“My box has the keys to the hangar where I keep my Cessna.”
Tuna’s the last one to kiss me.
“My box has the key to my house in Barbados.”
For a second, I’m really confused but then I remember the recording of that awful bet that almost destroyed us.
“I don't understand.”
I whisper.
“It’s quite simple, Ayla. We all lost that bet.”
I look at Alex.
“I thought you won? I slept with you for the first time and—”
“Yes, you did. But by then, we weren't playing anymore. We tried to tell you this many times but—”
Sam interrupts him.
“Before Christmas, you refused to talk to us.”
Tuna explains:
“And after, when we got back together, you kept saying that we needed to forget about it.”
Alex cups my jaw with his hand, stroking my skin gently and delicately.
“The reality is that we stopped playing when we realised that we were in love with you. And we just pretended to play for Michelle’s benefit, because she was blackmailing Tuna that she’d tell you. But you're right that someone won that bet, Ayla.”
I still don't understand.
“Who?”
Alex smiles.
“You won. We wanted to conquer you, but you ended up conquering our hearts, baby. So, we decided that it's only fair that you get the prizes.”
I look at them in disbelief.
“So, I got a motorcycle, a plane and a house on a tropical island?”
They all nod.
“I got the bike shipped to Sam’s island. There's no one there, no cars and I can teach you how to ride it. You’re gonna look so sexy in leather!”
Sam winks at me: his blue eyes impossibly bright and the corner of his mouth lifting in a little smile.
“I’m flying us to the island tomorrow and we’ll have a co-pilot but we’ll give you your first flying lesson.”
“And the house ... We’ll need a place for spring break and somewhere with privacy when we don't wanna be disturbed. So the house is yours but we hope you’ll invite us to stay.”
Now it's my turn to smile.
“Well, it’ll all depend on how well you play your cards.”
I stand up and slip out of my party dress: when I see that I have their undivided attention, I take my bra and panties off.
“I bet that you three are too chicken to come and catch me!”
And I jump into the warm water.
I hear the boys undressing and jumping in.
They soon surround me and I feel three sets of hands caressing my body: this is gonna be one long, hot summer and I plan to win every bet!
Beverly Hills Prep Academy
The Reputation
WARNING: This is a Light Bully Romance. This means that the men in Abi’s harem won't always behave nicely and will sometimes be harsh and often be victim of their own flaws.
Every sexual act or situation described in this story is completely consensual and takes place between two adults.
Possible trigger warnings might be: mild violence, underage (21) drinking and drug misuse.
Finally this book’s spelling is British (like the author): so if you see neighbours instead of neighbors, centre instead of center and a few other different spellings it's because of that, they aren't typos.
1.
A School With Boys
Abilene
I WAKE UP REALLY EARLY: I’ve been back in LA and in the country for five days and my body believes that we're still in London.
Like for example, it's five am and why is my stomach telling me that I want pepperoni pizza?
It doesn't make sense but I get up and stumble into the massive kitchen.
The breakfast of champions, I think with a shrug.
I make coffee while the pizza warms up in the microwave and as I sink my teeth in the hot slice, I think that I already love living in a huge house virtually by myself.
I’ve been living in a boarding school dorm since I was six, so basically I'm used to having rules for everything.
And when your paranoid father enrols you in a boarding school run by nuns ... you get the picture.
I feel a bit like Maria in The Sound Of Music, only I’ve had enough of this kind of life: I’ve just turned eighteen and I feel like I haven't lived.
Alex, my older brother, was lucky to meet his best friend Sam whose family practically adopted him, or Dad would've shipped him to some boarding school too.
I know that looking at my life from the outside, especially looking at my family's wealth, people would say that I was born with the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth.
RGS (Richmond Global Security) is a multi-trillion dollar company and that makes my family one of the richest in the country.
But if you look at my family ...
It's not a pretty picture: Dad has made the company his baby and that meant that he had no time for his actual babies.
Nor for his wife.
And my mom’s reaction was to turn to drugs and booze, so she's constantly in rehab while Dad travels the world on an endless business trip.
This means that I grew up with a nanny until I was old enough to be sent to boarding school.
I’ve never had a family, I’ve never had a boyfriend and I’ve never really had a real friend because all the girls at my school avoided me when they realised that I never left the school, unless I was being sent to summer school somewhere different to then return in the fall.
They realised that no one wanted me, so they decided that they didn't want me either.
When I was younger, I was content with the structure of my life: eating and sleeping when I was told, studying hard, going to church.
But since I started high school, I've started craving a normal life.
The freedom to watch whatever I want, wear whatever I want, eat when and what I want.
But especially having friends, going to parties, maybe even being a cheerleader!
So I’ve decided that my senior year of high school is going to be the year when I’ll experience everything that I’ve missed out on.
I made a deal with Dad that if I passed the entrance exam for Beverly Hills Prep Academy and managed to get into its A-Class, the class for the top one per cent of BHPA students academically speaking, I’d get to go to high school and live at home like any normal eighteen year old in America.
Alex warned me that Dad would probably try to back out of our deal but I was prepared.
So I raised hell!
And regardless, I’m eighteen and this means that I’ve got access to my trust fund (or at least part of it) and my portfolio of RGS shares.
So my brother backed me up and I basically blackmailed Dad that if he wanted to exercise my vote with the shareholders, he had to send me to BHPA and let me live at home.
I wish that Alex lived here too but he graduated high school two years ago and now he attends Yale with his girlfriend Ayla and his besties Tuna and Sam.
So I’m all alone in the big house with only house staff and a housekeeper to take care of me and I feel giddy with anticipation for not having someone else dictate everything I do.
School starts in two days and I’m gonna go pick up my schedule today and sign up for cheerleader tryouts.
So I stand in front of my wardrobe, unsure about what to wear: I've never really had to decide this kind of stuff and I love it!
I opt for a pale blue summer dress with a really subtle same tone pinstripe and pale pink ballet flats.
I leave my long blonde hair down and swipe a bit of lipgloss on my lips and mascara on my lashes.
Yes!
Makeup! I’m so excited about it that I wanna squeal!
At my old school every kind of makeup was strictly forbidden and the first thing I did when I got to the airport in London was to buy myself lipgloss, mascara and blusher.
I skip out of the front door and clim
b into the black SUV that Dad arranged for me: he hired a driver who apparently is a retired special forces veteran.
The driver greets me politely and I ask him to take me to school.
My next project is to pass my driving test, so I don't have to depend on anyone to get around.
Especially because I suspect that Everett reports to Dad on my whereabouts.
The BHPA building is intimidating in its austere white splendour, with tall palm trees adorning the sprawling front gardens and a fountain by the steps that lead into the admin building.
Mrs Avery, the school secretary, hands me a red slip of paper with my schedule and explains that the A-Class curriculum is predetermined and I’m allowed one club or extracurricular and one volunteer activity for my senior year.
I thank her and ask her where do I sign myself up for cheerleading tryouts.
“You need to see Mrs Stubbs, the cheerleading coach. Her office is by the football field on the far side of the main classrooms building ...”
She takes out a printed school map and starts showing me where to go.
“If you're going to see Mrs Stubbs, I can show you the way.”
A tall girl with shiny black hair and pale blue eyes smiles at me, leaning against the office main desk.
“Ah, Lissa, that’d be so nice of you! Miss Richmond, this here is Lissa Fillmore, our cheerleading captain. You girls have a nice day and see you on Monday morning!”
Lissa tells me how she became cheerleading captain last year, taking over from Jenna, one of Alex’s friends.
“So, I couldn't help but hear your last name’s Richmond and you're a legacy? Any chance your connection is Alex Richmond?”
I beam at her and nod.
“He’s my older brother.”
“Oh, wow! I had such a crush on him! But obviously when I was a freshman, he wouldn't even look at me, then he met that red haired new girl... What's her name?”
“Yeah, Ayla. They're still together.”
Lissa lowers her tone, even if there's no one within earshot because the school is still empty:
“I’m surprised though because she was fucking Tuna and Sam too.”
I shrug and make a noncommittal noise: Alex told me about their unconventional relationship but I don't judge.
They all came to pick me up at LAX and welcome me home six days ago and I’ve never seen a bunch of happier people, more in love with each other.
Then again, I’ve been living with nuns and a bunch of other girls who didn't particularly like me, so ...
Mrs Stubbs is a huge, as in tall and burly, blonde woman who seems to act really tough but I suspect a gentle soul under her scary exterior.
I get signed up for the tryouts that will take place on Monday afternoon and then Lissa walks me outside the building.
“Listen, I need to meet someone on the other side of campus, will you be ok to find your way back out?”
I nod: regardless, I don't really have anywhere I need to be, so even if it takes me a second to find the main building, I’ll be all right.
Lissa smiles and gives me her phone:
“If you add your number, then I’ll add you to all my social media. Oh, and I’m throwing a party tonight. You should come, meet the rest of the cheer squad and some of the football team. I’ve got a pool and a hot tub, so bring a bikini if you want. I’ll text you the address, the party starts at nine! See ya later!”
I wait until Lissa is out of sight to squeal and jump with excitement: my first high school party! And with the cool crowd.
My last year of high school is gonna rock!
I wish I could’ve gone to a school with boys the whole time but this year will repay me for everything I’ve been denied so far, I can feel it in my bones!
I’ve been so distracted thinking about what to wear and how I’ll go by Uber, so my dad won't demand that I check in with him, that I don't see him before I crash into him.
Even though he feels more like a brick wall than a human being made of flesh and bones.
I end up on the ground in a heap of limbs and my hair has fallen in front of my face.
When I manage to get ahold of myself and look up, I meet the bluest, most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.
Reece
ONLY COACH BENSON CAN schedule our first practice of the season on a Saturday morning before school even starts.
And I’d be lying if I said that coming back to BHPA for my senior year hasn't been a source of anxiety.
It's not only the certainty that people will talk about me, that my reputation will be very different this year because of that party, after Prom last spring.
It's the possibility of seeing Max again: we haven't spoken since the last day in court about a month ago.
I literally ran away the minute the jury decided on a not guilty verdict, I boarded my dad's private jet with Chaz and Pryce and we spent the last thirty days on a Thai beach.
Drinking beer and surfing have been our only two activities and even though the offers from hot girls didn't lack, we never took any.
We needed time to lick our wounds, to heal and forget.
But we weren't under any illusion that once we were back at school, the enormity of what happened last May wouldn't follow us around.
And if today's anything to go by, our senior year will be tough.
Coach stares into my eyes and presses:
“So, Abbot, will there be any problems between you three and Alistair?”
I laugh bitterly.
“I’ve no problem, sir. As for Chaz and Pryce, they surely can speak for themselves.”
Coach sighs and sits heavily on the chair behind his desk.
“Abbot, you’ve always been the leader among your group of friends.”
Sure.
There it is again.
The prosecutor seemed to feel the same way: that my friends follow wherever I lead.
So if we’d done what we were accused of, it must've been my idea.
It doesn't work like that and whoever underestimates my brothers is a fool.
However, I’m not playing this game: not with the rest of the football team, not with the other students in the A-Class, not with any other goddam student at BHPA.
And I wanna make it crystal clear.
“Coach, if Max has a problem, you need to speak to him. The guys and I... we won't tolerate being treated like criminals. Twelve of our peers decided that we didn't do what Max claimed we did. So if he dares mention it again, I—”
“Abbot, that's exactly the problem. I can't determine who's telling the truth.”
My gaze hardens.
“And you don't need to. We were found not guilty.”
“I don't care what the jury said. What I care about is that this year we’ve got a real shot at the state championship. But to do that, I need a united team. No more fights like the one I just had to break up in the locker room.”
“Chaz, Pryce, let's go. Coach, I’m completely fine as long as Max keeps his big mouth shut. And I sure hope you’ll speak to him about this too. After all, he was the one who threw the first punch. And you sound awfully sympathetic towards him. If I’m not welcome to play football here, if you’ve decided that you don't believe that the acquittal was right, I can find another sport or extracurricular ...”
Coach isn't an idiot: sure Max is QB1 and he’s a hell of a player.
But if I walk away, he loses three of the players that last year qualified BHPA to the playoffs.
I walk away without even waiting for coach’s remark.
My brothers follow me and as soon as we’re out of earshot, Chaz punches one of the lockers on the way out of the now deserted locker room.
“I’m off. Fuck this place! See you at the party!”
Pryce and I walk outside and I know that he’s stressed out by the way he rakes his hand through his short dark blonde hair.
“This year's gonna suck, dude! Coach totally thinks that we did ...”
I sigh:
I suddenly feel tired of this shit.
“I don't know what coach thinks. But if he thinks we did it, maybe we shouldn't play football.”
“But I—”
“Pryce, I know you love it. And I know you wanna go Pro. But have you thought about changing schools?”
His grey eyes darken with resolve.
“No, dude. Not if your dad won't let you.”
I look at one of my oldest friends: Pryce, Chaz and until that fateful night of junior year's Prom, Max, have been my friends since I can remember.
I consider them more like brothers than simple friends.
After the trial and the scandal that it caused, we all wanted to transfer schools.
Maybe even go to school on the East Coast for our senior year.
But my father argued that we were acquitted and that the court records were sealed because at the time of the trial we were all minors.
The men in my family have attended BHPA for three generations before me and Stanford is my family legacy.
So he was adamant that I should follow in my ancestors’ footsteps and he dismissed every argument I made about being under scrutiny.
He didn't care that our fellow students would probably feed on the scandal and make our lives hell.
We’ve always been the most popular guys in the whole academy: varsity football team, top of our class in academics...
Until that night and until rumours started running rampant all over every social media.
Really, we’ll only see how bad it is tonight at the party and on Monday.
But I know that we’ve all been stressed about returning to Beverly Hills and to BHPA.
I look at Pryce and I tell him that if he and Chaz want to transfer anywhere else, I won't be mad.
“No, man! We all stay or we all go. Chaz and I won't leave you here ...”
I shrug.
“I wouldn't blame you if you did. And it’d be only until college ...”
He looks at me with a determined expression:
“I think your dad's an asshole for not letting you go if you want to but in a way he’s right that transferring would make us look guilty ...”
We walk quietly for a few moments and then he volunteers to be our DD tonight.
Beverly Hills Prep Academy The Complete Boxset : A Light Bully Romance Page 32