More Than A Bully: North Woods University Books 1-3

by J. L. Beck

  “To my room, to sleep, since it’s finally quiet in this jail cell called a house. Now let go of me, before I scream.”

  Before she screams. My head tips back and a bellow of laughter passes my lips.

  “Scream? Go ahead. Yell at the top of your lungs. No one cares. No one will stop me. Hell, no one would believe a word you said, since you’re a liar. It’s practically your job now, lying, and ruining people’s lives.” Her jaw tightens, her lips pressing into a firm line, and I can’t help myself. I lean in closer, wanting, needing to be closer to her. “You fucked up my party and sent everyone home, so now you get to entertain me for the rest of the night. Sarah never got around to sucking my cock which is truly a shame since she’s so good at it, but a warm mouth is a warm mouth and yours looks good enough.”

  “Fuck you, I’ll bite off your dick if you come near me with it!” She wiggles her tiny body against mine in a futile effort to get away from me, but it only makes me crave her more. Pushing my chest against hers, I feel her heart racing, see her pulse throbbing in her throat.

  My cock is rock hard, and I lean in, pressing my center into her soft skin. She smells so good, and I bet if I kissed her, she’d taste good too.

  Fuck, I’m screwed.

  I know she can feel it, the hard ridge trapped inside my jeans.

  She whimpers, her eyes flicking up to mine. There’s an unsaid plea in those green depths, and I’m not sure what she’s asking me for… to stop, to keep going…to put us both out of our misery.

  I’m not sure if it’s the soft whimper, or her tiny body rubbing against mine, or maybe just the alcohol coursing through my veins. Maybe it’s a combination of all of them, but whatever it is, it drives me over the edge, shoving me headfirst off the cliff and into lust-filled waters.

  My mind shuts down for a second, all my thoughts fleeting as I let my body’s reaction to her take over. I don’t let myself think of the consequences, or how wrong it is of me to be doing this. Instead, I let my lips find hers, crashing into the smooth skin with such force the back of her head hits the wall. She whimpers again, but I swallow it up with my mouth. The kiss is teeth, and anger that burns hotter than the sun.

  There’s nothing gentle about it, nothing tender, or loving. It’s raw, it’s powerful, it’s the kind of kiss that as cliché as it sounds, I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I feel it in my bones, in the thundering beat of my heart.

  My fingers dig into her shoulders. I want to mark her. Leave bruises on her skin, but in a way that brings us both satisfaction, and I will, soon, so very fucking soon. Snaking a hand into her silky brown locks, I tilt her head back, my teeth biting at her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. Hurt her. Ravage her. Pulling away just enough to see her doe eyes, I watch as they fill with equal amounts of fear and excitement.

  The air around us grows electrically charged, our bodies molding together like two pieces of clay. I kiss her again with the same ferocity, but this time she returns my kiss. Her lips move hungrily, as if she’s been starving for this same interaction. Those tiny hands of hers go from pushing me away to fisting into my shirt and pulling me closer.

  Her lips part and a feminine moan leaves them. It’s that sound that suddenly has me snapping out of my lust hazed fog.

  What the fuck, Vance?

  She’s the enemy, a liar, a fucking liar. I pull away abruptly, and her body sags against the wall at the loss of contact. No! My chest heaves, my fingers crave to touch her skin again, to mark her, but I can’t. I won’t weaken myself for this little vixen who wants me to think she’s innocent. This has gone far enough. I have to get away from her before I lose control, before I cross that invisible line, the one that I’m already toeing.

  Staggering backward like I’m drunk, I harden my gaze. “Entertain me, con-artist, show me another use for that pretty mouth of yours, besides spouting off lies.”

  “I hate you,” she spits through gritted teeth, the lustful haze diminishing in her eyes.

  I hate myself too.

  For wanting you.

  For hating you.

  For being stuck in this stupid house with you.

  “Come on, we ain’t got all night…” I tsk impatiently.

  I’m so caught up in taunting her, in feeling the lick of hate her presence brings me that I don’t notice the slap coming toward my cheek until it’s too late. Her hand makes contact with my cheek, and my head flies to the side with the impact of the blow.

  My jaw turns to steel and my temper ignites. I’m reacting before I even get a chance to stop myself. Reaching for her, my fingers curl around her throat, my hold is surprisingly gentle for the amount of bitterness flowing through my veins. Ava’s reaction to me is petrified fear and she starts to tremble when I lean into her face, giving her delicate throat a firm squeeze.

  “If you’re going to put your hands on someone, then you better be prepared for them to put their hands on you.”

  “Don’t…” she croaks.

  “What? Hurt you?” I tilt my head to the side, eyeing her heart-shaped face. “I could never hurt you like you hurt me, you’ve done enough of that for the two of us. I’m merely trying to show you a sliver, a fraction of the pain you made me feel.” Feeling as if I’m seconds away from crashing and burning, I release her and take a step back. Then I turn to walk away. I’m done. Done with this cat and mouse game.

  Her tiny voice meets my ears a second later. “What did I do to make you hate me so much? Just tell me, Vance, please. Tell me so I can fix this. You’re making us both suffer for an unknown reason.”

  “You lied, and like liars always do, they continue to lie to cover up their existing lies.”

  “What did I lie about?”

  There’s a plea attached to her question and I’m too exhausted to continue fighting about this right now. She makes me weak, breaks down all my perfectly constructed walls, and leaves me bleeding, always bleeding.

  “Everything. All of it. I’m worth the truth, after all this time I deserve it.” I sigh and start walking toward the stairs.

  “I didn’t do anything…I didn’t lie that night…” she cries, but I continue walking, each step making my heart heavier, the knot of pain in my stomach tighter. By the time I reach my bedroom door, there’s an inkling of doubt forming. And by the time I step into the shower, it’s swirling inside my head, conjuring up different thoughts, and no matter how much I shove it away, it keeps returning.

  “Wake up, Vance.” My mom’s voice drags me from sleep. Wake up, we need to leave.” She sniffles and it sounds like she’s been crying. When I peel my eyes open and I look at her, the red rings around her blue eyes confirm it. A knot of dread forms in my throat.

  “What’s wrong? Where are we going?”

  “Don’t worry about that now, just get up and get dressed, okay?” She wipes at her eyes with the backs of her hands.

  I do as I’m told, getting up and dressed in a hurry. Mom and Dad have already packed our suitcases and before I can object to it, or even mutter another question, we are in our car and driving down the road.

  “What’s going on?”

  My dad’s jaw tightens at my question and my mother’s sobs grow harsher from her spot in the front seat.

  “As I’m sure you know, Laura caught Ava sneaking into her room last night?”

  “Yeah, I know…we were just playing a game, it was stupid. What happened? Did she get in trouble? I’ll explain everything to her mom if you want me to?”

  Silence settles over the car. My mom came and got me from the treehouse ten minutes after Ava left. She told me I was grounded for a month, which I didn’t even consider a punishment since Ava would have been there regardless. I didn’t really understand why I was being grounded. I had done worse things than sneak out of the house at nine at night.

  I just assumed it was because Ava had been caught. Oh, how horribly wrong I was. I’ll always remember the next words that come out of my father’s mouth like they are burned into my mem
ory.

  “She told her mom that you forced her to do it. That you threatened her to steal some of Laura’s jewelry. Why would you do that, son? Why would you threaten her?” The disappointment in my father’s tone sliced through me.

  Shaking my head, I will the memory away. She’s a liar. Through and through. I know what happened that night, and I know that it was her.

  She did this to us, and she’ll pay.

  Pay dearly.

  34

  Ava

  The days pass in a flurry. My mother and Henry still haven’t returned home and every second I’m left alone inside this house with Vance, another piece of my thinly worn veil crumbles. He’s wearing me down, trying to smash me like a fly, and he gets a little closer to doing so every time he opens his mouth. A tongue may have no bones, but it can break a heart just the same and that’s what he does every time he speaks to me - breaks me, my heart.

  He insults me, filets me straight down the middle, gutting me like a fish until my insides are hanging out and my heart is gushing blood across the floor.

  “Hey, Ava… wait up,” a familiar voice calls from behind me. I don’t want to stop though. I just want to keep walking, walk until I’m not alone anymore, until I start to feel whole again. It takes nothing more than a second for Clark to appear beside me and I’m forced to slow to a walk.

  “Why the long face, A?”

  “A? Is that a nickname or something? I wasn’t aware I had made it to that status of cool yet.”

  “Maybe you haven’t in Vance’s book, but you have in mine.”

  “Did he put you up to this?” I question, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. Clark circles me coming to stand in front of me. He’s just about as tall as Vance, but height aside, they couldn’t be any more different from each other.

  He chuckles. “God no, he’s my friend, but he can’t dictate who I talk to. I’m a big boy… a very big boy, and I make my own choices.” He’s laying the flirting on thick, like icing on top of a cake, and even though I’m not in the mood to deal with that kind of shit, I can’t stop the smile from appearing on my lips. Clark brings a very small piece of happiness to my situation.

  “Do you try this hard with all the ladies?”

  He inhales a breath before exhaling, his hands gripping the straps of his backpack, “Usually, no. Most of the time it’s… Ooo Clark, please fuck me. Oh yes, Clark. Right there… right there... Their panties are on the floor, no questions asked.”

  Snorting, I shake my head. “Now I understand why you and Vance are friends.”

  “And why is that?” he teases.

  “Because you’re both arrogant as hell, slightly piggish, and have egos the size of your heads.” Clark winces as if I’ve wounded him, and I feel kind of bad, having just said what I did without really knowing him.

  “You wound me, A. Wound me. And yet, you intrigue me all at once. Vance hates you, which I’m sure you know by now…” Reaching out, he grasps onto a piece of my hair, twirling it around, examining it in the afternoon sun. “But I don’t… I’m curious about you. I want to be your friend. I want to get to know you.”

  “You mean you want to get to know my panties.”

  Dropping the lock, he grins, his smile breathtaking, perfectly straight white teeth showing from behind lightly pink parted lips.

  “Well, of course, I’m a guy, and I have a dick so yeah, I want to get acquainted with your panties, more like your vagina, but I also want to get to know you. We can be friends too. Let’s have dinner… we can go to Slice It.”

  Clark’s harmless in the big scheme of things, this I know but him getting to know me? That can’t lead to anything good. I chew on the inside of my cheek, indecision rippling through me. This is a bad idea, a terrible idea, but I’m alone, so damn alone, and I’m tired of it. I’m desperate for some human interaction, even if it’s with the enemy’s best friend.

  How sad is that?

  Clark bats his eyelashes and gives me his best puppy dog look. I can’t imagine what that look gets him on a regular basis.

  “Does that look usually get you whatever you want?” I ask, eyebrow raised.

  “All the time, sweetheart,” Clark drawls.

  Tapping on my chin with my finger, I continue to weigh my options. Go home to face an empty house, and Vance, or go to dinner with Clark, possibly making a new friend and enjoying myself? It can’t be that bad, can it? What’s the worst that happens? Vance finds out? Then what? He can’t hurt me anymore than he already has.

  “Come on, it’ll be fun. Pizza, endless conversation, and you’ll get to chill with me, that’s the most amazing part of all.”

  He’s… Jesus, is he full of himself.

  “Fine. I’ll go, but only if you understand that this is dinner only. Dinner as friends. No date, no kissing, no sex. No funny business whatsoever.” I narrow my gaze, waiting for him to answer me. He takes a step closer, and I inhale his scent. Bold and spicy with undertones of vanilla.

  “Scout’s honor, princess,” he promises, holding up two fingers. “Dinner, no funny business, though that is my favorite kind of business.”

  “Not with me, it isn’t.”

  We exchange numbers, even though I’m pretty sure he already has mine. I think everyone does after Vance’s most recent prank where he posted my number all over campus and on Craigslist. The asshole had people blowing up my phone all week asking for nude pictures and booty calls.

  “Let’s meet back up at four near the coffee shop next to the English building,” Clark says, his eyes clashing with mine. “You know where that is right?”

  Rolling my eyes, I say, “Yeah, I know where it is. I’ll be there. Hopefully you don’t regret hanging out with me.”

  “Never, A. Never.” Shaking his head, he backpedals a couple steps. “I’ll see you later,” he exclaims before disappearing into the mass of students walking in my direction. My phone chimes in my pocket and I pull it out, my eyes falling to the time.

  Shit! How the hell am I going to graduate when I can’t even make it to class on time?

  We walk into the small pizza place a few hours later. The aroma of fresh basil and oregano fill the entire place, making my mouth water. I’m starving, my stomach grumbles so loudly I’m surprised Clark can’t hear it.

  “How about over there.” Clark points to a secluded booth in the back.

  “Sure.” I shrug. He grabs my hand and tugs me along behind him. Gazing down at our joined hands, I’m not sure what to think. He’s kind, flirtatious, yes, but he’s harmless in comparison to Vance. When we reach the booth, he lets go of my hand and we both scoot into the booth and sit down across from each other.

  “So, how are things going on the home front?” Clark asks. I guess no meaningless small talk before asking the personal questions with him. I wonder if he does this on dates? If he dates at all? Probably not.

  “You make it sound like it’s a war zone.”

  Clark shrugs, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip in that boyish way that seems to make him more attractive. “I would assume living with Vance is like a war zone. The fucker drives me insane on a daily basis and we don’t even live together.”

  “Well it’s not easy, he’s constantly harassing me, pointing out my weaknesses and verbally assaulting me.”

  Clark frowns. “Not that it’s an excuse, he shouldn’t try and hurt you like he is, but Vance was lost, confused for a long time after you left, fuck, he still is.”

  For some reason that surprises me. I’m a poster kid for lost and confused. One would think I could recognize that a million miles away, but Vance doesn’t seem just lost and confused, he seems livid, angry beyond disbelief.

  “He didn’t used to be this way,” I say, taken aback by how sad the words sound.

  I miss the old Vance, I miss my friend. Clark must pick up on my sudden somber mood, because he quickly changes the subject. We talk about classes, his latest hook-up, and the pressure he feels from his father to get good grades, pla
y baseball, and keep up the perfect son image.

  I’m glad to have the attention off of me, and as we eat and continue to chat, I feel like I’m actually growing closer to him. When we part ways, I’m a little sad, but we agree to meet up again soon. The entire drive home I’m smiling, carefree, without any weight on my shoulders. Hanging out with Clark wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated it to be. In fact, it was much more fun than I expected.

  Ten minutes later, I’m pulling into the driveway. I kill the engine and grab my backpack off the passenger seat, and walk up the concrete steps and to the front door. Like a father waiting for his daughter to be dropped off from her first date, Vance opens the door before I can even grab for the door handle.

  “Where have you been?” His tone is condescending and the way he’s looking at me has my stomach tumbling into a ball. Nimble fingers thread through his glossy black hair, it looks soft, like cashmere and I want to touch it, run my fingers through it.

  “Out,” I growl, pushing past him and inside. Our shoulders touch briefly, and my skin tingles, the fine hairs on my arms standing on end. It’s almost like I’ve been struck by a tiny bolt of lightning. Too bad it didn’t kill me dead.

  “Out? Out where? Someone said they saw you with Clark. Were you on a date? Was the lying thief using her tight cunt to con my friend?”

  My mouth pops open, shock coloring my features. “Excuse me, but it wasn’t a date, and I didn’t use my—” I can’t even say the word, I’m so flabbergasted. “I didn’t have sex with him, if that’s what you’re insinuating. I’m not some floozy who sleeps with every guy she meets.” My mind flashes to Sarah, I’m not like her. He doesn’t think I’m like her, does he?

  Vance’s green eyes darken. “Could’ve fooled me.”

  “You’re an asshole,” I say, attempting to verbally slap him with my words like he does me every time he opens his stupid mouth.