Belle and the Beast: A College Enemies to Lovers Romance

by Ruby Vincent

  “He stood you up.”

  “I waited for two hours, sitting in the living room waiting for his parents’ car to pull up. Finally Dad drove me to the dance himself, and I walked in to see Gio dancing with his real date, Dinah, while Carter laughed himself sick by the punch bowl.” I looked Carter square in his reddening face, knowing he was listening to every word. “So, do I believe you guys are innocent just because you say so? No.”

  “What would it take to prove it?”

  I leaned in, dropping my voice for his ears only. “Why bother, Preston? Honestly? We’d have a summer of freaky sex. Fine. But I don’t know how well it sits with me that you have a fiancée waiting at the end of it. The whole point of not dating is to avoid drama.”

  “People don’t refuse to date to avoid drama. They do it to protect themselves from getting hurt.” Preston wound my braid around his finger, lightly tugging. “That you’re worried I could hurt you means you’ve let me in farther than you intended. Now you need me to pull back so you can shore up your walls.”

  “Preston.”

  “Tell me a secret, Belle,” he breathed over my lips.

  “Here’s one: I’ve dealt with my share of possessive exes. It usually doesn’t end well for the person who gets in the middle.”

  “It does when they choose you.”

  “You haven’t chosen me, Preston. You can’t.”

  I expected a denial, but none came.

  “Want to hear my secret?”

  Sighing, I tugged my braid free. “Lay it on me.”

  “Before this summer is over, I will fuck you on every inch of this island and half a dozen times in the sea.”

  I choked.

  “A few times in the orange groves. Once in the kitchen right where they make our food because you like it freaky like that.”

  Face lighting on fire, I cried, “Preston!”

  “And I’ll lose count how many times we’ll do it on those monogrammed sheets you love.”

  “I didn’t say I loved them.”

  Right. Because that’s the part of the conversation you should focus on, Belle!

  “I’ll lick every last drop of juice from that pussy. Taste all the inches of you I missed the first time. Make you watch again while I pound you raw. Actually raw.” Preston grasped both hands and kissed my knuckles. “No STDs here, baby. Next time there’ll be nothing but you wrapped around me.”

  “There— There won’t be a next time.”

  His smirk pinned me to the seat. “You meant that as a statement but said it as a question. So, here’s your answer: there will be a next time.”

  Ding. Ding. Ding.

  “Seven days, Cinderella.”

  With that, Preston was gone, moving on to the next girl. My empty hands hung in the air and cheeks a fire-engine red greeted my next two-minute date.

  “Hey, Belle. I’m Sergio.” He picked up one of the notecards. “What would be your dream job?”

  I answered automatically. The majority of my brain power struggled to process how I lost control of that conversation. I diverted three percent toward carrying on polite conversation.

  Stop thinking about him. Preston was six girls down and one away from Delilah. There’s something you have to do on this island and sleeping with Preston Du Pont-Desai is not it.

  “What’s your favorite animal?”

  I refocused on the sweet-looking, short-haired boy too nervous to look me in the face.

  “An aye-aye,” I replied. “Heard of them? They’re big-eyed and bigger-eared creatures that live in the forest. Kinda look like deep-fried cats. They’re harmless, but back in the day, people would kill them on sight because they thought they were demons.”

  My date was looking at me now. “They’re your favorite? Why?”

  “We have a lot in common. People think I’m a demon too.”

  He chuckled. “But deep down, you’re harmless.”

  A smile spread across my face. “No.”

  The guy left a smoke ring beating it to the other table.

  My dates only got better from there.

  “What did you do last summer?”

  “Rehab.”

  “What’s something that most people haven’t done, but you have?”

  “Committed homicide.”

  “What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen?”

  “Fight Club.”

  The guy stopped talking to me after that one, turning away in disgust.

  “What do you care least about?” asked Owen.

  “The environment. Let the whole damn world burn, I say. Once the human race has gasped its last breath, Mother Nature can hit a millennium-long reset.”

  Owen laughed. “You’re a weirdo, aren’t you, Adler?”

  “You have no idea.”

  “All right.” He shuffled through the cards. “How about this one: What do you never get tired of?”

  “Orgasms. Is masturbating multiple times a day really a problem?”

  He threw his hands out. “It’s not an addiction unless it’s negatively impacting your life. Keep doing you, girl.”

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  We high-fived, cracking up.

  Ding. Ding.

  “You’re alright, Belle.” He winked. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  That wink hit me square in the face. Not the reaction I’m going for. Although, Owen does seem cool.

  He can be as cool as he wants as long as we’re just friends like Zion, my sense reminded. I—

  “Belle.”

  Carter claimed my empty seat, and just like that, Owen was forgotten.

  The calm, icy exterior was firmly in place. Carter and I observed each other for the first thirty seconds. Neither one making a move.

  I finally looked away to reach for a card.

  “Are you more of an indoors or outdoors person?”

  “Ask what you really want to ask, Belle.”

  I lowered the card. The question spilled out unbidden. “Will you ever forgive me?”

  “I will,” he said. “About ten minutes after you tell the truth of what happened that day.”

  My throat closed up, eyes stinging. “Why ten minutes?”

  “I’ll need at least five full minutes to be pissed, and then four for vindication.”

  “Fair enough,” I rasped.

  “Can I ask a question?” His tone was light. Friendly.

  “Go for it.”

  “Why are you here, Belle? You gave that speech at the reception, and in the twenty-four hours since you’ve been here, you’ve scared off every guy that’s spoken to you. Why suffer through this? You could be home in five hours, cutting up more T-shirts.”

  “I’d be cutting those shirts into a makeshift tent for my new digs under the overpass.”

  He frowned. “What?”

  “My parents will cut me off if I leave.”

  “Cecilia and Tobias? That doesn’t sound like them.”

  I’m not the only one who realizes they’ve been replaced by pod people.

  “Why are they doing this?” he asked.

  “They say it’s what’s best for me.” I slipped into our old way, talking about everything and anything. “That they’re thinking of my future. I might not understand it now, but I will when I’m older and have kids of my own. You know, the usual garbage parents spout while they’re wrecking your life and pretending they’re doing you a favor.”

  “Gotta admit, I’m having trouble seeing how forcing you to marry someone you don’t want to be with is best for you.” Carter crossed his arms, reclining in his seat. “I also don’t see how they’ll push you past the finish line. They can make you come here, but they can’t force these guys to propose. What happens then?”

  “That’s my only way out,” I replied. “They won’t hold it against me if no one claims my hand in marriage, but if they do, I have to accept one of them.”

  Carter’s jaw dropped. “And if only one guy asks you to marry him—”
r />   “I do it or get thrown out with nothing.”

  Carter blew out a breath. “Damn. That’s harsh.”

  “Now you see why I have a kid, a rap sheet, and an addiction to masturbating.”

  “Definitely.” Carter squeezed my hand. “Thanks, Belle. That’s all I needed to know.”

  Happiness fluttered at his hand on mine. “Huh? What do you mean?” I asked as he pushed back his chair.

  “Excuse me, everyone,” he called. “Listen up.”

  “Carter?”

  “Ladies, the question nearly all of you asked me was if I truly had Huntington’s disease.” Carter released a shuddering breath, dropping his head in his hand. “The answer is yes.”

  The deluge of sympathy and well-wishes came hot and fast.

  “Oh my gosh.”

  “Carter, no.”

  “That’s terrible.”

  “I know, I know,” Carter said. “Part of me didn’t want to come here. How could I subject one of you beautiful, young women to a childless life as my nurse? I was ready to pack my bags and return home until... Belle.”

  “What now?” I cried.

  Carter moved behind me, clasping my shoulders. “Belle loves me. She promised that no matter how short my time is, she wants us to spend every moment of it together. For her sake, I wish I was strong enough to say no, but the truth is—”

  Carter tipped my head back and planted one smack on my lips. I shrieked into the kiss.

  “The truth is I love her too!” he belted over my sputtering. “And at the end of this summer, I’m going to marry her.”

  “Wh—?!”

  “All right!” Asher leaped to his feet, clapping and hollering, and the rest weren’t far behind.

  I burst out of the chair. Grabbing Carter, I yanked him across the lawn and spilled onto the beach. The cheers and wolf whistles followed us.

  “What was that?” I shrieked. “Why—”

  He popped a finger over my lips. “Before you get mad and ruin a good moment, you should consider what I just did for you. You’d have to be a grade-A piece of shit to go after the girl of a guy dying from a fatal disease. Especially if that guy is me.

  “You can stop with the fake stories and spreading how much you flick your bean. Carter Knight has staked his claim. No one is coming near you now.”

  My jaw worked.

  I attempted to find a hole in his logic and came up empty. You did have to be ten kinds of selfish jerk to pursue a girl who had dedicated herself to loving a man with a ticking clock over his head. With the guys keeping a respectful distance, I could have a normal summer.

  Play football on the beach. Wander the town for inspiration. Picnics in the grove. Dips in the water. Until the end of the season brought me home and I moved on to college with no more talk of being cut off.

  “Oh my gosh, Carter.” I threw my arms around him. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  Carter held me tight, lifting me off my feet. “You’re very welcome,” he said. “When the end comes and I’m the only one on my knee, you’ll have to marry me.”

  I laughed. “Very funny.”

  “Did I make a joke?”

  Pulling back, I lit on that familiar grin—the same that shone under the flashing lights of the winter formal.

  “I hope so,” I said slowly. “We’re not getting married, Carter.”

  “Then you’re choosing the underpass?”

  A sinking weight made me heavy in his arms. “You’re not serious. You don’t want to marry me. You said yourself that you didn’t forgive me.”

  His shrug moved me against him. “Dad says since I’m not joining the company, it’s a trust fund for me. That fund will be significantly bigger if I’ve got a wife and future family in the works. I’ve grown accustomed to a certain standard of living. I’m not holing up in some second-rate New Jersey bachelor pad when a New York penthouse, French chateau, apartment in Seoul, and mansion in South Africa all have my name on it.”

  “Carter—”

  “I came here to choose someone—anyone—that I could tolerate for the next twenty-plus years, why shouldn’t that be you?”

  “Because you hate me!” I flung him away, stumbling on the beach. “More than I thought you did. We’d kill each other after twenty days, Carter. I’m not marrying you!”

  He tsked. “Shame. Here I was thinking this was the best way to get what we both want.”

  “Did you miss the part where I said I don’t want to be married at all? Let alone to some ass looking to score more money off his daddy.”

  “Scratch that. It’s the best way to get what I want.”

  It was everything in me not to punch the smirk off his face.

  And it still wasn’t enough.

  I swung. Carter jumped back and I struck a glancing blow off his chin. He staggered back, guffawing.

  I jabbed at the assembled two-minute daters. “Go back and tell them you’re as fake as your disease!”

  “Why would I do that? All Mrs. Desai has to do is gush to your parents about the great match you made. They’ll be waiting for my proposal and your yes. If you don’t give it, it’s you who loses everything.”

  “Carter, I’m not playing with you,” I said through clenched teeth. “The joke is over. You may not be in love with anyone here, but you hate me. You dropped me in middle school and then fell into a black hole during high school. You wouldn’t trap yourself in a life with me for your father’s bank accounts, company, or his collection of vintage cars.

  “You did something nice for me by getting the other guys off my back. For once let’s walk away on good terms and not dive into a shitty summer going after each other again.”

  Carter listened to my whole speech, nodding along. “Belle.” He closed the distance between us. “You underestimate me, and how far I’ll go to get what I want. I know that look on Preston’s face. He’s wrecked over you and on the edge of throwing away Delilah and his future for another taste of your crumbs. It’s because he can’t see you for who you really are. But you’re going to tell him. If you don’t want to become Mrs. Belle Adler-Knight, you’ll tell everyone the truth about that day and what you did to me.”

  I tried to hold his gaze. Against my will, my eyes moved to his scar, and then I couldn’t look at him at all.

  Carter will never let that day go. Why should he? I haven’t either.

  “Preston isn’t wrecking anything for me,” I said. “I’ve done nothing but turn him down.”

  “Don’t want to hear it, Belle. What I do want to hear is the truth and all of this stops.” He jerked his chin over my shoulder. “You can still use me as a cover and walk off the island as a single woman. If you don’t do it, I will propose to you and you’ll have an entirely different choice on your hands.”

  I spoke through numb lips. “This means so much to you that you’d marry someone you don’t love?”

  He made a harsh noise. “What’s marriage anyway? Just two people agreeing to live in the same house, spend each other’s money, and have mediocre sex until one of them dies or gets bored with the other. Dad is on wife number three and it’s fizzling out quick. From how many times I’ve walked into his office and found his secretary ‘searching for a pen’ that rolled under his desk, he’s already got number four lined up.

  “Believe it or not, I wouldn’t mind you being wife number one. You’d let me live my own life while you’re off doing whatever you do. We’d have some wicked cute kids to screw up, and I’m told you’re incredible in the sack.”

  I launched myself at him, tackling him into the dirt.

  “Whoa,” he cried, laughing away. “Save it for the honeymoon.”

  “Just because life has twisted you into a cynical sack of crap, doesn’t mean we all treat marriage like it’s meaningless. You don’t want to play this game with me, Knight. Take it back. Before everyone, take it back.”

  The world spun.

  I smashed onto the shifting earth. Carter towered over
me. Beautiful. Cold. Victorious.

  “Looks like you’re going to be my wife, Belle. Lucky for me.” He peeled me up, pulling me into a hug. “Because I missed you,” he whispered in my ear. His wet, warm tongue darted out, licking the shell. “You still taste so good.”

  Carter walked off, leaving me on the deserted beach without a backward glance.

  Chapter Six

  “So... you and Carter?”

  “There is no me and Carter,” I snapped. “You know I made up that Huntington’s garbage. He took over from there.”

  Zion stretched out on my balcony despite my resolve to avoid the space. I survived the trip to the orange grove and Mrs. Desai’s separate session to chat with the girls, only to run up to my room at lunchtime. Zion was close on my heels.

  “Why would he do that?”

  I skipped a step, slowing my pace. “Because... I gave him no choice.”

  “Ominous. What does that mean?”

  It means he’s doing what he thinks he has to do to get me to tell the truth. But I can’t, so once again, we’re at war.

  “I’m not marrying him, Zion. He can use some other girl to scam his way into a bigger trust fund. That is if anyone wants him after I spill that we were both lying through our teeth.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that?”

  “It’s the only thing to do.”

  A knock sounded at the door.

  “Who is it?”

  “Preston.”

  I jumped up and yanked him inside. “What the hell is Carter doing?!”

  “You’re asking me? Because I’ve got some questions.” Preston snapped to Zion. “Get out.”

  My friend beat it for the door.

  “Hey,” I said. “Don’t come in here barking orders at people like you’ve got something to be mad about.”

  “I shouldn’t be mad about you acting like I was the one who deceived you when the whole time you were going after Carter? Get the fuck out, Zion!”

  He got the fuck out, leaving me alone with a pissed-off Preston.

  “I don’t know what he told you,” I began.

  “He said you came to a mutually beneficial arrangement where he wins either way. Said I should be thanking him for saving me from you.”

  “Your friend is a liar. We didn’t come to any kind of arrangement and I’ll kick his balls up his throat either way. I’m telling everyone the truth as soon as I get the chance, so you can relax. My last name is destined to remain unhyphenated.”