The Mercy Academy Box Set: A Complete High School Bully Romance Series

by Lane Hart

  “Not many, but we’ve done a whole bunch of other stuff.”

  “Is it just my luck, or does he finish really fast too?” a girl wants to know.

  “I don’t know. How long is it supposed to last?” I ask.

  “Older guys can go forever, but less experienced boys usually only last a few seconds; right, Hannah?” Leeanne supplies.

  “I guess that’s about right for the actual sex part,” I agree since I’ve never timed it or anything.

  “So, does he get you off, like, every single time?”

  “Oh yeah. At least once, sometimes more,” I tell them honestly.

  “Wow,” Leeanne says on a sigh. “And Royal is so freaking hot. So much hotter than Garrett.”

  “Yeah, he is,” I agree as I get to my feet. “And I better grab my water and get back up to my room before he comes over.”

  “I have condoms if you need some,” Leeanne offers.

  “Oh. Right. I do actually, if you don’t mind?”

  “Come with me,” she says, getting up and leading the way to her room. “I even have some flavored ones, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

  “I haven’t done that…yet,” I admit to her in a whisper.

  “You should try it. Guys love it.”

  “Maybe I will,” I agree. Even if I’m not quite ready to try oral on Royal yet, that could be something to look forward to when we’re back home.

  Royal

  “What do you look so smug about?” Garrett grumbles when I slip into the room after lights out on Saturday night.

  “None of your fucking business,” I tell him. The truth is, Hannah surprised the shit out of me with her new stash of condoms. I don’t know where they came from and don’t care. I’m just thankful that she didn’t hate her first time so much that she never wanted to do it again. Apparently, she’s planning on us doing it a lot more times…

  “Did you bang Hannah again?” Garrett asks. “If so, I hope you lasted more than thirty seconds this time.”

  What the fuck?

  “That’s right. Hannah told Leeanne and a bunch of the girls this morning all about what you two have done together,” he snickers. “She said it didn’t last long and wasn’t very good.”

  I’m about to call bullshit, figuring he’s just jealous and making it all up when he adds, “In fact, Hannah even said she regrets not waiting and losing her virginity to the man she marries, like she had always planned.”

  Fuck.

  How would he know all of that unless someone told him the words right from Hannah’s mouth?

  Hannah said she regrets being with me? That when we’ve been together it wasn’t good for her? I know I didn’t last long the first time or tonight, but fuck, I’m trying to do better. It’s just as soon as I slide my dick into her hot tight pussy, I fucking lose it. I thought she understood and accepted that since she had all those new condoms. Did they come from Leeanne?

  “So what if it sucks for her? At least you’re getting some pussy, right?” Garrett says, distracting me from all the doubts and questions now spinning around in my head. It’s like everything I’ve ever known has been turned upside down. And shit, it’s making me dizzy with disappointment and…anger, because I hate the aching pain inside after finding out the truth about the girl I’ve been falling for these past few weeks.

  “Right,” I agree as I try to pick up the pieces of my shattered pride. “Besides, I don’t give a shit about Hannah. Everything I’ve done the last four weeks was solely for the purpose of getting in her panties. And it obviously worked.”

  “You two aren’t going to be a couple or whatever when we go back to school?”

  “Hell no,” I tell him, even though that had been the plan before now. The only plan. In fact, imagining not being with her back home is…unimaginable. But if Hannah doesn’t like being with me, screw her. “There are going to be so many hot new pieces of freshman ass at Mercy. Not to mention the senior girls who are pros at deep throating. As soon as I make the varsity football team, they’re going to be all over my dick, so why would I want to be tied down to some goddamn prude?” I ask him.

  Hannah

  I’m all packed up late Saturday night and just about to climb in bed when there’s a knock on my door.

  For a second, I get my hopes up that it’s Royal sneaking back over, but my door is unlocked, and he would’ve just busted right on in without waiting for an invite.

  I go over and pull the door open, but no one is on the other side. There’s nothing but silence in the dark hall.

  “Hello?” I say softly as I step out and hear paper crinkling under my foot. Glancing down, I see that I’m standing on a big, manila envelope with my name handwritten on the front side. When I reach down and pick it up, something heavy inside of it shifts. I take the sealed package back into my room, shutting and now locking my door behind me.

  Once I’m sitting cross-legged on my bed, I tear open the side and dump out the contents – some sort of black electronic device and a note that says, “I’m sorry you have to listen to this. Press play to hear the truth.”

  The truth? About what?

  I pick up the device that I now realize is a recorder like I’ve seen Garrett’s dad use to record ideas for sermons and notes on. It must be his or some other adult’s because neither counselors nor campers are allowed to have electronic devices.

  And since Garrett is Royal’s roommate, I can already guess what’s on the recorder. It’s probably not something I want to hear. For a few seconds, I debate erasing it, so I never have to; but in the end, my curiosity wins out.

  “So what if it sucks for her? At least you’re getting some pussy, right?” the muffled voice I recognize as Garrett’s asks.

  “Right,” Royal’s voice replies. “Besides, I don’t give a shit about Hannah. Everything I’ve done the last four weeks was solely for the purpose of getting in her panties. And it obviously worked.”

  “You two aren’t going to be a couple or whatever when we go back to school?” Garrett asks.

  “Hell no,” Royal answers adamantly, causing tears to well up in my eyes. “There are going to be so many new hot pieces of freshman ass at Mercy. Not to mention the senior girls who are pros at deep throating. As soon as I make the varsity football team, they’re going to be all over my dick, so why would I want to be tied down to some goddamn prude?”

  That’s where the recording ends, leaving me devastated and in an absolute state of shock.

  At first, I think that maybe I misheard Royal or that his words were taken out of context. That’s why I rewind and listen to the recording again and again. Over and over, until I know every single harsh word he says by heart.

  Words that I know I’ll never be able to forget no matter how hard I try as tears pour down my cheeks and uncontrollable sobs bubble up until I’m crying so hard, I can’t breathe.

  I can’t believe I fell for Royal’s lies.

  Nothing he said was true.

  He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t even care about me.

  I was just a conquest for him to go brag to his friends about.

  I knew I should’ve waited, that we were too young, and I wasn’t ready.

  Royal Fitzpatrick stole all of my firsts, and I’ll never be able to get them back from him.

  Chapter 13

  Royal

  The Middle

  One year later, senior year at Mercy…

  Half a pint of Patron down, half to go and then maybe the night will begin looking up.

  Having to watch my boys on the football field while I sat on the bleachers was torture. I should have been down there playing in the homecoming game with them, our last homecoming before we graduate when seniors are recognized before kickoff and stand in front of everyone with their parents.

  But nope, I was in the stands just watching.

  And my dad? Lately, if I breathe the wrong way around him, he knocks the shit out of me. Only in my chest or stomach, of course; because he doesn�
�t want social services showing up at our door.

  “Finally!” I mutter, the word only slightly slurred when Blake comes out of the field house in his three-piece Brioni suit like he’s going to the Oscars or some shit. Me, I threw on a black Tom Ford suit and tie, not because I give a fuck how I look, but because chicks do, and I need to get off before my balls burst.

  “Where’s Aric?” Blake asks, his fingers fussing over his raven hair that’s still damp from his shower.

  “Haven’t seen him, but I just got here.”

  “He wasn’t in the locker room either.”

  “Maybe he’s already up at the gym getting wasted,” I say with a shrug. “Let’s go. I need to find a mouth to fuck before I get tequila dick.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Blake agrees.

  My best friend has never asked, and I’ve never told him that I haven’t actually fucked any of the girls we go to school with. I know his reason – he’s been saving himself for Maddie Collins for years, which is a lost cause whether he knows it or not. Something’s up with that bitch and Aric, I just know it.

  No, I don’t fuck; because in the back of my mind, the shit Hannah said about me being a regret and not being good at it follows me everywhere I go like a goddamn ghost that won’t leave me the fuck alone. Her words still haunt me even a year later, making me continually doubt myself.

  And the one thing we never did together? She never gave me a fucking blowjob. For that, I’m thankful, because I don’t have any stupid ass memories to get hung up on. Not that I don’t regret never getting her on her knees…

  As if they were waiting for our signal, the rest of the dressed-up jocks come out of the field house and get in line behind me and Blake as we head for the gym on foot since it’s not that far of a walk and I’m already toasted.

  The whole high school dance bullshit isn’t my thing, but again, that’s where all the girls are tonight, so I’ll suck it up and deal with the ridiculous decorations and top twenty pop songs playing through the speakers.

  Since I don’t want to get limp dick from the liquor and be a laughingstock, I pour the rest of my tequila into the punch bowl as soon as we walk through the door, so that everyone else can have a little fun, and then toss the pint in the trash.

  “Holy shit. Holy shit,” Blake mutters loud enough for me to hear him over the music as he takes in the room.

  “What?” I ask as I glance around the gym, already bored out of my mind.

  “Maddie’s here. Can you believe that?” he asks, nodding over to where the red-headed ice queen is sitting with none other than my nemesis. And fuck me, Hannah’s sleeveless, gold dress is so short and sexy that her crossed legs look like they go on for miles. How dare she show her face and hot body here to torment me after the shit she’s put me through?

  When Hannah stands up and walks over to get a glass of punch, I hold my breath, waiting to see if her ass cheek will show. And I’m not the only one who notices her tonight. Every other guy around is checking her out, which makes my blood boil. My threat of bodily harm if they speak to her better hold up with these chumps; because if I have to stand here and watch some dickhead put his hands all over her, I will go homicidal on their asses.

  “Oooh, Hannah’s here too,” Blake says several minutes later when he finally stops staring at Maddie. “She looks different, right?”

  “She looks like a fucking slut,” I mutter.

  “Looks like she came to get fucked,” he says. “Hate to tell you this, man, but I don’t think even your warnings to stay away from her are enough to keep the guys from tapping that tonight. Especially Garrett. That dude looks like he’s about to cream in his pants for her from across the room.”

  “Shut up,” I snap at him. “Everyone’s just looking at Maddie because she never comes to this kind of school shit.”

  “She was at the game too,” Blake says. “Oh, shit! Here they come!”

  They?

  Sure enough, Hannah is leading the way, dragging Big Red by the hand. I think it’s the first time she’s actually approached me on school property. It’s almost like I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for her to acknowledge my existence again, and that time has finally come.

  “What the hell are you two doing here?” I ask them when they come to a stop in front of me and Blake, close enough for me to smell their dick-teasing perfume. “Was there a sudden shortage on skanks that needed to be filled?”

  Dropping Maddie’s arm, Hannah reaches out and grabs my black silk tie and then yanks on it so hard that a choke escapes me.

  What. The. Hell?

  I try to loosen the knot before she kills me with it, but it’s no use. Especially when she opens her red lipstick covered mouth and finally speaks to me for the first time in over a goddamn year. “You and I need to have a talk. In private.”

  “Nothing to say to you, bitch,” I bite out.

  Her other palm then comes out of nowhere and slaps the shit out of my fucking face, creating a resounding whap that was probably heard around the world, leaving me at a complete and total loss of words.

  She slapped me.

  She fucking slapped me in front of everyone!

  I can’t believe she finally snapped. It only took five fucking months since I chewed her ass out in the spring.

  Technically, fourteen months since we were at camp together, but who’s counting?

  Me. I’m counting. I’ve been counting even though I wish I wasn’t. All I think about is Hannah fucking Morgan, wondering how everything went to hell so quickly between us and why she hates me so much that she turned me in for cheating. The one good side about being angry and obsessing about her is that I haven’t had time to plot hurting myself lately.

  And of course, her physical assault reminds me of the first and last time she slapped me, the day in her dorm at camp when I ripped her towel off her naked body and then kissed her.

  And fuck, I really want to kiss her right now with her standing so close, looking hot and furious and like a drop of sunshine in the otherwise gloomy gym.

  “I’m so sick and tired of your mouth!” Hannah seethes at me when she jerks me toward her a few more inches by my tie. “Now, you’re coming outside with me to talk like a decent human being without using insults, or so help me god, I will knee your nuts so hard that you’ll never find them again.”

  If I could speak, I would say “About fucking time!”, but I’m so stunned by her attack that I can’t say a damn thing as she drags me by my tie out the front doors.

  Hannah

  “What is your problem, Royal?” I ask, finally letting go of his tie when we come to a stop beside the gym’s brick wall.

  “You-you know exactly what my problem is,” he stammers while reaching up to adjust his tie that I just molested. And, man, did it feel good to finally put him in his place in front of everyone, all of the people we go to school with who he helped turn against me.

  “Are you seriously still pissed about the stupid SAT?” I ask him.

  “You really think some fucking test is why I can’t look at you without wanting to hit something?”

  “Well, what other reason is there?” I ask, my brow furrowed in confusion, chest heaving with adrenaline.

  “You fucking destroyed me!” he exclaims, his deep voice sounding pained.

  “You-you did that all on your own!” I respond with another yank of his tie, because damn it, he hurt me too. “Enough is enough, Royal! I’m sick and tired of you running your mouth about me!”

  Once I finish my rant, I notice that, with each and every tug of his tie, I’m pulling him closer to me until the front of our bodies are rubbing against each other, sending tingling heat down to my lower belly.

  And I’m not the only one apparently turned on since I can feel a distinct bulge at the front of Royal’s pants.

  “Slap me again,” he says softly.

  “What?” I ask, sounding out of breath, partly from his request and partly from the burning ache growing inside of me.
<
br />   “Slap me again.”

  He’s not taunting me or warning me. I think he really wants me to hit him again. His whiskey-colored eyes are blazing in the darkness, practically begging me to do it.

  When I raise my palm, though, it doesn’t hurt him. In fact, it just rests on the side of his face, rubbing over his scruffy jaw.

  I’m not sure if I pull him closer or if he moves toward me, but some way or another our mouths crash together. Royal swallows down my gasp, and then his tongue is demanding entry, taking whatever it wants from me.

  The kiss is amazing, just like all the others we shared over a year ago, as if no time has passed at least for our lips and tongues that are happily reunited.

  Royal’s bigger body forces me backward until my bare shoulder blades hit the coarse wall. Then, his hard body is pressing into every inch of the front of mine. He removes my palms that were cupping either side of his face and slams both of my arms above my head on the bricks. He pins me there in place and kisses me so deeply that I squirm against his dick that’s so hard that even confined inside his pants it still lifts the front of my dress a few inches higher. That’s when Royal finally brings one of my arms down. Covering my fingers with his own larger ones, he presses my hand between my legs and applies pressure so that I’m cupping myself.

  “I bet you hate that you still get so wet for me,” he says against my lips while he works both of our hands down into the front of my thong panties. He shoves my fingers into my pussy with no resistance from me and then removes them so he can slip his thicker ones inside. “And fuck, you’re still just as tight as you were when I popped your sweet cherry.”

  Royal pulls his lips from mine to stare down at me while he fucks me with his fingers and mine curl around them, urging him faster, deeper.