Tease Me, Baby: A Reverse Harem High School Bully Romance (Silver Creek High Book 2)

by Belladona Cunning

  “Don’t test me.” His warning is clear, but it’s one I will disregard. Fuck him. He may not be on my bad side anymore, but he’s not exactly at the top of my good list.

  My eyes snap to Ellis’ when I hear him chuckle softly under his breath. The moment his eyes meet mine, he shuts up immediately. The only guy that has any sense to retreat is Quinn and I hear his boots thudding down on the stairs.

  Whatever it is they needed to do here can wait five fucking minutes.

  “You can either follow Quinn or you’re about to get the show of a lifetime.” I climb back onto the bed and dare him with my eyes to intervene. Straddling Asher’s chest, I sigh when I feel his hands land back on my thighs. I groan the moment his tongue touches my neglected pussy.

  “Jess,” Callum warns, but I snub him just as I did a few moments ago.

  Weaving my fingers back through Asher’s thick hair, I slowly rock against his face, building myself back up. “It makes no difference to me either way.”

  My hips shift backward and forward, becoming jerkier with each pass. When I feel Asher grab my thongs and pull it to the side, I damn near melt into a puddle on his chest. A gush of wetness slides down the crevice of my ass, wetting the shirt he’s wearing. My body has a mind of its own when my hands leave him altogether and grab my headboard for more stability.

  After a slow stroke from his tongue, he takes my aching clit between his lips, shifting his lips back and forth for added friction. He lightly tugs, then releases me. Laps at my pussy lips, then sucks. My body is shaking, trembling from the onslaught of pleasure I feel. He presses languid kisses against my pussy. The feel of his mouth on my most private place, his hands gripping and trailing over my thighs and hips, have me shaking with an impending orgasm.

  A deep, gravelly groan filters through the air. The sound so full of need, of want, it makes me shudder and my heart skips a beat inside my chest.

  “Ride his face, baby,” I hear Ellis whisper throatily. His words cause my ministrations to hasten. “Yeah, that’s it. Come all over that greedy bastards’ tongue.”

  I can feel the tingle at the base of my spine. His touch feels like tiny electrical currents running around the surface of my skin. I gasp, head falling back on my shoulders as that knot unfurls inside my stomach. It steals the breath from my lungs, and when Asher wraps his lips around my throbbing clit, sucking hard, I climax in a rush of ecstasy and ear-piercing wails.

  CHAPTER 21

  When I come downstairs, all the guys are seated in my living room. Asher and Ellis on the love seat, their big bodies pressed together enough it looks uncomfortable. I hide my smile, then turn to see Callum and Quinn resting on the couch, a cushion separating them, like they expect me to sit there.

  However, once my eyes land on Callum, my smile drops. He looks a little beaten down, weary. I can just see dark circles under his eyes, and I half wonder if it’s me putting them there. I shouldn’t feel remorse at the thought, but I do. Callum has done nothing to me since that night in his bedroom, and as bad as I hate to admit it, he doesn’t deserve the shit I’m giving him. Even though it feels good at the time.

  With a sigh, I head toward the couch. But I don’t take the spot between them. Instead, my eyes catch his seconds before I uncross his arms from over his chest. He gives me a look of confusion, but I merely shoot a timid smile at him in return. He needs this; I can tell. Body language is my specialty, after all.

  Sitting down in his lap, I wrap his arms around me and settle in against him. I snuggle myself into the crook of his arm and press my face against his pectoral muscle. His familiar scent of cinnamon drifts into my nostrils when I inhale deeply, then release a quiet sigh at the end. He always smells so good. It’s different from the mint and citrus, but it seems to compliment him better.

  He shifts, getting a better handle on me, but doesn’t remove me from his lap. Instead, he tightens his arms and brings me closer, heaving his own sigh of contentment. How did I not know he needed this? We used to be able to read each other like an open book. The moment something was wrong with either of us, we’d know about it and try our best to remedy it. I guess we’re both a little out of touch with each other.

  “So,” I say, my voice muffled by Callum’s thin jacket. “What brings you all here? I thought you all were doing something tonight.”

  Callum’s chest rumbles as he replies, “We do, but Asher’s text made us drop everything and come here as soon as we could.”

  I pull away from Callum’s calming, cinnamon scent long enough to peek over at Asher. “What did you send them?”

  He looks remorseful for a moment, which confuses me. What is he guilty about? Nothing happened that he needed to band together the guys and bring them here. It’s clear they had some rather important stuff to handle. Otherwise, my guys would have …

  That’s when it hits me, and leaves me falling back into Callum’s chest, groaning. “You didn’t.”

  “They have a right to know,” he says. “Just like I had a right to know.”

  “Know what?” Ellis asks.

  Tense silence fills the room. I’m sure not going to be the one to voice this, even though I know it’s been coming for quite a while. Since the night we went to Ellis’ home to be exact. But never in my wildest dreams would I think it would happen like this.

  “It took me a while to put it together,” Asher states, then I hear rustling over from his side of the room, like he’s gotten off the couch. Then I hear his shoes squeak across the floor. It leads me to believe that I’m right in regard to him pacing as he walks through everything step-by-step.

  “Spit it out already. Damn.” Quinn does not have the patience of a saint, and I don’t know why that makes me smile, but it does.

  “Remember that cut on Jessalyn’s forehead? The one we saw at her mother’s dinner party?”

  “Yeah, we all saw it after you pointed it out,” Callum retorts.

  “I think Debra did it.” You can hear a pin drop with as silent as the room gets. The tension rises higher and higher, becoming so thick you can cut it with a knife.

  “How do you know?” Ellis asks, but I can tell he’s angry by the timbre of his voice.

  Asher growls. “Jess may not say this, but I will. Debra thinks of Jessalyn as her property. She may say she’s her daughter, but even I heard the underlining threat when the bitch tried to stand up to me today before I put her out of the house.”

  “She tried to go up against you?” Callum seethes, then shifts me until I slide down onto the couch beside him.

  Quinn automatically opens his right arm and I don’t question it as I settle under it, hiding my face once more. This is humiliating, horrifying. To know I’ve been giving these guys so much shit all year, but I cower—for personal reasons—to a bitch much more petite than I am. It’s laughable, embarrassing.

  “Cal, she carried herself as if she was above me, above my father.” My eyes peek out to settle on Asher, seeing a crazed look in his eyes even I haven’t seen before. “I had to threaten to call him. Twice. And even then, that barely worked. She has too much of a leash, and if someone doesn’t reel her in, she’ll snap like a rabid dog.”

  “We’ll take care of that, don’t worry. What I want to know is how you pieced it together; how you know Debra has been abusing Jessalyn.” Callum crosses his arms over his chest, standing toe-to-toe with Asher. Both men are imposing, as much in strength as they are intelligent.

  “Remember that night at the club?” Oh, God. He really does know. “How at the dinner party she looked and acted more beat up than what she should have?”

  Callum nods, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows. “Yes.”

  “Ellis couldn’t even touch Jessalyn without her cringing. He only touched her arm, Cal, and her face screwed up in pain the moment she sat down. Her mother is abusing her, and I don’t want her here anymore. I don’t give a shit who Jess stays with, but it can’t be here.”

  His declaration has my eyes snapping up towar
d his. “What are you talking about?”

  Asher’s eyes come to rest on mine, softening. “We can’t leave you in her care, Jessalyn. I—We care too much about you to do that.”

  I’m already shaking my head, a frown marring my features. “It’s a good thought, Asher, really. But it’ll never work. She wasn’t wrong. She owns me until my eighteenth birthday.”

  “She doesn’t own you goddammit!” Callum snarls, causing me to startle in Quinn’s hold.

  Tears burn at the corner of my eyes as my gaze turns to him, seeing the barely leashed fury swirling within his emerald green gaze. They’re so bright with malice they practically shine like the gem itself.

  “She literally has papers on me, Cal,” I choke out. “Why do you think I wanted to come with you that night we went to Ellis’?”

  Movement from the love seat has my eyes flicking toward Ellis. “So, you didn’t hang out with us because you wanted to?” he asks, sadness coating his words.

  Shit. “Yes and no. Yes, because I kind of took Karma’s advice and decided to give you all a chance, and I knew you all would get me away from Debra. And no because I still didn’t know how I should feel, I was just glad it got me out of that situation.”

  This honesty shit is for the birds. If I wasn’t such a stickler for it, I would make up a lie to pacify Ellis and the guys. But that’s not me, never has been. I need to tell the truth, even if there are serpents slithering through the grass intent on filling my head full of lies every time I turn around.

  “Jess, you can’t stay here if she’s abusing you,” Quinn whispers, pulling me back into his side. He kisses the top of my head, and I find it settles me almost as much as his proximity does.

  It’s a scary thought, though. Just the mere brush of their lips can give me the solace I’ve been searching for the last two years. But that doesn’t negate the fact that what they’re saying is not something that can be done. Debra has custody of me until I turn eighteen. It’s court ordered. No authority figure will allow me to go anywhere Debra tells me I can’t.

  “There’s nothing you can do, unfortunately.” I sigh, feeling defeated. “Debra filed for custody in August, and they granted it in September. I am hers until I turn eighteen on New Year’s Day.”

  “We’ll figure it out, little mouse. Don’t you worry about that.” I believe Callum when he says that. There’s real emotion behind his words; a truth that can only be heard in his rawest form. A promise.

  Maybe his words, this time, won’t be a beautiful lie. Maybe I can trust him. My heart pitter-patters at the thought.

  Just as I’m about to reply, probably make myself sound like a pathetic little girl picking up his scraps, my phone buzzes in my pocket. When it continues buzzing, I shift and fish it out, looking at the screen.

  I see it’s my father, and a small part of me perks up at the thought of talking to him. Maybe he’s found out something. I knew he wouldn’t let what Debra did go without checking into it. He could be possibly reversing it and trying to fight for custody. We can only hope, at least.

  Swiping my finger across the screen, I put it against my ear. “Hey, dad.”

  “Hey, baby girl.” I preen at the nickname which automatically has me deflating. I’m not the type of person who “preens” nor will I ever again.

  “Did you need something?”

  “Yeah,” he says after a moment. “I’m having a dinner party next weekend and I’d like for you to come. It’s with my business associates, so it’ll probably be boring and dull. But you can bring a guest if you like; possibly that boy you’re seeing.”

  I see where he’s going with this, and it’s not happening. “I’m not telling you anything, dad.”

  I have to fight the laugh forming when I hear his grumble on the other line.

  “Fine, but you can invite one if you like.” It seems he has at least a small understanding of how many I’m dealing with, but I don’t think he knows the exact number. Jokes on him. There’s four.

  I glance between all four guys, wondering which I would pick. If I’d even pick between the four of them. They’re entwining themselves into my life deep, and it wouldn’t feel right—at least to me—if I chose just one of them.

  “Can I bring, let’s say, four someone’s?” I hear him choke on something through the line.

  “Four?”

  “Um, yeah.”

  The guys all give me equal looks of confusion, but that only seems to lift my spirits more. They have no idea what I’m getting them into here, and I’ll be damned if they back out once they do. If I have to go, then so do they. That’s my order and I’m sticking to it.

  “If you’d like,” his voice strains out, and I fight to release the giggle on the tip of my tongue.

  Rolling my eyes, I retort, “If Debra knows them, then you already do, too. At least, I believe so.”

  “Really?” He perks up at that.

  “Yes. Callum Lockridge, Quinn Tannenbay, Ellis Malone, and Asher Shawcrass—they just moved here. Well, besides Callum, who moved back this year.”

  “What a coincidence,” he says with a wry chuckle. “That’s who we’re having dinner with.”

  Oh, really? As if the guys pieced together who I’m talking to, they all glance in different directions, none of them meeting my eyes as I sweep over them. Were they going to tell me, or just not show up one night? I don’t know why the thought of them not being here for dinner upsets me as much as it does, but it’s not a feeling I’d like to have.

  “What a wonderful surprise.” I grit out, then Ellis makes the mistake of chancing a glance my way. I evil eye him, which has his horrified eyes snapping away from mine. “Then I guess you’ll see all five of us there next weekend. Text me the deets, and I’ll make sure I have something to wear that’s appropriate.”

  “No need. I will have something sent over. Still a size four, right?”

  “Yes.” I smile. At least that’s something he hasn’t forgotten.

  “Terrific. I’ll let you go then. I love you, baby girl.”

  “I love you, too,” I murmur, then hear the familiar click of him ending the call. That’s when I focus on every single one of them. My eyes spear through one guy at a time, before I pull away from Quinn and settle onto my own cushion.

  “You all may already know this, but we’re going to a party,” I say with a slightly irritated voice.

  “Yeah,” Asher deadpans. “We did already know that.”

  “But what you don’t know—” I smile maniacally, damn near bursting with jubilance. “—is that you all got roped into driving me.”

  At that, my eyes catch on Callum’s in time to see a salacious smirk morph one side of his lips, his dimple making an appearance. His eyes trail down my seated form, until he raises his eyes back up to mine, his smirk turning into a full-fledged smile.

  “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

  CHAPTER 22

  As bad as I hate to admit it, they’re all growing on me. They were so upset when they found out what Debra’s been doing to me. Especially when I went in depth about what she’s been doing. Ellis wanted to string her up by her feet. Quinn, he fumed in silence, and I think that’s even worse than voicing his intentions. Callum—he looked like he was about to blow a gasket when he went on his tirade. I’ve never felt the way I did in that moment. Like I truly belonged.

  I’ll also never forget what he said in that moment, “I don’t care who she thinks she is, Jess. You will always be my past, present, and future—anyone that fucks with that, fucks with me.”

  I couldn’t even begin to describe the feelings I had in that moment. They were all over the place, zipping here and there. Even when she returned, I couldn’t make sense of them.

  When she did, though, I was surprised more than anything. She went straight to her room without speaking a word. It was blissful. She hasn’t dared come in my direction since then, either. It’s like she’s tiptoeing around me for fear of pissing off one of the guys.

 
It’s freaking awesome!

  Asher did that. He stood up for me. It’s like he deemed himself my personal bodyguard, and he’s a delectable one at that. He makes me laugh at all the dumb shit that comes out of his mouth, even when I don’t feel like it. I also feel like I can be myself around him, which is a big deal. He’s nothing like I expected, and as much as the warrior in me wants to fight it, I’m kind of glad Karma talked some sense into me.

  “So, I was thinking we could do something tonight?” Asher asks the moment he opens my car door at school. I can’t suppress the grin tugging at the corner of my lips, even if I wanted to.

  As content as I am with them, that doesn’t mean it feels right for Asher to ask a question like this. Questions that sound too much like one of those dreaded date things. He should know he doesn’t have to pretend with someone like me. If he wants sex, then I’m all for it. They know my past.

  But a date? Yeah, I’m not too sure about that.

  “Like, a date-date?” I ask, nearly swooning when he takes my bag and puts it over his shoulder. “You know you don’t have to work for sex, right?” I have to make sure he knows this.

  He shoots a tiny smirk my way. “Um, well, I kind of do.” He barks out a laugh. “Plus, that’s usually what people do when they go out together.”

  I ponder over it as I come to a stop by my locker. The last person to take me on a date, instead of straight to their bedroom or couch, wall, bathroom, closet, or back seat of a car, was Callum. We all know how that turned out. It wasn’t pleasant. For a little while it was, I will not deny that. But toward the end, I shudder even thinking about it.

  Should I go come up with an excuse or just tell Asher the truth? That’s a fine line between outright lying and skating around the truth.