Hate You: A Dark High School Bully Romance

by Bella King

  “Let’s go,” I said, slinging the insulated duffle bag over my shoulder. It was lighter now that it had fewer drinks in it. I had only had one myself, but I had shared the rest of them with others. Only three or four rolled around in it now.

  I looked back to check on Jonathan and saw him still happily chatting with Maddie. By the looks of their body language, I would say that my matchmaking skills were a success. Dylan was happy about it and so was I. That made four happy people with one easy suggestion.

  Dylan walked slightly behind me as we embarked on our short journey through the woods. Under the trees, it was significantly darker, and I was very thankful to have Dylan with me now. He was so tall and muscular that I reckoned he probably could defend me from a wild animal if it came down to it. Also, I think I could outrun him. He probably wasn’t as fast as he claimed to be.

  “Nice ass,” he said out of the blue, halfway through our walk.

  I looked back at him, frowning. “Get up here and stop staring,” I said, waving a hand at him to come to walk beside me.

  “I prefer it back here,” he replied, rubbing his chin.

  “You might like it, but it’s not respectful,” I said, cautioning him to behave himself. That devilish side was coming out again, and it was more dangerous now that we were out in the woods at night alone.

  “I’ll come walk beside you if you slow down,” he said.

  I wasn’t walking very fast, but I slowed my stroll, giving a few defined swings of my hips for him to enjoy before he caught up to me. Except, he didn’t catch up to me. He just slowed down to match my pace, staying slightly behind me so that he would watch my ass.

  “I see what you’re doing,” I said.

  “What am I doing?” He asked, a cocky smirk creeping into his face.

  “Staring at my ass,” I said.

  “I’m only looking because I was taught to look but not touch,” he said, moving slightly closer.

  I laughed. “Those are good words to live by,” I replied.

  “Yeah,” he said, rubbing his chin again, “but I prefer touching.”

  “You’ll have to take me out to dinner before I let you do that,” I teased, liking where this was going. Truth be told, Dylan could be quite charming when he was freaking out over something. He had a playful demeanor about him that appealed to my love of excitement.

  A hard slap landed on my ass, the blow powerful enough to send a sting through my shorts to my skin. I jumped up, yelping in the same way as when the water had been splashed on me.

  “Oops,” Dylan said calmly. “It was an accident.”

  I was shocked at his boldness. “That was certainly not an accident,” I said, my jaw hanging open. I walked backward, facing him so that he wouldn’t try it again. “I thought you said you were taught to look and not touch.”

  “I don’t do my homework,” he said, winking.

  I shook my head at him but couldn’t hold back a smile. I enjoyed his daring nature, but I wasn’t ready for the moves he was pulling on me. I needed to get to know him better before I dove into something like this.

  Dylan, clearly, had other plans. He came toward me quickly, scooped a hand around my waist, and stopped me dead in my tracks. This was another move I wasn’t expecting, but my body instinctively relaxing into his touch, allowing him to gain control over me.

  “Look at me,” he demanded, his eyes growing wide.

  I stared up at his face. It was cast in shadows from the trees, but I could still make out the details of his expression. He was even more handsome up close than he had been from further away. His eyes told stories of deep passion and his eyebrows could write a book on their own with how expressive they were. I found myself getting drawn in deep, losing my focus on anything but his eyes.

  I was no longer scared of the dark when he was here. I barely knew the man right now, but I had the feeling that this might soon change. He was coming in fast, and I could tell he was serious about what he wanted from me.

  “Kiss me,” he growled, jerking me closer to him.

  I considered it. His lips looked soft and welcoming, probably hot with the lust he felt for me. I couldn’t deny that I felt the same. The wild part of me urged me to let go and let him take me right here in the woods, but the more conservative part of me said that I should hold back and wait for a better moment. I didn’t know him well enough for all this, and there was a lot that he refused to say.

  “Tell me what you were going to say yesterday in the car,” I said, trying to use my sexual allure to get information out of him. His words out ruin were still clinging to my brain, unwilling to let me put it to rest. There was too much energy and truth in the words he spoke. They had to have an explanation.

  He pulled his head back, probably not expecting that request from me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You do know,” I said, studying his face. He looked to be a mixture of annoyed and slightly worried, like he would be found out if I didn’t drop it. There was, without a doubt, something he was hiding.

  “If I said something strange, I didn’t mean it. I was confused about you,” he said.

  “Why were you confused?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, really. I had this impression of rich people like they were total bullies. I’ve had poor experiences with people in the past. I thought you might be the same.”

  It sounded like only half the story, so I pressed him further. “You said I had ruined you. What did you mean by that?”

  “Ruined? I mean, you certainly could with the way that you look. I find you hard to resist,” he said, leaning back in and letting the dying evening light catch his eyes.

  I smiled, but it was half-hearted. I knew that there was something not right about what he was saying, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. He sounded like he was trying to cover something up, something he didn’t want me to find out about.

  “All I know, Scarlet, is that you’ve captivated me. That’s the truth, and it pains me to admit it. I never wanted to fall for someone like you. I feared that I would be judged for being poor. I’m still fearful of that,” he said, his words dripping from my mouth into mine as he moved his head so close that our lips almost touched.

  “You don’t have to be afraid,” I said.

  “No, but you do,” he said, something evil glinting in his eyes before he pressed his lips against mine.

  I let my concerns about him melt away as he kissed me. The heat of his mouth felt wonderful against mine, sending tiny sparks of energy through my face. I felt like I was being brought to life, like I had never lived before this kiss.

  I pressed my body against him, feeling the rigid muscles of his study structure. He was the perfect build for me, so masculine and powerful. I was so caught up in his charm that I would do just about anything with him now. The conservative portion of my mind was fading in the lustful haze that now surrounded us. Passion can change a saint into a sinner in the blink of an eye.

  I knew that this was the point when I needed to pull away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. There was something special about Dylan that made me want to forgive him even though he was pushing my buttons all the time. It wasn’t just how attractive he was, but maybe also that I felt that his misfortune wasn’t his fault.

  I liked a lot of things about him, and he was a far cry than the people I was used to. That made him exotic in a fashion, and I enjoyed that. Even the way he was kissing me now gave me chills. I hadn’t felt like that around anyone else before.

  Dylan grabbed my hair, moving his fingers through the deep black layers of it and squeezing then at the base of my skull. He pushed my head down harder on him, our lips pressed almost painfully close together. He slipped a tongue into my mouth, feeling along my teeth and swirling around my won tongue.

  There was a beating in my body that I recognized as my pulse, thumbing away under my pale flesh. My heart was racing, desperate to give me the extra stimulation I needed to meet this situation wi
th the same fury and passion that Dylan was. I felt like I was being consumed by his very soul, sucked into a universe far darker than the one I was from.

  It was an unsettling feeling, but I silenced the alarms in my head as they screamed at me to let go of him. I had my hands wrapped so tightly around his body that you would have thought either one of us would perish was I to let go. I couldn’t keep my hands off him, nor did I want to. This was my chance to be naughty, and I was going to take full advantage of it.

  I looked up at him, my eyes glazed over like a ragdoll staring up at its owner. I wanted him to control me, to use me as he pleased, and to take me home with him when he was done. I wanted to taste his passion and feel his strength as he pushed his way inside of me and claimed me for the first time.

  Dylan looked at me, pulling his lips from mine, and he smirked. “You’re mine, Scarlet. Maybe I will ruin you. Do you dare to find out?”

  His words felt more like the truth than a game he was playing to increase the sexual tension. I was afraid of him by the energy he gave off, but at the same time, I craved his cruelty. I would let him do whatever he wanted to me, but I needed to take caution that what he wanted to do to me wasn’t all that bad. This was supposed to be fun, not deadly.

  “We should get back to the car,” I said, finally caving to the alarms in my brain. “It’s pretty dark.”

  Dylan pulled back, a slight scowl on his face. I could tell he was disappointed, but I had never intended things to move this quickly. He didn’t say anything at first. He only let go of me and stepped back.

  “I like you, Dylan,” I said, worried that I had offended him.

  “But?” He asked, expecting a clause.

  I wouldn’t give it to him. Even though he had claimed to have put all his misinterpretations and assumption behind him, I could tell that he was still clinging to these biases about my wealth.

  I crossed my arms. “But, nothing. I like you. That’s all I wanted to say.”

  He chuckled. “Well, I like you too. Let me walk you to your car,” he said, gesturing with his hand toward the path we were walking on before I got caught up in his romance.

  “Thank you. I appreciate that,” I replied, happy that he wasn’t pushing me anymore. In some ways, I had enjoyed that roughness, but in others, it was too much. I didn’t want to get tossed into a situation that I didn’t know how to handle. I was meticulous about the way I went about my life, and Dylan had come out of the blue to shake things up. I needed to get a hold on the situation before I made any big decisions.

  “The weather is nicer at night. I prefer it,” Dylan said as he led the way.

  I was relieved that he was in front this time. When he had been trailing behind me, it wasn’t that he was obviously looking at my ass, but that I was the first one to step into the darkness ahead which I had a problem with.

  I looked around, finally noticing the air on my skin and the way the forest made the air moister and heavier. It felt nice, much better than it did during the day. “It is a lot better. I wish I wasn’t so afraid of the dark. I would stay out late more often.”

  “You could probably stay out more if I was there. Then you’d have nothing to be afraid of,” Dylan said, climbing over a log that laid across our path.

  “What about you?” I asked, only half-joking.

  “You’re afraid of me? Well, I can’t blame you. Maybe you should be,” he said.

  The way he spoke made me feel like I should believe him, but I wondered if that was just sarcasm that I wasn’t picking up on. Dylan had already shown me that he was a force to be reckoned with, but there was also a romantic side of him that had caught my eye. At this point, I didn’t want to turn back. I wanted to find out who he really was.

  I took a deep breath of the lovely pine scent in the air. With the crickets chirping and the gentle sound of the evening breeze through the trees, I felt calm. I wasn’t afraid of wild animals out here, especially with how close we were to the car already. It was a nice state to be in, and I wanted to cling to it forever.

  Alas, the beautiful things in life never last long. We arrived at my car soon after the feeling came over me, and I was back to regular old reality. There was nothing terribly exciting about it.

  Chapter 14

  Dylan

  I was getting closer. Something would have to break eventually, and when it did, there would be no going back. I knew that she was into me, and I was into her in the same lustful way. I wanted to use her, to taste her lips again and drink from her like wine.

  Scarlet was quickly approaching a disaster that she knew nothing about. I had a plan that was going to make her life harder, and my life easier at the same time. She was trusting me already, but that was her biggest mistake. I thought I could ruin her from a distance at first, but now I realized that the best way to do it was right up close and personal.

  I thought about the plan, and it sounded better and better as I mulled things over. Scarlet was a beautiful and admirable woman, and as much as I liked to destroy her, it was a damn shame that I had to. In another life, I would have been able to put our differences aside and maybe even fall in love with her. As it stood now, I wouldn’t be able to. I simply had no desire to feel that way about her.

  I waited for Scarlet to leave before I got into my car. I sat in the parking lot for a while, thinking about the intimate moment we had shared in the woods. I was surprised that I had been able to get so far with her so quickly after I had been rude, but she was a very forgiving person. She was nothing like her father.

  I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel of the car that Scarlet had bought for me. I felt the smallest tinge of conflict not that I had decided to do something bad to her. She wasn’t the one who had ruined my life and caused my father to commit suicide, but she was the only person from that family who I had access to. I had little other way to get revenge.

  I smiled to myself, thinking about how I would enjoy her before my betrayal. It would be wonderful to experience her to the fullest, to make her do dirty things for me, and to bend her until she broke under my power. How delightful would it be to have her as mine, at least for the night?

  I bet her bed was nice, and I would experience it soon if I played my cards right. This was just the first step in a journey that would solve all my problems, or so I hoped. One can never be sure of anything, and it’s best to be careful when the stakes get high.

  I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home, intent on pretending that I had been at work all day instead of messing around with the rich woman by the creek. I had kept my work boots on to look like I had been working, but I was sure my mother would soon find out about my uncle’s retirement and start to freak out. I would have to pretend like I had found a new job.

  That wasn’t a problem. All I really had to do was not come home immediately after school and stay out on the weekends. I could use that time to get closer to Scarlet, and I wouldn’t arouse any suspicion. My plan was coming together, despite how dire the circumstances were. I thrived in this environment, and now, I was going to be the boss of a new one. I felt it in my bones.

  I drove around the city for a while, making my way to Scarlet’s neighborhood. I knew that she lived in the nicer part of town, but I didn’t know which house was hers. I would know if she invited me over, and I would make sure that she did. It was part of my master plan to share her bed. Who says you can’t enjoy yourself while you’re working?

  By the time I rolled up into the old trailer park that I had called home for the past few years, it was well past midnight. My mother was probably already asleep, and I would have to tiptoe inside to make sure that I didn’t wake her up. I still wanted to keep the car hidden, so I parked it around back. Maybe when I pretended that I got a new job I should show it to her and say it was some kind of bonus. It was believable enough.

  I stepped out onto the yellow grass that led up to the trailer but stopped after a few feet. I heard a sound coming from around the back of the trailer wh
ere the storage shed was. I frowned, listening closer. It sounded like something was moving back there in a steady rhythm, like someone was rocking back and forth, trying to pry off a plank of wood.

  I grew angry and felt prickly heat rising to my cheeks. If one more bastard broke into that shed and stole something, I was going to kill him. There was no way in hell that I was letting someone get away with this again. It wasn’t fair to my family.

  I slipped out of my work boots and circled around the trailer in my socks. I felt the tiny needle pricks of the dead grass as I stepped on it, but I ignored the pain. There were far more important things right now that a little pain.

  I kept my shoulder running along the paneling on the side of the trailer, squinting my eyes in the darkness as I approached the back. There was definitely someone out there, and it sounded more like two people now that I was closer.

  I slowed down as I came to the edge of the trailer. I took a breath and held it, peeking my head around the corner to see if there really was someone back there or if my brain was causing me more distress than it needed to.

  I didn’t see much, but I heard the sound. It was distinct and surprisingly loud for someone who would want to stay quiet while breaking in. The shed looked to be in one piece. Maybe they were around the back of it.

  I dashed across the back yard on the front pads of my feet, careful not to make much noise as I moved. I may have been large, but I could be deathly quiet when I wanted to. As I came upon the shed, I heard hushed voices, shushing each other and trying to quiet down. They knew I was onto them.

  I whipped around the corner, my fist balled up and ready to strike, only to be shocked by what I saw.

  “Maddie?” I asked, lowering my fist.

  Maddie and Scarlet’s friend Jonathan were going at it hard behind my storage shed. Maddie had her pants down and she was bent over, her hands smooth against the wood of the shed. Jonathan was bright pink in the face, concentrating on the task in front of him. As soon as he saw me, he jerked his body backward, looking absolutely petrified.

  Maddie looked at me and smiled. “Oh hey, Dylan.”