshole about it on my own time.
“So you’re managing to get your revenge without them even retaliating because they agreed to it when you set the rules?” I grinned at the genius of that plan.
“Yep. And I made a list.” She popped a malteser between her lips and grabbed her school diary, flipping it over to the back page and raising a pen as she scored out ‘the fish stew’ and my gaze skimmed over the crimes she’d mapped out. “I’m not gonna stop until I’ve gotten even for every last thing on this list and then some,” she added fiercely.
The sex tape
The fish stew
The Unspeakables
The storm
The font
The bathtub
The ice
The gun
The clothes
The humiliation
The shower
The letters
THE VOW
“You’re an evil genius,” I teased, though I kinda meant it too. She’d been knocked down hard by that pack of assholes and instead of breaking or even bowing, she was starting her own private rebellion right under their noses. And I was her first recruit.
“I’ve barely even started,” she promised me and the passion in her voice made me want to do things I really shouldn’t have been considering.
“So what’s next?” I asked.
“The Unspeakables need to rise up,” she said determinedly. “I already started working on them but since the night of the break in, it’s been hard to get them thinking in the right way again. I can’t be seen talking to them either so getting in their ears about it is hard. But the Night Keepers have given me two hours of quiet study a night in the library and I see some of them there. They need to realise that all of them together are strong enough to stand against three monstrous boys. Once they do and they cast off the chains of that awful fucking title of Unspeakables they’ve been given, I think we stand a good shot of overthrowing the whole school. And then we’ll see how kingly those assholes are without their crowns.”
I snorted a laugh just as the timer on the oven sounded. “You don’t do things by halves, do you princess?”
“My father raised me to be a fighter,” she said, packing her diary back into her bag and giving me the chance to dispose of the melted, crushed, malteser fist I had going on.
I quickly washed the chocolate off of my hand and drew the pizza out of the oven, slicing it up before carrying the plate back over to her.
Tatum’s eyes widened and she moaned with desire as I set the plate of cheesy, doughy goodness down on the coffee table and I grinned like the cat who got the fucking cream. It was totally idiotic for me to be looking at her the way I was, but it was damn hard not to sometimes. Especially when we were alone like this.
Kings of Lockdown: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 2) Page 16