by Sofia Daniel
The procession of gossipers walked past with their noses in the air and headed toward the tuck shop. Alice glanced over my shoulder and gave me an apologetic smile.
I shrugged. If she wanted to return to a group of girls who had cast her out once before, who was I to judge? I was firmly entrenched with a gang of bastards.
Edward placed a hand around my waist. “I appreciate your defending our honor, but it’s unnecessary. Squabbling over such trivialities will only fuel the rumors.”
“Sorry.” I huffed out a frustrated breath and met his ocean-blue eyes. “But something about those girls makes me see red.”
“I didn’t treat them well, and they’re lashing out.” He placed a hand on my shoulder, eyes shining with compassion. “Just as you did, last term.”
Hope swelled in my heart, and a breath caught in my throat. Had Edward already started to forgive me? “I’m sorry things went that far.”
He patted me on the backside. “Not as sorry as we’re going to make you. Come on, let’s go to my study.”
Over the next hour, Edward and I sat side-by-side at his desk on leather office chairs working on our prep in companionable silence. I stole a glance at his face. Tendrils of mahogany-brown hair hung over his brow, softening his stern features.
Last term, we had grown so close, and I had seen a glimpse of the kind, sensitive soul beneath the haughty exterior. Now, I couldn’t work him out. He delivered his threats so mildly, it seemed like he was just paying lip service to exacting his revenge. And when we were alone, he was his usual, gallant self, albeit a little more reserved. I ached to know how he really felt, but the thought of breaking the peace by bringing up what I had done made my stomach clench.
Later, Blake and Henry knocked on the door. “Dinner?”
Edward shut his book. “Why not?”
I stuffed my books into my satchel, hoping they might allow me to go upstairs later and study on my own. Then we walked in formation through the hallway to the dining room with Henry and Edward in front and Blake taking up the rear with me.
Both Henry and Edward halted at the doors, making us bump into their backs.
“What’s happening?” I stood on my tiptoes and looked over their shoulders. At the head table sat Coates and a trio of rugby players with Wendy, Patricia, and Alice.
“What is the meaning of this?” Edward stepped inside.
A hush spread over the entire room, punctuated only by the movements of the servers.
“You heard Mr. Weaver,” said Coates. “The school governors want to stamp out all signs of corruption, and that starts with you.” The bulky boy folded his arms across his broad chest. “We thought you were arseholes all along, but we went along with you because everyone else did. But last term proved that you’re no better than any of us.”
“I see.” Edward’s voice shook with banked rage. “Is that why you saw fit to sit in our seats?”
“That, and we don’t like homos lording it over us.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Wendy, Alice, and Patricia gave the boys triumphant smirks. They had probably goaded the rugby players into taking over the head table. I shook my head. Each of the girls up there should have been able to vouch for one or most of the boys, but they remained silent. My gaze flickered to Blake, whose handsome features clenched into a scowl, and Henry, whose body seemed to expand in anticipation for a fight.
“Get out of our seats,” said Edward, his voice soft.
With the loud scrape of his chair, Coates stood. “Are you going to make me?”
“If I have to.”
Coates walked around the table and swaggered over to meet us at the doorway. From the way the rugby player pulled back his shoulders and thrust out his square shin, he meant business. I darted into the dining room and stood to the side in case the boys came to blows.
Coates squared up to Henry, his captain. The two boys were of equal height, both broad, but Coates had an unattractive bulkiness where Henry was defined. Up close, the rugby player’s nose wasn’t just flat, it twisted to the side and back again.
“Let’s face it, boys.” Coates rubbed his cauliflower ear. “Mercia is the heir to a bankrupt duchy that’s only worth something because of the academy’s ground rent payments. Bourneville will soon become the heir to nothing when his parents discover he’ll be producing no little heirs of his own, and Simpson-West is only relevant because his mother is the trollop who landed herself the second in line to the throne.”
Blake pushed through Edward and Henry, and swung at Coates, only for the larger boy to grip his fist in one hand and twist him into a wrist lock. I clapped my hands over my mouth and gasped. Henry stepped forward, pulled his arm back, and jabbed Coates in the middle of his flat face, who let go of Blake.
“Of course you’d come to your boyfriend’s rescue,” Coates said between bloody teeth.
Henry punched him in the gut. “Fuck you.”
The other boy doubled over. “You wish!”
Blake punched Coates hard across the face.
Soon, other boys stood from their seats at the head table and rushed over. It would be three against four if Edward decided to fight. Those odds weren’t great, considering the boys approaching us were hulking rugby players. I picked up my phone, and with shaky fingers, called campus security.
Chapter 6
The fight finished as quickly as it had started because some of the rugby players were loyal to their captain and broke up the fight before campus security arrived. Coates and his friends returned to the head table and wouldn’t budge. Technically, it was the table for the housemaster and his staff, so no student had the right to it.
Edward tapped something on his smartphone and stormed out with Henry and Blake on his heels. A pang of sympathy struck my heart, but I remained at the doorway and didn’t rush out to give them my support. The only reason those photos were even circulated was that the Bournevilles had lied about the amount of ransom they had paid the supposed kidnappers and made Rudolph pay double to drop the charges against me. When Rudolph approached them with blackmail material, Henry’s parents had refused to repay Rudolph, even with the knowledge that Henry was behind the whole scam.
Ignoring the watchful eyes of the other diners, I walked around the room along the ten-foot-tall mahogany wall panels to the table where Rita sat with the scholarship students. One of them had joined Rita and me in the dance lessons the triumvirate had held in the first term, and she gazed up at me with a sunny smile.
I gestured at the seat opposite Rita. “Mind if I sit here?”
“Sit next to me,” said a girl from the next table I recognized from the gauntlet. Her hazel eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Rita gestured for me to sit, her brows drawn together with worry. A server rushed over and took my order for a quiche Lorraine and salad.
The hazel-eyed girl leaned toward us on the back legs of her seat, salivating. “Is it true what they’re saying about the boys?”
“No,” I said.
“But the photos are—”
“You just asked if it was true,” I snapped.
She pouted. “I got off with Blake last year, as did most of the girls on this table. I just want to know if he’s a homo. I mean, do I have anything to worry about?”
“What do you mean?” I narrowed my eyes.
The girl lowered her gaze and mumbled something incomprehensible. I curled my lip. She was an idiot. A stupid sheep who followed whoever barked the loudest. And right now, it was Coates and the doppelgängers.
“Use your brain,” I spat. “In one breath you tell me that you’ve all fooled around with Blake, and in another, you’re asking if he’s gay? It’s this kind of attitude that makes people afraid to come out.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. “I thought you might know the facts, seeing as you’re their girlfriend or something.”
I was about to rant at her when Rita spoke. “Let’s not gossip about people behind their backs.”
Everyone arou
nd the table murmured their agreement and continued eating. I lowered myself into the seat and caught sight of a limo whizzing past the side windows. The boys were either going to Edward’s house or to Jean-Paul and Françoise’s restaurant to plan their next course of action. A chill ran down my back. I really hoped I didn’t factor in any of their schemes.
The next day, the head table was removed from the dining room, leaving everyone to eat in the general area. No matter how much Coates tried to assert his dominance and get it reinstated, it didn’t work. Each mealtime, the staff laid special table linen and silverware over whichever table the triumvirate chose, thwarting Coates and the doppelgängers’ attempts to appear special.
Over the next few weeks, the triumvirate quashed any attempts by other boys to victimize them by escalating even the smallest of provocations to violence. Soon, everyone, including Coates, knew not to make sly comments within the earshot of Blake, Henry, or Edward unless they were prepared for a fight and the subsequent detentions and demerits.
One morning at breakfast, Coates sauntered up to our table, holding a folded up copy of a tabloid. “Looks like you made the papers, boys.”
“What are you rambling about now?” asked Henry.
Coates smoothed out a double-page spread of a pair of the photos that had been circulating on the internet. It had been taken moments after I had left the boys alone on the four-poster. Above them was the headline, SIMPSON-WEST GAY ROMP.
I held my breath. Would this result in another fight, or would the boys shrug it off?
Blake stared down at the paper and pursed his lips. “If I had known I would end up in the news again, I would have worn something a little more dignified than the gladiator outfit.”
Henry folded his arms across his chest. “I told you to come as a matador.”
“Next time, I’ll dress as a tango dancer,” he replied. “Something to pay homage to my Argentinian roots.”
I exhaled my relief. It looked like violence wouldn’t break out, after all.
Coates’ thick brows drew together. “Don’t you care that they’ve published a picture of you kissing another boy?”
“Why would I?” Blake’s brows rose. “You and I both know I’ve had more girls than you.”
The rugby player’s face reddened. He turned to me and spat, “How could you hang around with them after what they did?”
I picked up a slice of toast from the silver rack and dipped my knife into the butter dish. “What I don’t get is why you’re so interested. Are you curious or something?”
Coates’ face twisted and he glared from Edward, to Henry, to Blake, and then to me. “Trollop.”
I mimed a yawn. “At least I’m getting some, unlike you.”
“She’s got you there, Coates.” Edward raised his glass of orange juice to his lips. “Don’t save the image for those long, lonely nights. I doubt that my friends would appreciate the unwanted attention.”
The rugby player’s nostrils flared, and his lips drew back, revealing clenched teeth. My stomach tightened, and I waited for him to strike, but he crumpled up the paper, threw it on the ground, and stormed back to the table he shared with the doppelgängers.
Because the boys weren’t denying the kiss or reacting to the pictures, the gossip quickly died down within the school. But the tabloids continued to post rehashed articles about the Bourneville department store, using the images and news of Henry’s faked kidnapping as a segue to attack his parents’ business practices.
Things came to a head one Sunday morning, two weeks after the article about Henry and Blake, when Duncan strolled over to our table, holding a one-page announcement in The Times with the Bourneville crest. It declared that Jonas Bourneville, the current Director of Operations in the Middle East, would be groomed to take over the leadership of the Bourneville Group and not the owner’s son, Henry Bourneville.
Silence broke out across the dining room. I bit down on my bottom lip and glanced at Henry.
He skimmed the paper and said, “So?”
“Did you know this would happen?” asked Duncan.
“We agreed to it weeks ago. Jonas is my second cousin.”
Duncan stared at Henry for several moments before his face fell. “Right. Of course, you did.”
When Duncan left, Henry continued eating his scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, his face devoid of expression. If his family had discussed this beforehand, why hadn’t one of the triumvirate mentioned it in my presence?
“Henry,” I whispered.
“Later.”
No one else around the table spoke, but they continued eating their breakfasts. From their blank faces, I guessed that Henry’s family hadn’t informed him he had been disinherited, and the triumvirate wanted to act as though the announcement wasn’t a shock.
Moments later, Coates strolled over, flanked by four members of the rugby team. “The boys have voted me the new captain. Even if you claim to have lots of women, no one feels comfortable having you on the team.”
“Right,” said Henry between clenched teeth. “Good luck winning without me.”
My heart sank, and my gaze dropped to my blueberries and French toast. I had thought that guys like Henry always emerged from scandals unscathed. I’d set in motion an out-of-control train that was still wrecking lives long after the publication of the original articles. Guilt made my shoulders droop. I had thought his parents would only give him a temporary punishment, not a complete disinheritance. My eyes could barely meet Henry’s for the rest of our breakfast.
Despite every gaze being locked onto us, the boys took their time eating, still keeping neutral expressions after hearing two sets of bad news. When we had all finished, we stood as a unit and walked to Blake’s study.
As soon as the door shut, I turned to Henry and grabbed him by the biceps. “Are you alright?”
He peered down at me, green eyes dull. “This was what you wanted, wasn’t it? To see me lose everything.”
I bowed my head. “No,” I whispered. “I never meant for things to go this far.”
“That’s the downside to extreme revenge, isn’t it?” Edward sat on the Chesterfield sofa. “I’m glad you’re here to see the repercussions of your actions.”
Irritation flared across my skin, and I stormed across the room and rested my fists on the leather surface of his desk. “Whose fault was it that I went to such lengths in the first place? You all know what you did to me with the help of Mr. Frost. Did you expect me to take it lying down?”
I turned around, trying to catch the gazes of the triumvirate. But they couldn’t meet my eyes. Instead, they exchanged embarrassed glances with each other. It was all the fuel I needed for a rant. “And you guys feel so entitled to being bullies, you can’t even see that what I did last term makes us even.”
“You’re forgetting one thing.” Blake strode toward me from across the room, his lips curved into a knowing smirk.
“What’s that?” I placed my hands on my hips.
“We own you.” Blake cupped my cheek. “Body, mind and soul. And at any time, we can command you to do whatever we want. Not only will you accompany Henry to visit his parents, but you’ll put on a little show to cheer him up.”
I scowled. “Is this the new way of winning an argument? Threats?”
“No.” Blake’s hand trailed down my neck in the softest of touches that sent a shiver of anticipation down my spine. Then he unfastened the top buttons on my shirt.
Ignoring the heat rushing between my legs, I snapped, “And I have no say in the matter?”
Edward smirked and beckoned at Henry to sit next to him on the sofa. “You could always tell us to stop.”
“Would you?” I whispered.
“That’s for you to find out,” Blake murmured into my ear.
I bit down hard on my lip and forced my breaths to calm as he undid two more buttons and exposed my collarbones and the tops of my breasts.
“Well,” said Blake, his voice as smooth and rich as da
rk coffee. Mischief danced across his brown eyes. “Do you want me to stop?”
I pressed my lips together and jerked my head to the side. The answer was no. I wanted him to continue, but there was no way I would admit that to the triumvirate.
Blake trailed his fingertips over my right breast, making wide circles and avoiding my nipples. I swallowed hard. He was doing this on purpose. Trying to get me riled up and frustrated enough to admit that I wanted this. Wanted him. It was probably his revenge for how badly I had treated him the term before by denying his need for attention. One of his fingertips skimmed my nipple, sending a bolt of electricity down to my core.
I huffed out a breath and gave Blake what I hoped was an irritated glower. “You’re not making this easy for me.”
Henry snickered. “I can assure you, from where we’re sitting, you’re making it very hard for us.”
My gaze flickered to the sofa, where Henry and Edward sat together, each sporting erections. I licked my lips. “Are you two just going to just watch?”
Edward pressed down on his erection with the heel of his hand. “If you want the three of us together, you’ll have to beg.”
I shook my head. No matter what Blake did with those nimble fingers, he wouldn’t break my composure.
Henry grinned. “Thanks, Blake. This is exactly what I need to forget about my woes.”
I pulled a face. Since when was I the entertainment for retired bullies?
“This time, I’ll help you disrobe,” murmured Blake, “But the next time, you’re taking it off at our command.”
My thighs quivered, and arousal built between my legs like a persistent ache.
Blake moved to my back as though wanting to give his friends a better view of me in my excited state. He slid his arms over the fabric of my shirt, up my ribs and cupped my breasts, making sure to give them a tight squeeze. I grunted and arched my back. My ass cheeks brushed against his erection, and a groan reverberated in his chest that made the muscles of my core ripple. With a long, shuddering breath, I rested my head back on his shoulder and writhed against him.