by Coralee June
I tossed my head back and laughed before nodding back down the hall towards where the loud lunchroom was. “We should get going,” I told him with a smile.
“After you,” he replied in a smooth voice, letting me go first. He probably just liked to see my skirt ride up with each step.
The moment we walked into the lunchroom, my eyes unwillingly searched for Godfrey. I hadn’t really seen him at all today and was surprised when Bonham said they didn’t have any classes together. Bonham took all advanced courses, and although I was no idiot, I found myself struggling to keep up. “Can you find Godfrey? I don’t want to navigate this cafeteria. I can grab us some food?” I offered. I knew this was pushing it, but there was no point in making Bonham stand in line.
“Knowing Godfrey, he probably already got us both trays. And although I appreciate you trying to be sneaky all day and help me out, I’m good,” he said with a smile, before leading me towards the most crowded corner of the cafeteria.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said primly.
He laughed, and it was nice to see him so relaxed. It completely changed his face from the frown he’d worn earlier, and I was pretty sure every girl in the room was sighing over the sight of it.
At first, I couldn’t see Godfrey as we made our way through the crowd. There were too many plaid skirts and piles of curled hair to pick him out of the crowd, but it didn’t take long. Sitting like a king on his throne, Godfrey was at his table surrounded by girls and food. One of them was sitting in his lap, stroking his chest like he was a prized possession. “Hey, Bonham,” he said as we walked up, pointedly ignoring me. I wasn’t too bothered though. Or at least, I pretended not to be.
The girl groping his chest gave me a dirty look before whispering something in Godfrey’s ear that made them both laugh, though I noticed how dark his eyes grew, like he was angry. It suddenly occurred to me why he always wore his signature sunglasses. Godfrey’s tell was in his eyes. He was so expressive there. I could read him like a book without his glasses on, and it made me want to find every pair in his possession and crunch them with my boot.
“Scoot over for Rachel,” Bonham ordered another girl with long, black hair. She didn’t look too happy about it, but she didn’t dare disobey. I sat down, and Bonham joined me, grabbing two of the trays in front of Godfrey and setting them in front of us.
“Having fun, princess?” Godfrey asked.
I picked up a grape and plopped it into my mouth with a smile. “Yep. I never thought I’d enjoy going to private school, but Bonham’s been keeping me company.”
Maybe it was wrong to use Bonham like that, but he even admitted himself that he wanted to see Godfrey struggle a bit. I knew after last night that we both only wanted that to be a one time thing. I refused to be one of the girls that came back, begging for more. But I still didn’t know exactly where we stood either. I wasn’t even sure we were friends.
“Here, try some of this,” Bonham said while holding out a spoon full of gelato for me.
I leaned over and wrapped my lips around it, moaning a bit when the burst of flavor hit my tongue. I could feel Godfrey’s eyes on us, but Bonham was having a stare down with me. Lifting his thumb up, he reached up and wiped a stray bit from the corner of my mouth. “You had some there,” he said in a low voice, before plopping it in his mouth and sucking on it. Holy shit. I felt heat pool between my thighs. Bonham didn’t stir the hate-fire in my belly like Godfrey did, but the guy was hot, and unlike Beau, I had an easy attraction to him.
“That's enough of that,” Godfrey said, shattering the moment and making me blink over at him.
In an instant, he stood up from his seat, making the poor girl who’d been dry humping his lap fall to the ground with a squeak. Grabbing my hand, Godfrey yanked me up and pointed at Bonham’s face. “Don’t feed her gelato.”
Bonham’s lips twitched, holding back a grin. “Sorry, dude. Next time I’ll feed you first.”
Godfrey ground his teeth and rolled his eyes before pulling me out of the lunchroom. I looked back longingly at the five-star tray I was leaving behind. I hadn’t had time to eat, and my stomach was sad to miss out.
I tried to tug my hand out of his grip, but he wouldn’t budge. “Who said I wanted to go with you?”
“I fucking did,” he snapped.
Whoops and laughter followed after us, but in true Godfrey fashion, he didn’t give them any attention.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked in mock fury, though my blood was burning in memory of what had happened the night before. I was finding it harder and harder to pretend that the only thing between us was annoyance and anger. There was lust too. I wanted Godfrey Taylor. I wanted all of the fantastic distractions his body could offer. I liked that when I was with him, I wasn’t thinking about Pick. But it was more than that, too. I liked him. I liked how smart he was, and how he did what he wanted, everyone else’s opinions be damned. I liked that he was arrogant and a bit of an asshole, and I liked the way he made my heart speed up every time he was around. I was fucked.
He didn’t answer my question, just continued to stalk out of the lunchroom and then pulled me down the hall, gripping my hand so hard that it throbbed in pain. We passed an empty classroom, and his steps faltered before backtracking back to it. Gripping the door open with his free hand, he pulled me inside and drew the shades closed in one practiced move that had me wondering how many other girls he’d snuck off with in the past.
“What are you doing with Bonham?” he asked before swinging me around in front of the vacant teacher’s desk at the front of the room.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean, why do you keep giving him fuck-me eyes? Bonham isn’t some tool you can use to work through all the shit in your head, princess,” he growled.
At first, it took a moment for his words to completely sink in, but once their meaning hit the bottom of my gut, I saw red. Who the fuck was he to tell me who I could forget with for a while? He didn’t own me.
“Excuse me?” I asked, mouth dropping open in shock.
“I said,” he began before taking a step forward to crowd my space. I backed up until my ass hit the teacher’s desk, pushing my short skirt up even higher. “You don’t get to use Bonham like that. You want to work through your shit? Take it out on me. But leave him alone.”
My eyes widened, and I suddenly realized that this wasn’t just some jealous bullshit. He was worried about his friend. And for some reason, that made the acid in my stomach churn. Who did he take me for? It pissed me off that he’d assume that I was the kind of person to use someone up like I’d been used. I didn’t get off on bleeding a person dry until they were empty. I was just trying to find my power in a world that had sucked away every last ounce that I’d had. “How dare you,” I whispered before winding my hand back to slap him.
I’d expected a deafening crack to echo across the room from when my hand met his cheek, but it never did because Godfrey had reached up and intercepted me. “I’m getting really tired of you hitting people when you don’t get your way, princess,” he whispered.
“I’m getting really tired of you thinking I’m some broken person using others like glue to put me back together, Godfrey,” I yelled back.
I was so angry I couldn’t even think. Rage was a numbing thing that made random electricity jolt through my system. The beautiful contradiction had me hot and burning up. But then there was that little voice in my head that said maybe he was right. Maybe I wasn’t any better than Pick. I’d started using my body as a weapon and forgot that there were consequences. I swallowed and stopped trying to yank my wrist out of his hold, and Godfrey smiled like he’d somehow won something.
“Really?” he asked, his breath feathering over me in hot waves. “’Cause I could have sworn that’s what you were doing with me last night.”
Maybe I was the leech Godfrey accused me of being, because in the next instant, my lips were on his, and I was sucking at
his mouth like I was trying to drain him dry. At first, he didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure if he was shocked that I’d kissed him during a heated fight or if he just didn’t want me. But I didn’t want to stop.
My mouth was mean, my breath was acid, and my tongue was taunting. I wanted to punish him, but I wasn’t entirely sure why. Because he was wrong about me or because he was right? Or maybe I just wanted to take all of my anger out on him, regardless of why. And I had a lot of anger. But the moment my tongue pushed past his lips and licked against his, he sprung into movement, unable to stop himself from kissing me back.
He gripped my hips so hard that I knew he’d leave bruises, but I wanted him to squeeze harder. I kissed him like I wanted to steal his breath. I kissed him like I could cast fire down his throat. Our lips were like fists and our tongues were like snakes, lashing out to get the upper hand, and I was starting to realize that there were no winners in this game between us. His mouth tasted oddly sweet, and I hated myself for wondering if it was from what he’d eaten at lunch or if it was from the girl that had been sitting on his lap.
“I wasn’t using Bonham,” I retorted into his mouth, more for my benefit than for his. I didn’t want to use people like Pick. I needed to know I wasn’t like that and that he’d only said those things out of anger. When he didn’t say anything, I pulled away. “I wasn’t,” I repeated indignantly.
His hands slipped into his blazer that I wore and drifted slowly up my stomach, pushing under my crop top. My breath caught as his fingers trailed higher and higher, until they skimmed under my bra to tease my heavy breasts. I shuddered out a breath from the intensity of emotions spinning through me, but it still wasn’t enough. I had to wonder if it would ever be enough.
“Sure, princess,” he replied. “Whatever you say.”
He moved his mouth to my neck and bit down hard, marking the spot he’d picked last night and making the bruise bloom even more. My hands wound around his neck, and I threaded my fingers through his hair, tugging until his mouth was back on mine and his taste was coating my tongue. I lifted up on my toes and sat down on the desk, parting my thighs so that he could step closer, but he didn’t.
Of course he didn’t.
Feeling the hard bulge in his pants rubbing against my core was something I wanted, and Godfrey Taylor didn’t do what people wanted. He did what he wanted.
He broke the kiss again and looked down at me. His chest was heaving, and he couldn’t hide the way his eyes grew dark with hunger as he looked at me with my shirt shoved up over my breasts. His aviators were long gone, which meant I got an unhindered view of how I affected him.
“You come to me, okay?” His words sounded like a plea instead of a demand. Maybe there was more to Godfrey’s reasoning. Maybe Bonham was right. Behind the asshole exterior, Godfrey was a loyalist to the Heirs. “You play the game with me. Not him.”
I suddenly flushed with shame. I liked Bonham, but Godfrey was right. I’d been playing. Despite Bonham’s teasing words, it wasn’t fair to do that to him when he didn’t understand. I thrived on the game because Godfrey introduced me to it as a way to handle my shit. But I couldn’t make Bonham or anyone else play when they didn’t understand the stakes.
“Okay,” I whispered with a small nod.
I felt small. I felt see-through. Like his cold blue eyes had exposed and measured every part of me.
But then he finally stepped closer between my thighs, rewarding my promise with friction. I gasped at how hard his body felt against mine. We were a perfect fit. I shook my head at that thought, and then grabbed his hips, pulling him closer. I moved against his hard erection, and he ground back against me, just two horny teenagers dry-humping in an empty classroom. It felt dirty and wrong but ambrosial.
“You gonna get off while rubbing your sweet cunt against me?” he asked huskily, before moving to nibble on my ear.
I kept rocking into him, finding that decadent rhythm that had made an electric thrill shoot through me. I was dripping wet, and I knew that if he were to push my panties out of the way, he could easily slide inside.
“Tell me you’re using me,” he whispered.
I gritted my teeth before biting his shoulder and pinching his sides, riding him while gripping his muscular back. He pulled away in an instant and smirked at me, and oh fuck, I could see a wet spot on his pants. “Tell me, and I’ll let you use me some more,” he said before rubbing himself, his hand slowly running up and down the length of his cock.
“Fine,” I began. I was so close, so goddamn close to claiming one more sexual experience that was for my own pleasure, that I didn’t want his petty need to be right to get in the way of it. “I’m using you, Godfrey Taylor. What the fuck are you going to do about it?” I demanded hotly.
His eyes flashed at my words, and then he surged forward so fast that I gasped, but my breath couldn’t escape, because he seared his lips to mine. Our teeth clashed together on impact, and I ground against him so hard, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to walk right when I was done.
He threaded his fingers through my hair and tugged my head to the side. “I’m gonna let you,” he gritted out.
I shattered against him.
I came so hard and fast that each muscle in my body spasmed as the pleasure quaked through me. It was rough, carnal, and so fucking hot that I had to hug my body against his chest just to stay upright.
Once the aftershocks were done, I let out a shaky exhale before placing both hands on his chest and shoving him away with as much force as I’d experienced from my orgasm. I hopped off the table on shaky legs and straightened my skirt, doing up the buttons of his blazer once more.
“Where are you going?” he asked as I headed to the door.
I wasn’t interested in hurting his best friend, and I wasn’t interested in returning the favor by helping him come. Godfrey wanted me to play games with him and him only, so I would. He made it very clear that that was all he wanted from me. As long as I didn’t hurt his friends, he didn’t care if he hurt me. I wasn’t about to let him see that he already had.
“I’m hungry,” I replied with forced nonchalance over my shoulder. “I’m going to finish my lunch with Bonham.”
Chapter Fourteen
Godfrey
“No.”
My father looked up from his desk like he’d never heard the word uttered before. “Excuse me?”
“I said no,” I repeated. I hated repeating myself, but Dad looked so dumbfounded that I almost considered saying that single syllable for a third time.
I could hear the faint sound of the phone ringing outside his office and his receptionist’s cheerful voice directing the call. He was fucking her, of course. He fit her into his schedule somewhere between working the courtroom where he got criminals off, and playing golf with the rest of the crooked partners at his law firm. He was a people person.
“Perhaps you’ve lost a few points of intelligence since last we talked,” he said, leaning back in his leather, high-back chair as he straightened his tie. My mother got him that tie for their last anniversary. Ironic how her gift of love was something that could be used as a noose. I blinked, and during that split second, I imagined myself tying him up by the ceiling and watching his neck snap. “I wasn’t asking you. I was telling you,” he said, his blue eyes hard and cold. Just like mine.
“And this is me not agreeing to go along with another one of your fucked up jobs,” I replied, purposely keeping my tone downright cheerful just to piss the fucker off.
Ever since the crash, my father had become even worse, trying to control me with more jobs and beating the shit out of me every chance he got. I’d fucked up his rep with the Macon Mob when the other Heirs and I had stolen evidence instead of destroying it like my father had told us to do. In their eyes, we were the reason their leader, Johnny Jack, was dead.
The only thing that had stopped them from hunting us down and killing us was our reputation and our money. I knew that my father had thrown hundreds o
f thousands of dollars at them to keep them off our backs. But my father was still picking up the pieces despite that, trying to regain their trust, because he wasn’t willing to lose them as one of his connections. Being a crooked criminal lawyer meant you had to have a lot of crooked criminals in your corner.
He was beyond pissed at me for screwing up his cushy mob connection, so he made sure to screw with me every chance he got. Which was why I was sleeping five nights out of the week at Rogue Kelly’s house. His loyalty was being questioned, and his control over his son was being questioned, and he hated me for it. If he found out that I was talking to Rocco Nomar, he might actually give up on the beatings and just kill me instead.
“Since your little stunt, I’ve had lots of people questioning me, Godfrey. You’re going to do this job. Because of your actions, you’ve put your entire family at risk.”
I had to scoff at that. “My actions? You’re the one connected to the mob. You’re the one who forced me to go destroy evidence of an underground sex ring. Sorry I disappointed you by not covering that up,” I said with sarcastic bitterness. “How would you feel if Royal had been one of those girls?” I asked, hoping my older sister would put things into perspective for him.
But he just waved his hand like he was batting away meaningless words. “That would never happen. Those girls are just druggies and prostitutes. Scum of society that no one misses.”
I wanted to strangle him. “Scarlett wasn’t,” I bit out. “And they tried to take her.”
“Because of you,” he retorted almost victoriously. “They never would have gone for her if you hadn’t pissed them off by stealing the evidence. Like I said before, you caused all of this. And you’re going to help me fix it.”
A change had shifted in me ever since I saw Scarlett sitting beside Rogue in the hospital, while Bonham sat beside her in his wheelchair. My friends had been hurt enough. Fuck, I’d been hurt enough. I couldn’t keep letting my father get away with this shit. And since my mom was on an extended vacation visiting my sister in Ecuador, I didn’t have to worry about her suffering the consequences of my disobedience. I’d always played nice before and tried to do what he wanted to keep him happy so that my mom and sister wouldn’t be hurt, but they weren’t here now, and at some point, I had to take a stand, or he was never going to stop. I knew this, which was why I’d been slowly distancing myself, sleeping at Rogue Kelly’s house and stockpiling cash. But I couldn’t avoid my father forever. Things had come to a head.