Belle and the Beast: A College Enemies to Lovers Romance

by Ruby Vincent

  I called Mom and got her on the third ring.

  “Hello, dear.” A bright, chipper voice came through the speaker. “Did you call to give us the good news?”

  “Good news? No, I called because we’re volunteering at the Citrine Home for Children right now. I’m going to make a donation and you requested a heads-up when I spend more than ten grand at once.”

  “Home for children? Send us the information, darling. We’ll make a donation as well.”

  “I knew you would. The dame I know and love is still in there somewhere.”

  “I don’t know why you call me the dame,” she said mostly to herself. “I left my accent and English ways behind years ago. You’ve never even heard me say the proper name for things.”

  “You’re the dame in all the ways that count and that’s how it’ll always be.”

  “Oh, Belle, let’s not be distracted by silliness. Your father just walked in— Come, dear,” she said to him. “I’ll put it on speaker.”

  “I have to go—”

  “Don’t you dare,” she said. “The fighting ends now.”

  “Your mother is right.” Dad’s voice flowed through the phone. “I’m sorry for the methods I employed. Truly and deeply sorry, my girl. It is a relief to both of us that we won’t have to resort to those measures.”

  I sat up straighter. “You’ve changed your mind about disowning me?”

  “Of course that’s off the table now,” said Mom.

  Happiness bubbled inside of me, popping and bursting in my stomach. “So, I can come home?”

  “If you’d like to,” Dad said, “but truthfully, we’d feel more comfortable if you stayed until we located that man. You’re safer there.”

  I couldn’t argue that. Mal-mirages were here, but the real thing was back in Bracknell. Besides, Preston...

  “I guess I can stay. It’s all parties, beach, and hanging out now that I don’t have to worry about marriage.”

  “You certainly are in the privileged spot,” Mom said. “The other girls are worried about making the right match and you’ve already got one. You both can spend the rest of the summer getting to know each other again.”

  Wait. What?

  “I’ve already got one? Mom, what are you talking about?”

  She laughed. “I’m talking about you and Carter, darling. He called your father this morning to ask for his blessing. He said you two faced your differences and became friends again. He admits it’s not a love match yet, but that things have been so well between you two, that one day that’s exactly what it’ll be.”

  “Blessing?” I was numb. Hearing her praise over a dull ringing in my ear.

  “We’re so happy you found someone who cares about you,” Mom gushed.

  “Cared enough to do it right and ask for my blessing,” said Dad. “He also says he’s willing to wait until after college for the wedding.”

  “Carter told you... he proposed to me?”

  “Yes, dear.” She finally picked up on my tone. “Are you all right?”

  “I have to go.”

  “Wait, Belle—”

  I hung up.

  “All finished, Belle?”

  I hardly noticed Paris as I marched out and stormed into the living room.

  Carter shared a couch with Nathan and Preston. The bastard kicked back watching the movie like nothing happened. His behavior on the bus came into sharp clarity. Smug and smirking as he complimented his soon-to-be bride.

  “Carter, can I speak to you for a second?” I snatched his collar and dragged him off the couch. He didn’t gruff or fight me on the way to the courtyard. He’d been waiting for this.

  I threw him against the wall. “What is wrong with you?” It was a struggle not to scream. “You told my parents you proposed. Now they’re expecting—”

  “—you to marry me or they’ll cut you off,” he finished. “And those are your only two options. I won’t take it back, so if we don’t walk down that aisle, your parents will know it’s because you came here for a husband and tossed him away.”

  “You’re not doing this.”

  “No?” He cocked his head. “Why not? Because Evanston told you I won’t take a grudge this far? You really should learn how to whisper.”

  “No.” Fire blazed beneath my skin, burning the last measure of restraint my guilt granted us. “You’re not doing this because I’m going to be an unending nightmare. The boogeyman beneath your bed. The harpy that drags you to hell.” Every word brought me closer to him. “By the time I’m done, you’d sooner toss Gam-Gam’s ring down the drain than put it on my finger.”

  Carter hummed low in his throat. “You could do that,” he said. “Or we could end this right now and you admit to me, my parents, and everyone that you lied about that day in the woods.”

  My lips quivered on the edge of giving in. Heaven knew I wanted to so many times.

  But the truth won’t absolve me. It’d make you hate me more than you already do.

  “I told the truth, Carter.” The grave dirt struck my face, piling on as I buried the last shred of morality I possessed. “It’s not my fault you won’t accept it and I’m done being punished for it. You won’t end this shit, but trust me, I will.”

  Carter gazed at me, and as I spoke, the anger and frustration melted away. No, the emotion reflecting in those pale, blue eyes... was disappointment.

  I spun away. I couldn’t bear that look.

  I couldn’t marry him.

  I couldn’t tell the truth.

  All I could do was accept what Carter Knight and I would always be.

  Enemies.

  Chapter Nine

  “Didn’t think I’d find you out here.”

  Preston flicked the switch, flooding the porch with light.

  “No,” I said. “Leave it off. The lights from the garden are enough.”

  He turned them off, returning me to the gentle glow of the fairy lights draped over the bushes.

  “I waited outside your room.” Preston sat and took my hand. “So we could have that talk.”

  A dragonfly flitted drunkenly over the fountain. It lit on a stone frog’s head, decided taking a breath wasn’t for it, and took off again.

  “Not a lot of dragonflies in Bracknell,” I said. “Our beaches aren’t warm and sandy either. It’s freezing water and pebbles. Beautiful in a different way.”

  “Belle?” He gently grasped my chin, taking me from the dragonfly. “What’s wrong?”

  I swallowed. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Preston. No one does. I’ve certainly never given one. Not to those who are owed. Not even to save someone,” I whispered. “I’ve always kept my silence. It’s not right of me to demand you give up yours.”

  Preston stroked my cheek. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’d like to when you’re ready to tell me. Because I’m ready to give up mine. If you still want to hear it.”

  I nodded.

  Preston swept over the scene. “It’s fitting that we’re doing this here. This is where I was—eating breakfast with Mom and Dad—when they told me six years ago that I had to marry Delilah.”

  “Six,” I repeated. “You were only thirteen.”

  “Why wait? I’d have to find out eventually that August Winthrop was tearing apart our legacy and the way to save it was to marry his daughter.”

  I dropped my feet to the floor, facing him properly. “What did he do?”

  “The man made the word hostile in hostile takeover seem too tame.” I don’t know if he noticed his lips curling. “He acquired forty-eight percent of the shares in Desai Industries. The controlling fifty-two were split equally between my mom and her brother.

  “At least they were until August discovered my cousin was in Shadow Grove... and why. Nondisclosure forms were signed. People were paid off. Darren was checked in under another name and then August came in and blew it up. He threatened to tell the world the Desais were raising a budding psychopath unless Gabriel gave up his twenty-
six.”

  “Did he?” I asked—though I knew the answer.

  “He’s his son. He doesn’t look at Darren and see a monster. Gabriel couldn’t bear for everyone else to,” he said. “He gave August whatever he wanted and then that bastard had the ammo to level at my mother. The control of the company would return to a Desai, as long as that Desai was married to his daughter.” He flashed me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Lucky me, I’m an only child.”

  I tossed my head, jaw working. “I— I don’t understand. He went through all of that just to force you to marry Delilah? What the hell? Why?”

  “He wanted a suitable match for her and we were the perfect targets. A direct competitor with a secret they’ll do anything to keep buried? It was freakin’ Christmas for him.”

  “But you’re a Du-Pont as well as a Desai. Even if you lost the company, you’d still have—” I stopped, sighing. “And even as I’m saying that I realize it doesn’t matter. Your mom and uncle owe the Desais everything. They gave them a family and a new life. Rosalie couldn’t sit by while the legacy they left her was taken away.”

  “You understand my mom pretty well,” he said. “Under normal circumstances, I think you two would get along.”

  I laughed—a small exhalation of breath. “Funny enough, I do too.”

  “You understand me too, and why I couldn’t let August do this to her or our family.”

  “What about Delilah? Did she have a say in any of it?”

  “No more than I did,” he replied. “She didn’t know the things he’d done behind the scenes to orchestrate it. The night they made us meet for the first time was the same night she found out I was going to be her husband. It was also the night she was told August would stick her in a boarding school until eighteen and then cut her off with nothing if she fought it.”

  “Holy shit,” I cried. “Are we talking about her father or Beelzebub?”

  “Pretty sure they’re the same person.” Preston was still holding my hand. He pulled us both up, leading me out into the garden. “He made sure none of us had a way out. He’d have gotten everything he wanted—except he didn’t factor one thing into his plans.”

  Preston and I walked the circular path weaving in and around the garden. It was fitting for I realized right then that there was nowhere for us to go. We were both where we belonged.

  Both of us Cinderella.

  “What was it?” I asked.

  “August didn’t anticipate me not being a total shithead like him. He didn’t think I’d marry Delilah and let her have her freedom. We became friends over the last six years and I’m not about to force the unhappy life on her that he’s forcing on us.”

  “Why is he forcing it? Why was it so important that Delilah be paired up at thirteen?”

  Preston stopped and turned to me, taking my other hand and holding them between us. “There is a reason, but it’s not for me to say. It’s my choice to spill my family secrets, and it’s her choice to do the same.”

  “I get that,” I agreed, “but not why she’s dumping drinks on me and revealing your sex tales.”

  He laughed. “Fictional sex tales. That damn tutu is going to haunt me.”

  I found myself smiling too. They say confession is good for the soul, and it definitely felt good to know the truth.

  You should try it sometime, a voice taunted.

  I pushed it and thoughts of Carter down.

  “It’s simple,” he went on. “Our parents want us to put on a good show that we love and care about each other, so that no one looks into why we’re being shotgunned down the aisle. Not even my father knows the full story of what went on with Darren.

  “Whoever we secretly hook up with on the side, stays on the side, and Delilah’s just as invested in playing the part. If our marriage falls through, her father would again make her choose between losing everything or marrying the man he picks out. And the next guy might not be as nice as me.”

  “Oh.” Against my will, sympathy for Delilah crept in. “She’s trying to protect her future and thinks I’m in the way.”

  “My fault for giving her that impression. I just can’t seem to stay away from you, Belle Adler. Those powers are strong.”

  I smiled though I replied, “Don’t joke. Your future is at stake too. That beast wearing a skin suit can’t be allowed to control your company or your family with his knowledge of Darren. Why didn’t you just hit it and quit it when you had the chance?”

  Preston gave me a long look. “Why do you think?”

  I buried my face in his chest, hiding my silly grin. The alarms were sounding the retreat. Warning that sweet words were spinning their web and time was running out to get free. The last time the warnings went off, I met a boy on a pebbled beach who offered to teach me how to sail.

  Nathan Prince was a tragically glorious accident that shredded me to pieces. It was a terrible idea to open myself up to another when I knew, and agreed, that we couldn’t last past the summer.

  “Then let’s have the summer.” It slipped out as—like Preston—my need for him wrestled my self-preservation into a headlock. “If we have to keep it a secret, then that’s what we’ll do. Delilah doesn’t have to worry and you won’t have to choose between your family.”

  “The summer,” he repeated. “What about after?”

  I closed my eyes. “I don’t have to tell you that this can’t continue past your wedding, right?”

  “No.” A warm hand rested on my hair. “You deserve more than being my mistress.”

  I backed out of his hold, tugging him after me. “Projected time to make-up sex adjusted to eight minutes.”

  PRESTON AND I LAY TANGLED in my sheets. I drowsed on my stomach, eyes closed as his fingers traced a path on my back.

  “Thirteen,” he announced. “Thirteen little brown birthmarks on your legs, back, and two on your stomach.”

  “I inherited them honestly,” I murmured. “Moles all over my mom too.”

  “I inherited double-jointedness. Want me to show you again?”

  “You’ve showed me twice,” I said, laughing. “We’ve got to sleep at some point.”

  “That point doesn’t have to be now.”

  He lay on top of me, pressing me into the pillows. I couldn’t name why I felt so at peace wrapped up with Preston Desai, but it was possible I didn’t need to understand everything.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked. “Meet on your private terrace? Sneak into my room at night?”

  “Sneak into my room,” he corrected. “Someone noticed me going into your room the first time. Mine is at the back where it’s off-limits. We’ll have our privacy.”

  “From the other guys but what about your mom? You said she wants you keeping up the act too.”

  “Mom is in bed by ten and up at five every day. Weekday or weekend. Holiday or a standard-issued Tuesday. If we work around her, we’ll be fine.” He pressed a kiss to the back of my head. “Are you fine? With hiding, I mean.”

  “I wish we didn’t have to hide. It’s been a long time since I’ve entertained the thought of a relationship. I reconciled myself to a lifetime of occasional hookups, but then I had to accidentally run into you again.”

  Preston glided a finger down my thigh, popping goose bumps in his wake. It was a solid reminder for why I no longer regretted that second meeting.

  “We have more good reasons to hide than we do coming out and blowing up your engagement to Delilah. It kills me that a man like August Winthrop should get what he wants. It’s even worse that he should succeed in destroying your family.”

  Another finger joined the first. The two tapped a melody on my bare flesh. “What if we’re star-crossed lovers meant to run away together?”

  “I despise Romeo and Juliet even more than Cinderella.”

  “Typical.”

  “Hey.” Laughing, I smacked his thigh. “You don’t know what about me is typical yet.”

  “But I’m going to find out.”

  �
��Yes.” I raised my head to receive a slow, lingering kiss. “You are.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Mm-hm,” I replied.

  “That insane siren theory. Where did that come from?”

  “No need to call it insane.”

  “Sorry,” he said. “I meant batshit crazy. That’s the one we settled on.”

  I giggled. I also couldn’t understand how he kept getting me to do that, but discovered another reason to agree with Rosalie. There was something about goofy Du Pont boys and their big brown eyes.

  “You don’t trust anything that comes out of a handsome man’s mouth,” he continued. “Was it a bad breakup? Was it... Nathan?”

  “No,” I whispered honestly. “This started way before Nathan.”

  “Do you want to tell me?”

  I hesitated. Confession may be good for the soul, but there was something to be said for knowing when to keep your mouth shut.

  I thought of Preston holding me on the playground.

  “I had this friend,” I began, “who got into a bad situation with a dangerous man. She got away from him, but a man like this doesn’t give up. He doesn’t accept n-no.” I stopped, took a breath, and tried again. “He chased her across the country. Tracked her down wherever she was and charmed, bought, lied to, or hurt anyone who stood in the path to her.

  “She’s lived in fear of him for years, Preston. She walks down her street jumping when a car she doesn’t recognize passes by. She has to change her phone number every few months because he tracks them down and sends her messages promising to find and get her back. And he has found her,” I whispered. “Three times. Each time... he made her regret the lengths she put him through.”

  “Holy shit,” he breathed. “What about the police? Restraining orders? Why isn’t this guy in jail already?”

  “I told you he’s a dangerous man and his family is even worse. They ran our town. The police didn’t even respond to calls where their names were mentioned. Her parents’ money didn’t make a difference since his had just as much.

  “There was one officer who did the right thing. She tracked her down after he tried to get away with her. She rescued her and left her partner to bring him in while she took her home.” I shook my head, brushing against his chin. “He never made it as far as the station parking lot. When she realized he’d gotten away, the cop told her and her parents to run. She wouldn’t receive anything resembling justice in that town.”