“No, it certainly wasn’t,” I agree, “But it’s going to be worth it to see him behind bars, exactly where he belongs.”
She steps back and gives me a small smile but the confidence is missing from her eyes. This man has skipped out on rape charges once before and I don’t doubt that he could do it again. In fact, a shitload easier this time. He now has a reputation and stacks of money behind him. If anyone could get away with shit like this, it’s him.
We were hoping for a quick turn-around, but when we asked how soon we can expect this to be over, they had no idea. Due to the complexity of our situation when you take mine and Blake’s kidnapping into count, it could be months before we see any progress. That naturally puts the fear of God into Daniella and I don’t doubt that she’s going to be locking every door, keeping her children bubble wrapped, and purchasing a gun.
With Lucien’s reach, I’m sure he’s going to hear about this by the end of the day, and if not by then, at least within a few days. We need to be ready for a threat and what’s more, I need to warn Slade. He needs to know if there’s a risk of Lucien coming here as it might just mean bad news for him.
Daniella pulls away and hastily says her goodbyes. She hurries up to her car and drops down into it, leaving me wondering what her game plan is and how she’s going to make it through this. She’s strong. She has a husband who loves her and four children who adore her. Besides, I’m sure Slade’s recklessness would keep her mind off it at least a little.
Shay and I get in her car and the whole way home, she reassures me that I‘ve done the right thing. I just wish I knew what it cost me.
We get home and I’m not surprised to find Blake nowhere in sight. Shay walks in with me and heads straight for the kitchen to figure out what we’re going to do for dinner while I go down to my room to get my homework over and done with so I’m not left with it over the weekend.
As I push open my bedroom door, I come to a screeching halt. “Where the hell have you been?” Slade questions, scrolling through something on his phone as he lays back on my bed with his arm propped behind his head, looking like the most delicious kind of treat.
“Umm…what are you doing in my bed?” I question before flicking my eyes toward my window and finding it locked, just as it was when I walked out of here this morning. “Better yet, how did you get in here?”
Slade’s attention falls away from his phone and his deep eyes slice toward me. “I was under the impression that you liked me in your bed.”
I swallow hard. He’s not wrong but I’m not about to tell him that. I fold my arms over my chest and raise a brow, making a show of my impatience. “I’m waiting.”
A grin crosses his lips. “I don’t think you want to know the answer to that.” I narrow my eyes and his cheesy as all hell grin widens. “Okay…so, I might have broken into your locker at school and stolen your keys out of your bag.”
“Bullshit,” I gape at him. “You didn’t.” I rip my bag off my shoulder and dump it down on my desk, making sure to empty all my belongings in the process. I riffle through the mess, throwing things around until it becomes damn clear. I turn on him. “You’re such a turd. You really stole my keys.”
Slade raises his hands and dangling off his pointer finger are my keys. “Whatcha gonna do about it?”
I push everything off my desk and silently step up onto my chair before taking another up onto my desk. I turn and face him, looking down at the guy that I still struggle to call my boyfriend. His eyes narrow in concern, realizing that he’s not exactly in a great position. “I warned you, Cruz. I’m not someone you want to start a war with.”
He laughs, enjoying himself way too much. “Bullshit, you wouldn’t jump,” he says, calling my bluff.
Damn it. Despite the fact that I really wasn’t, now I have no choice.
I spread my wings and launch myself across the room, feeling like Thor for the briefest millisecond, until my fly turns into more of a fall. I go crashing down on top of Slade and he has just enough time to throw a hand protectively over his junk while the other shoots out in a horrible attempt at trying to catch me.
With both of his hands now squished between our bodies, I clamber up until I’m straddled over his chest. I squeeze my legs as hard as I can, trying to keep him pinned but my efforts are laughable and he overpowers me with ease.
Slade flips us until I’m the one pinned to the bed and he’s holding my arms hostage at my sides. He looks down at me with mischief in his eyes and my gut sinks. Usually, that look gets me all sorts of hot, but right now, I’ve never wanted to run so fast in my life.
“Hmm…all the things I could do to you.”
Oh, shit.
He glances around my room, stopping as his eyes scan over my messed-up desk. I watch in horror as his gaze focuses on my black sharpie and his face twists into a wicked smirk.
Slade reaches over and I start wriggling, doing everything I can to get free. I try pinching, I try bringing my knee up between his legs, I even try to roll, but his hold on me is too strong and all I’ve managed to do is use up all my energy.
He settles back over the top of me and pops the cap with his teeth. If I wasn’t so terrified, I’d say it was damn sexy. “You know,” he says with a wicked grin. “I always love it when you use that black shit on your eyes.”
“Mess up my face and I’ll mess up yours.”
His eyes sparkle with the challenge and ever so slowly, his hand begins to lower to my face. I turn away and I feel the cool tip press down below my ear. I try to wriggle away but it’s no use, he’s far too strong.
Slade drags the tip down my neck and a shiver spreads over my skin. He pushes my spaghetti strap off my shoulder and leans into me, blowing the ink dry over my skin and driving me wild with need.
I suck in a breath.
This man knows exactly what he’s doing.
The sharpie trails down over my shoulder and across my chest. Slade continues to pull my top down, exposing my bra and making my breath catch in my throat. His eyes meet mine, heated and enticing, needy and seductive. His fingers slip into the top of my bra and pull it down as he scoots lower on my body.
He cups my breast, squeezing and pinching, making all sorts of things happen south of the border. The sharpie slides over the curve of my breast. He watches what he’s doing, enraptured by my body while I find it physically impossible to tear my gaze off his eyes, especially when they’re so deep and hooded like this.
Who would have known that I could be so turned on by a damn sharpie?
He marks my skin, branding me with his name right over my heart and before I can say anything about it, he lowers down to me, sucking my nipple into his mouth and making me press up into him, needing so much more.
His lips trail up my neck as he eases up on my body. My legs are freed and I wrap them around his waist, holding him to me.
Impatience claims me and I take hold of his face, bringing his lips down on mine and the second they touch, the second he grazes his tongue over mine, I’m a fucking goner.
----------
We lay in my bed, panting beneath the sheets, desperately trying to catch our breath. I might have given Slade a hard time for breaking in here and stealing my keys out of my locker, but damn, it was so worth it.
“Come on,” he says, pulling me up off the bed and toward the door. “Let’s shower. I have to scrub all of this sharpie off you.”
I roll my eyes but allow him to pull me along. He gets to the door and silently peels it open. Shay has been wandering around the house, singing to herself and I don’t doubt that she’d appreciate getting an eyeful of Slade’s naked ass, but I don’t exactly want her to know what we were just doing in here.
Slade’s hand drops to his junk and he sneaks out to the hallway while my eyes remain solely on his perky, toned ass. I hurry behind him and within seconds, we’re breaking into the bathroom and locking the door behind us.
Slade grins back at me over his shoulder, the possibility
of getting caught always giving him the adrenalin rush that he craves.
I roll my eyes at his dumbassery and follow him deeper into the bathroom, but in doing that, I catch myself in the mirror and gawk. What the hell has he done to me? Fine black lines are covering my neck and chest, one tit has his name scrawled over it while the other has a smiley face, my nipple being the nose.
“What have you done to me?” I question, struggling to hold back my laughter.
“What?” he shrugs, leaning into the shower and grabbing hold of the tap. He glances back, seeing my reflection in the mirror and grins. “Now, I’m no artist like you, but I’m pretty fucking talented, don’t you think?”
I turn around and lean back against the vanity. “Oh, you certainly are talented, but not where art is concerned.”
His eyes flare as he turns to face me. He takes a step, dropping his eyes down my body and back up again, looking like sex on fire. His arm curls around my waist and with a hard tug, he pulls my naked body against his. “Oh, yeah?” he murmurs low. “What am I talented with?”
I push up onto my tippy toes, pressing my chest hard against his as I lean in, feeling the very tips of my lips tickling his neck. My hand snakes up around the back of his head and I let out a soft breath, knowing he’s going to feel it.
I brush my thumb over his bottom lip, entranced by the way his tongue slips out and runs along it. “Well,” I breathe. “There’s your tongue. That might just be the most talented thing I’ve ever seen.”
I drop my hand to his shoulder and then follow it down his sculptured body, watching how his eyes roll at my touch. My hand continues down over his abs, past his happy trail, and down to the monster that hangs between his legs. I curl my fingers around it, loving his deep growl that vibrates right through my chest. “But your real talent, the one that makes me desperate, the one that has me screaming your name and dreaming about all the wicked things you could do to me, that talent lies right here.”
My hand strokes up and down and I feel him harden beneath my touch.
My ass is grabbed and I’m lifted off the bathroom floor. He takes a few quick steps and soon enough, I’m pressed against the cold tiles of the shower as a freezing spray of water is thrust upon our bodies. The water quickly warms but I doubt either of us notice as he pushes up into me, fucking me like his queen.
When we finish, and my mind returns to my body, Slade puts me down and watches me as I shower. He grabs the body wash and lathers me up and from the look in his eyes, he’s more than enjoying himself, especially as he attempts to get the sharpie off my tits.
Once I’m thoroughly cleaned, Slade pulls me into his arms and we stand under the warm rush of the water, basking in one another’s presence. “So, are you ever going to tell me where you were all afternoon?”
I stare at the shower tiles, afraid to look up and meet his eyes. “I umm…kind of went to the police station and made a formal statement about what happened with Lucien.”
Slade rears back and forces my eyes to him. “Are you kidding me? Why the hell didn’t you tell me? I would have gone with you.”
Oh, Jesus. Had Slade been there and seen his mother walk through the door, all hell would have broken loose. I shake my head and give him an encouraging smile, knowing that he comes with the purest intentions. “It’s fine,” I tell him. “I went with Shay. I spent the morning sharing everything with her and then she offered to come with me.”
“That couldn’t have been easy,” he comments. “Are you alright? You should have said something and I wouldn’t have come at you like that.”
“Trust me, your idiotic bullshit was exactly what I needed to get my mind off it.”
Slade rolls his eyes. “I resent that,” he tells me, raising a cocky brow and waiting for my returning smirk before continuing. “What happens now? Do they arrest him and then it’s all over?”
I shake my head, wishing I had better news. “Not exactly,” I say, wondering how I’m going to explain this. “They’re still investigating mine and Blake’s kidnapping, so it’s getting added to the ever-growing list of bullshit they have against him. It could take months to get an arrest. There are thirteen years of crap to go through. Lucien is a powerful man with all sorts of connections so when they go after him, they need to make sure he won’t get off. They want to nail him and despite knowing that he’s probably going to come after me in the meantime, I want this done properly so he can’t get off.”
“Shit, Virago…”
“Yeah,” I say, realizing he’s completely lost for words, the same way I seemed to be. It’s a lot to take in and I can’t exactly say that it’s something everyone goes through because it’s not. This is new territory for us and I want to tread carefully.
“You really think he’s going to come for you?”
I nod, looking up at him so he can really see the concern in my eyes. “I’m almost sure of it, but what scares me is that while he’s here, he could come for you.”
“Don’t worry about me, baby. I can handle that prick. You just focus on doing you,” he pulls me back in and I lay my head against his chest, listening to the heavy beat coming from within. “I’ve got you, Virago. I’m going to keep you safe.”
I relax into him, I know he means that with every piece of his heart, but Slade is no match for Lucien Valentine. He’s a high school basketball star, Lucien is the devil. We’re playing in two very different worlds and someone is going to get burned.
When the shower runs cold, we escape back into my room and quickly get dressed before we have to explain what we’ve been doing to Shay. Slade sits up on my bed, playing on his phone as I make myself comfortable beside him with my sketchpad.
The hours quickly tick by and before I know it, the bedroom door is swinging open with Damian standing expectantly in front of us. “What the hell do you want?” Slade questions, glancing up at him for the shortest moment before dropping his attention back to his phone.
“It’s Friday night. I wanna go out and do something.”
“Then go,” Slade grumbles, making my lips pull into an amused grin.
“Nope, that’s bullshit,” Damian says, striding deeper into my room until his hand is curling around my arm. “You can stay here and fuck around all you like, but I’m taking Sky with me.”
I have only a second of warning before Damian launches me off the bed. My sketchpad falls to the ground as my pencils are thrown off my lap and fly halfway across the room.
My shoes are tossed at me and I’m quick to put them on before Damian decides to do it himself. “What the fuck, man? We were chilling.”
“Yeah, and now she’s chilling with me. In or out, bro?”
Slade groans and lets out a loud, irritated sigh. “This better be fucking worth it,” he says, getting up from my bed. He grabs his things and the three of us stalk out of my room.
We walk through the house and find Shay sitting on the couch with the whole tub of ice cream as Ben sits beside her with his feet popped up on the coffee table. Judging by the five empty bottles on the floor and the glassy look in his eyes, I’d say he’s well and truly fucked. Ben rarely drinks so I don’t doubt that it’s gone straight to his head.
“Hey, we’re going out,” I tell them as the three of us walk out the door.
Ben’s eyes flick to me. “Are you going to be drinking?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Drugs?”
“Nu-uh.”
His eyes slice across to Slade before coming back to mine. “You don’t plan on having sex?” I shake my head again and Ben scrunches his face in distaste. “Then why the fuck are you even going out? How fucking boring.”
Slade and Damian chuckle right along with Ben while Shay and I look at him as though he’s lost his mind.
“Okayyyy,” I say, drawing it out. “Well, don’t wait up.”
With that, we walk out the door just as Blake is coming through it and without a single pause, he turns on his heel and follows us right back ou
t.
Chapter 9
I walk through the cafeteria on Monday afternoon, more than happy to be having lunch. My stomach has been growling for the last hour after I slept through my alarm and skipped breakfast.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for hours and I’m going to do it right.
I wonder what they have on offer today. A lasagna? Maybe a few different selections of pasta? I’m freaking hungry so I hope there’s a shitload of carbs for me to load up on. My mouth begins watering at the thought.
I put myself at the end of the line, wishing I could bowl all these fuckers down and get to the front. I swear, if there’s nothing good left for me, then I’m going to be pissed.
Slade walks through the door and just like always, his eyes find mine. I’ll never get over this. I don’t know how this even happened, but part of me is wondering if I’m starting to fall for him. He’s so damn…I don’t know, he’s everything. I simply can’t get enough. And good God, when he smiles…damn.
He strides past the line and heads for his usual table. He’s not one to do cafeteria food. Despite not needing it, he’s put himself on a strict diet. When he first told me, I scoffed. He explained it was for basketball and if Blake wanted to succeed he’d be smart to do the same.
Damian follows up behind him and where Slade drops down to the seat, Damian has to take things a step further by sitting on the table, and I can happily bet my last pencil that he’s probably talking shit too.
I get to the front of the line and my hopes plummet as I find nothing but a cheap chicken salad with most of the chicken pieces already gone. Just my luck. Who wants to willingly eat a boring salad? Couldn’t they have even jazzed it up a little, made it a bit exciting? A rabbit would even turn his nose up at this shit.
Usually, I’d leave the salad and cut with my losses, but I’m so damn hungry that I’ve got no other choice. I’ll just pick at the soggy lettuce and hopefully, it’ll be enough to get me through to the end of the day, then I can go and get a nice juicy hamburger while the boys are training and watching their figures.
Lost Girl: Aston Creek High (Book 2) Page 7