by James Tate
I'd known it was coming, obviously. I was actually shocked they hadn't seen it sooner. Then again, I'd sent the blast to everyone's student address, and I guessed not many people used that email over the weekend.
Spinning on my heel, I pasted an innocent expression on my face. "Yes, Archer?"
The fact that he'd actually used my name and not "Princess Danvers" should have been my first clue about how pissed off he was. Then again, I didn't give a crap.
"Spare me the bullshit; I know this was you," he snarled, holding his phone up for me to see.
Faking confusion, I took the device from him and peered at the screen, then let out a low whistle. "Wow, Arch. I knew you three were close but not this close. No judgments here, though. Why are you showing me your home porn?" I held his phone back out to him, and he snatched it back. “Also, I should probably point out that its against SGU policy to have mobile phones on campus. You could get in trouble for that, you know?”
"I'm through playing nice, Madison Kate," he hissed, pointing a menacing finger at me. "You'll pay for this." He started to turn away, then swung back around and stepped in close enough that our chests touched. "And we both know I'd be on top."
Laughter bubbled up in my throat as he stomped away like a bear with a bee sting, and I only just swallowed it before Kody and Steele appeared from around the corner.
"Look, if you've come to tell me about your ménage relationship with Archer, he's already filled me in. I think it's so great you're all exploring your sexuality like this, but it's a bit in bad taste to share the pictures around campus, you know?" I kept my face as straight as I possibly could, but a hint of laughter wove into my voice.
Steele just shook his head, looking... disappointed as he walked away, following in the direction Archer had gone.
Kody, though, he was eyeing me up with those intuitive eyes of his.
"How'd you do it?" he asked, looking considerably less annoyed than I'd really hoped. "I mean, it's obviously a good photo manipulation, but shit, babe, you even got our tatts right. How'd you manage that?"
A surge of satisfaction zapped through me. That'd been the best part of my plan, and the part which made the images so very convincing. When I'd told Dallas what I wanted him to do, he couldn't decide whether it was hilarious or diabolical. I think both.
"Well, if you're trying to tell me it's a prank and not something leaked from your personal archives, I'm not so sure I believe you. Nor will lots of people. But if such a prank were to be executed so beautifully... I might question just how many nearly nude images there are of you floating around the internet." I shrugged, grinning. "But hey, at least now I know why Archer is so threatened by me. You really should stop flirting with me in front of your boyfriend."
Kody gave a small laugh, eyeing me shrewdly. "That's cute, princess. But I've barely even started flirting with you yet. Guess I need to step up my game."
My brows shot up, and he stepped forward, backing me into the wall between a portrait of Thomas Edison and the door to a classroom.
"Kodiak," I growled with warning, "what are you doing?"
His body pressed against mine, and I bit back a pathetic moan that wanted to escape my throat. "Turning up the heat," he whispered back, then captured my earlobe between his lips and sucked on it. This time I barely managed to clamp my mouth shut when a shudder of arousal ripped through me, and Kody's dark chuckle told me he'd noticed. Damn him.
"Cute touch putting Archer as a bottom, babe. I'm pretty sure that's the part he's most pissed about. But hey, at least you got my favorite position right." He smacked a quick kiss against my shell-shocked lips, then swaggered away with a mocking, "See you at home, Princess!" tossed over his shoulder.
After he was gone, the uncomfortable realization that I was far from alone came flooding back to me, and I pulled my barriers back up. Other students were whispering and staring, so I dished out a heaping of death glares and hurried my ass into my first class of the day.
Kody was proving to be a harder target than I'd anticipated. If a very convincingly Photoshopped image of him and Steele spit-roasting Archer wasn't going to push his buttons... maybe I was approaching him the wrong way.
I needed to rethink my plans for him.
Dropping my bag next to a vacant space in the lecture hall, I dropped into the seat and glanced up at the board, reminding myself what class I'd just walked into.
CRIM-100
Ah shit.
I looked around until I spotted Bark sitting two rows away, the hood of his SGU Ghosts sweatshirt pulled up and his face ducked low over his books. Almost like he could feel me staring, though, he looked up, and I gasped.
The side of his face was a puffy, mottled purple, like he's run into something hard. Repeatedly.
It could have been a football injury, but based on the way he glared at me, then skipped his gaze away again... yeah, I doubted it.
Fucking Steele.
20
Considering the guys were three years above me at SGU—they’d transferred from elsewhere and I hadn’t cared to ask where—it was no shocker that I didn't see them again throughout the day. Bree and I left campus for lunch—she had her period and was craving Mexican—so I didn't get a chance to confront Steele until I got home at the end of the day.
Even then, I needed to hunt him out.
"Steele!" I called out, entering the enormous garage and making my way through the line of stupidly expensive cars and motorbikes. Most of them were my father’s—I recognized them from before Cambodia—but some were new to me, like the G-Wagen or Steele's silver muscle car... whatever that was. "Are you in here?"
I reached the workshop area just as he slid out from under a jacked-up car, lying flat on his back with one of those rolling things mechanics used.
"Hey," he greeted me, sitting up with a delicious ab flex. "How are you?"
My lips had been parted to go off on him, blast him about beating up my date on Friday night rather than just sending him home, but his question confused me. Even more so, the genuine look of concern on his face as he asked.
"How are—huh? Shouldn't I be asking you that? I'm not the one who just had his home porn blasted to the entire university campus." I frowned in confusion, and a brief flash of irritation passed over his face.
"Yeah well, as flattering as it was that you'd start a rumor I was gay after what we did on Friday night... it could have been worse." He shrugged and gave me a lopsided smile. Damn him. Why was it so freaking hard to hate Max Steele?
"Oh yeah?" I found myself asking, playing along. "How's that?"
His grin spread wider. "I could have been in Arch's position." He winced, and I laughed before catching myself.
"Yeah, well. It's always the big ones who like to be dominated in the bedroom. Or so I hear. Anyway, I came here to yell at you, and you've just taken the wind out of my sails." I scowled, but it totally lacked the heat of a few minutes ago.
Steele stood up and pulled a rag from his back pocket, using it to wipe a streak of grease off his face. All he managed to do, though, was smear it further, and my nipples hardened at the sexy image he portrayed. Why, why had he suddenly stopped wearing shirts around the house? It wasn't fair.
"Shall I give you a minute?" he suggested, teasing. "Maybe you can find that outraged anger again."
"Fuck you," I replied, but it was totally without conviction.
His grin turned wicked, and he came closer to me, crowding my airspace in that infuriating, intoxicating way all three of them seemed to love to do. "That's what I'm hoping you'll do," he murmured, dragging a grease-darkened finger from my throat to belly, then grabbing me by my jeans to yank me closer still. "Just say the word, Hellcat."
I needed to swallow several times before I could force the right words off my tongue.
"Never going to happen, Steele."
He studied my face for a second, no doubt reading the lie all over me, but released my jeans and took a step away. "So, what did you come to
yell at me about?"
I cleared my throat and frantically searched for my invisible shields. The pesky ones that seemed to turn into mist whenever I was around Steele... or Kody for that matter. Okay fine, Archer too, not that I'd ever admit it to anyone.
"I saw Bark today in class," I told him, folding my arms over my chest. "He looked like he'd run afoul of something hard. Maybe, say, someone's fist? You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
A smug smile crossed his lush lips, and he tucked the greasy rag back in his jeans, then reached for the open beer on the floor. "Now then, beautiful, you know my dirty little secret. Do you think I'd risk my hands just to punch some meathead jock over comments that seriously walked the line toward a rape threat?" He held up his right hand, showing me all the smudges of grease... and totally undamaged knuckles. What little anger I had left in me deflated, and I felt a bit guilty for assuming the worst.
Steele snickered a laugh, heading out of the workshop with me following. "His car door, though, might have a few face-shaped dents in it."
I gasped. "Steele!"
He shot me an unrepentant smirk over his shoulder. "Anyway, how are you dealing with the whole stalker situation? You okay?"
I stopped dead in my tracks.
"With the what situation?"
Steele paused, too, turning back to face me with a stunned look on his face. "Oh shit," he murmured. "Arch hasn't talked to you, yet? That prick."
Fury was building inside me with speed. "Talked to me about what?" I demanded, my fists balling at my sides. Steele hesitated, looking pained, and I lost it. "Tell me, Steele!"
He blew out a heavy breath, his gorgeous gray eyes sympathetic. "You've got a stalker, Hellcat. And they don't seem content to watch from a distance any more."
My stomach churned, and acid rose in my throat.
Dizziness swept through me like a wave, and everything became hot. It was hard to breathe.
Fuck. Fuck. I was having a panic attack.
"Madison Kate," Steele's voice was muffled and echo-y, like he was underwater. Or I was. "You're okay. Hey, come on." His voice was coaxing as he guided me to the floor, encouraging me to sit with my head between my knees.
He rubbed circles on my back with a firm hand while whispering reassurances to me, and ever so slowly, the blackness receded.
"What's going on?" I heard Kody ask moments before his feet appeared in my limited field of vision. He crouched down. Gentle hands stroked my hair, and the two of them spoke to each other in hushed voices. But my ears were ringing, and I couldn't be bothered to work out what they were saying.
For several moments, I just focused on not passing out. Whoever was stroking their fingers through my hair was seriously helping in that regard, and I leaned into the touch.
"You okay, babe?" Kody's soft voice was right beside my ear, and I slowly raised my head to meet his eyes just inches away. I nodded the tiniest of nods, not totally believing myself.
He gave me a small smile, then scooped me up in his arms and stood. "You need a drink and some food."
I wanted to protest. I wanted to tell him to put me down because I could walk myself, dammit. But then... I also didn't want to. There was something so incredibly comforting about being in Kody's arms that I just bit my tongue and relaxed into him. Maybe it was just that he'd been there during my last panic attack. When he'd held me immobile in that tight, dark space while Archer headed off Zane, he'd distracted me so thoroughly away from the fear... Maybe my brain was remembering that incident.
He carried me through to the kitchen, but instead of putting me down on one of the stools against the island, he sat down himself and held me in his lap.
Steele grabbed a glass from the cabinets, filled it with water, and placed it on the counter beside me, but Kody scoffed.
"I meant a real drink, dickhead."
Steele didn't seem to take any offense, instead just disappearing into the den, presumably to raid my father's fully-stocked bar.
"Why am I in your lap, Kodiak Jones?" I asked, yet didn't make any moves to get off him.
His arms tightened around me. "Because you love it," he replied, with that typical Kody arrogance. "Besides, you're still really pale, and I don't want you to pass out and whack your head or something."
"Sound medical logic," I mumbled, resting my head on his chest and closing my eyes for a second. That panic attack had just hit me like a ton of bricks. Not that I was any stranger to them. After witnessing my mother's murder, I'd had them routinely over the tiniest of things. I'd thought I'd left them in my past, though. These days the only times I spiraled like that was when I got trapped in a small space.
A soft touch on my arm made my eyes open once more, and I took the offered drink from Steele. I took a sip and found myself pleasantly surprised by the sharp tang of ginger and lime.
"Thanks," I said with sincerity. "This is really good."
He arched a half smile at me. "Spiced rum with ginger beer and lime. Seemed like your kind of drink." The shine to his eyes suggested I wasn't the only one who now associated rum with public bathroom make-out sessions.
"What's going on in here?" Archer's unmistakable, grumpy rumble saw me tensing in Kody's lap. He was permanently angry, I was pretty sure, so fuck it. I'd stay right where I was.
More to the point... "Did you forget to tell me something, Archer?" I placed my drink down and leveled him with the most venomous glare I could, given I was literally using his friend as an armchair.
The big guy just met my glare without the slightest flinch.
"Nope. I think the less we speak to each other, the better off we'll both be." He rubbed a hand over a dark, stubble-covered cheek. "Wasn't your whole mission to get rid of us?"
I frowned slightly. "Still is."
A mean smile touched his lips. "Sitting in Kody's lap like you're about to ride his dick probably sends the wrong kind of message, then. Come to think of it, so would letting Steele finger fuck you over the sink in a dirty public bathroom."
I wasn't quick enough to catch my own gasp as my accusing gaze snapped to Steele. He didn't look apologetic in the least, though. Just... impassive.
Kody's fingertips seemed to tighten on my waist, but that could have been my imagination considering how much fury and betrayal had flooded through me.
"Tell me, Princess Danvers," Archer continued, sneering with an edge of disgust. "Did you ever get those black lace panties back?"
My stomach bottomed out. For a hot second I'd started thinking I was wrong about Steele, that my hatred toward him was misplaced. But he’d been playing me all along. For what? Bragging rights with his buddies? I should have done worse than that photoshopped image.
I would do worse.
Swallowing past the bitter hurt in my throat, I refused to look at Steele. It was so much easier to focus on Archer. Fucking Archer. Ugh, I needed to destroy him.
"So, you had no intention of telling me about my stalker?" I curled my lip at him in disgust, even as I casually slid off Kody's lap. He tried to tighten his hold on me, but I was determined and it would have been all kinds of obvious if he'd forced the issue. "That's a whole new level of low, D'Ath." I deliberately used his surname, the same way Dallas had. It pissed him off; I could see it in the tightness of his jaw.
Never one to back down, he just folded those huge arms and gave me a so what kind of shrug.
I stared back at him for a long moment, studying his ice-blue eyes for any scrap of apology. Any morsel of human decency. I found fucking nothing.
"You really want to step it up like that?" I gave a cruel chuckle, like some kind of deranged book villain. "So be it. You'll regret ever messing with me, Archer D'Ath. Trust me on that."
Casting a disappointed look over Kody—because I hadn't heard a single squeak from him since Archer had walked in—I left the room, heading straight up to my bedroom. I didn't look at Steele before I went. I couldn't. That apathetic, blank face he'd worn as Archer revealed intimate knowledge
of what'd passed between us? That had broken me more than I cared to admit.
I needed to step up my game. Forget waiting for retaliation; this was war and there were no fucking rules. No polite etiquette. Only the brutal and bloodthirsty survived.
21
I couldn't sleep that night. How could I, knowing someone was stalking me? The worst part was not having any more-detailed information than that. Steele could have meant someone leaving anonymous love notes in the mailbox... or he might have meant they'd taken photos through my window. Or worse. What was worse? The mind boggled.
I was desperate to know, but to hell with asking those three. They could go take a flying leap off a cliff.
No, I needed to aim higher.
Lying in bed as the sun rose, I stared at the screen of my phone for ages before finally finding the courage to press "call."
The ring echoed through my room, and with every extra trill, my stomach sank. He wasn't answering. Of course, not. He was having too much fun with Cherry the gold digger to answer a call from his only child.
Bitterness swirled in my gut, and I tossed my phone aside to get ready for the day. I had classes to attend and three stupidly attractive guys to destroy. There was no time for me to feel sorry for myself that Daddy didn't love me. That was nothing new.
I rushed my shower and threw on some clothes. I hadn't slept and was ready almost a full hour earlier than usual, so it'd be just my luck to run into the guys in the kitchen. Hopefully, though, they'd already be in the gym for their grueling daily workout. No wonder they were all cut from marble.
I breathed a sigh of relief walking into the kitchen to find it empty of toned, tattooed twat-buckets. Just Karen, our weekday cook, who was wiping down the benches with a microfiber cloth.
"Good morning, Miss Danvers," she greeted me in a soft, hushed tone, the same one she used on any of the rare moments I happened to run into her. My father's staff were all the never-seen-or-heard type. Always had been, so I was used to it.