Cruel Academy: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Princes of Ravenlake Academy Book 2)

by Nicole Fox

  But none of that compares to what kissing Haley feels like.

  It’s the single most erotic thing I’ve ever experienced.

  Her lips are full and soft over mine. She nips at my bottom lip and runs her fingers through my hair.

  And when she moans … fuck, when she moans, the vibrations shudder through me and go straight to my very core. Pleasure pools in my stomach and neither of us is even naked yet.

  I press a hand to her lower back to secure her and stumble forward blindly until we hit a tree. She giggles at the sudden impact, and then quickly curls her hand around my neck to continue the kiss.

  With something for her to lean against, I’m able to free my hands for much more important tasks. Namely, sliding my hands under the hem of her shirt and skating my palms over her flat stomach and higher until my hands are under her bra and cupping her perfect breasts.

  I knew her breasts were perfect even when I saw them from a distance. When she was doing yoga on her back patio and when she wore a low-cut tank top to school one day.

  But now, I am sure.

  They are firm and warm in my hands, and I roll my palms over her nipples until they pebble with pleasure. I pull away from her mouth to kiss her jaw and neck, and Haley rolls her head back and gives me access, all the while scraping her fingernails down my back and drawing me closer with needy, demanding hands.

  Then, one of those hands finds its way to my waistband.

  Haley undoes the button of my shorts with an easy flick of her fingers and then steals inside of my shorts quickly, almost like she remembers how I stopped her the other day and doesn’t want to get caught this time.

  She doesn’t realize I don’t have the strength to stop her right now. My body is on fire, and everywhere she touches me I get a flash of delicious relief.

  I need her hands everywhere.

  When Haley wraps her hand around my length, I freeze, every nerve in my body responding to the slow, stroking movement of her circled thumb and forefinger.

  She moves from base to head in a single stroke, and I think I might have an aneurysm then and there.

  “Fuuuck,” I breathe, planting a hand on the trunk of the tree behind her for some stability.

  She smiles and does it again, smoothing her thumb over my tip, swirling the wetness gathered there.

  My legs are shaking, and I should be embarrassed by my absolute lack of composure, but I can’t seem to find it within me to care.

  All I want is for Haley to feel the way I do right now.

  Whatever happens between us after this, I don’t want her to regret this moment for a second.

  Unlike her measured movements, I fumble with her waistband for a few seconds before I’m able to undo the button and the zipper.

  But as soon as I do, I shove the material down her legs, press the thin material of her panties aside, and slip a finger between her folds.

  “You’re so wet.”

  She strokes me again and has the audacity to look shy while she is simultaneously destroying my world. “I’ve been wet for days. Our foreplay happened in Finn’s entryway.”

  Her confession is music to my ears.

  I reach into the back pocket of my shorts and pull out the condom I had stowed there. While I’d like to say I didn’t have any plans to actually have sex with Haley, I definitely came prepared just in case.

  Better safe than sorry, as they say.

  When I hold it up in question, Haley licks her lips and nods.

  There is a second of harried undressing as we step out of denim and underwear, but then Haley grabs my shoulders and lifts one of her legs up over my hip, and being with her is as easy and natural as breathing.

  I watch her face as I slide in.

  Her brows pinch together at the first inch, but with every shallow thrust, I gain more and more entrance and her expression shifts to total abandon. Her dark curls are spilling out of her now-lopsided ponytail, and her lips are swollen and red from my kisses.

  She is as beautiful as I’ve ever seen her, impassioned and pleading against a tree, and when our bodies finally connect entirely, I throw my head back and let out a long growl.

  I grip Haley where her body flares out from a tapered waist and bring her onto me just as much as I thrust into her.

  The meeting of our bodies makes a wet, slapping sound in the otherwise quiet forest.

  She is so ready for me. So welcoming and warm.

  I pull nearly all the way out and then plunge back into her again and again.

  “Yes. Yes,” Haley moans, squeezing her eyes closed and hooking her leg tighter around my hip.

  After a few more thrusts, she wraps her arms around my neck and jumps until both of her legs are wrapped around me. I take her weight on my legs and press her more firmly against the tree.

  Haley is light, but with her feet off the ground, we’re able to use gravity to our advantage. With each thrust, she tightens her thighs around my hips, hugging me, and as I pull out, she lifts herself up.

  I knew Haley was growing stronger from all of our training—I’ve had to increase the weight on all of her workouts twice since she started—but now I am seeing the fruits of her labor pay off in a tangible way.

  Her body is strong and lithe against mine. She is able to hold her own weight as much as I am, and she is able to leverage it in the way she wants.

  It’s so fucking sexy.

  “Shit, I’m going to come,” I growl between clenched teeth.

  As I speak, I feel the first contractions of Haley’s orgasm.

  She says something that sounds like “I’m coming,” but her words are too lost in her moaning to be fully intelligible.

  I take her shuddering muscles as a sign and finally let go of the burning in my belly.

  I’ve used sex as an outlet too many times to count. I start to feel jittery, so I find a willing partner to burn some energy with.

  Usually, by the end, the itch under my skin fades away, and I call it a success.

  But this is different.

  The heat in my belly fades away, but rather than leaving me cold, a warmth floods my body, filling my center and then flowing to my extremities.

  As I pulse into Haley’s body, drawing out the last shudders of her orgasm, my own body feels like it is humming.

  Not with energy that needs to be expelled, but with life.

  Haley climbs down from my body, planting her feet on the ground, and she leans her head back against the tree and looks at me. Her swollen lips are parted in a smile, her hair is mussed, and her skin is marred with the evidence of my overeager mouth and kisses.

  She looks gorgeous.

  I feel alive.

  It is fucking terrifying.

  27

  Haley

  I don’t know how to categorize what Caleb and I just did.

  I thought I’d had sex before, but suddenly, I’m not sure.

  Yes, I’ve had orgasms before, but they usually came from my own hand. John seemed incapable of giving me one, and when I dared to ask him once if he could try something else to pleasure me, he suggested I give him a blowjob since I “seem to like them so much.”

  But Caleb took care of me. In every way a human body can be taken care of, he took care of me.

  My center feels swollen and tender from the force of our coming together, but my entire body tingles with the aftershocks of the most powerful orgasm I’ve ever experienced.

  I wish I could live in this forest forever.

  “I’m pretty sure the park rangers would frown on that,” he says, revealing that I must have spoken my wish out loud.

  My skin is flushed and warm, and my legs tremble beneath me, but I manage to stand on my own two feet.

  “Besides,” he adds, “the only water around here is from the lake, and I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it is nasty.”

  The mention of the lake reminds me of Estefania and her aversion to lake water.

  Which reminds me of our text conversation earl
ier.

  As soon as the motorcycles pulled up to the campsite, I knew it was John and the Hell Princes. I apologized to Caleb because I knew I’d caused this drama for him and whatever happened as a result would be my fault.

  But now, I realize it really was my fault.

  “Shit.” I grab my shorts off the ground and tug them on, jumping to get the waist over my hips and butt.

  Caleb chuckles. “What? Did you think living out here was a real possibility? Did I just squash your dreams?”

  “Oh, no. Sorry, I followed a train of thought and realized…”

  I’m not sure how much I’m supposed to tell Caleb now. We were open and honest with one another just a few minutes ago, but that was because we were emotional.

  Caleb confided one of his most closely held secrets to me in a fit of frustration and anger, but does that change anything for us now?

  “I don’t have a sharing stick, but I can find one for you if you want,” he says, sarcastically examining the forest floor.

  When he looks up at me, his mouth is tilted in a smirk, but there is a new emotion lighting up in his eyes. I realize all at once that it is vulnerability.

  “I bared myself to you in more ways than one—” he motions to his body with both hands—“so it’s only fair that you share your secrets, too.”

  He is right. Besides, for reasons I can’t really explain, I want to tell Caleb.

  It’s probably just because I don’t have any other friends, especially now that Estefania has obviously turned her back on me, and I need someone I can talk to.

  Caleb is as good as any other option, I suppose.

  “My best friend from my old school texted when we were in the truck and asked where I was, and I told her I was going camping. We haven’t spoken much since I moved away because she feels like I abandoned her, so I thought maybe she wanted to reach out and reconnect. But now I’m guessing she was only asking so she could pass the information to John so he could ride out here with his friends.”

  Caleb listens intently and then raises his brows. “Damn. Girls are ruthless.”

  His response surprises me, and I laugh. “Says the guy who fights to survive.”

  “Fair point, but I prefer fighting to backstabbing. When guys have a problem, they face it head-on. Like Bumper, for instance, rolled up here with his enforcers to get what he wanted from you. Meanwhile, girls, like your friend, pretend to be loyal, all the while betraying you. That is cold.”

  “That’s also a fair point.”

  I’d rather Estefania just come out and tell me she is upset, but I also don’t really want to have to get into a fistfight every time I get in a fight with a girl. If I did, I’d spend most of my life fighting.

  Caleb and I clean ourselves up and head back towards the campsite. It’s fully dark now and the hum of bugs fills the air all around us, but Caleb grabs my hand and leads me slowly back down the overgrown path to the campsite.

  As soon as we break through the tree line, he drops my hand and walks casually over to the cooler to grab a beer.

  Noah and J.C. are sitting in lawn chairs around the faintly glowing embers of the fire—they’ve pulled out two battery-operated lanterns to give the campsite some light—and they are staring at us expectantly.

  I stare back, waiting for them to say something, but Caleb moves around the site like he doesn’t have a care in the world. He cracks open his beer and takes a long drink.

  Then, he grabs the bug spray from his duffel bag and gives himself a generous spray before offering some to me.

  I reach out my hand to take it from him, but instead, he walks a circle around me, coating my arms and legs in the mist.

  When he is done, he throws the can back towards his bag and drops down into a third lawn chair with a sigh.

  His friends look from me—still standing near the opening of the trail—to Caleb and back again, waiting for one of us to say something.

  And when we don’t, J.C. finally throws up his hands and lets out a frustrated shout.

  “For fuck’s sake, what is going on?”

  Caleb has the audacity to look surprised. “What do you mean?”

  J.C. takes a measured breath through his nose and closes his eyes, glancing to the heavens like he is praying for patience. “You may have forgotten after the sexual encounter I know you just had in the woods, but a group of bikers just crashed our campout, and I’m wondering if either of you can explain to me why.”

  I realize all at once that Caleb and I didn’t discuss what we would say to the Golden Boys. We could tell them the truth, of course.

  Or, at least, most of it. We could tell them that I got myself into trouble with the Hell Princes, but then they’d be free to decide that hanging out with me isn’t worth the trouble it could cause them.

  Like Caleb said, the truce between the Golden Boys and the Hell Princes was forged in blood and death. Why would they want to throw that away because of one vengeful ex-girlfriend?

  And if Caleb defended me, they’d want to know why, and what could he really say? He can’t tell them I’m blackmailing him without revealing what I have over his head, which would then make the blackmail moot, anyway.

  He also can’t blame it all on my miraculous fucking. Because as good as it was for me, I have no doubts that Caleb is having sex like that on the regular.

  As much as I wish I was, I know I’m not special to him.

  All of these thoughts are filling my brain, crowding each other out until I can’t differentiate one from the other.

  But then, like it is simple, Caleb shrugs and responds.

  “Haley used to date Bumper, and he is pissed she is hanging out with us now.”

  J.C.’s mouth drops open as he turns to me. “Bumper? You dated Bumper? Oh my God, that explains the Haley Bear.” His lip turns up in disgust. “Ew.”

  I nod and, shaking the wooden feeling out of my legs, walk towards the circle of chairs. “Ew, indeed.”

  “Bumper,” he says again, shaking his head.

  “Can we stop talking about that asshole?” Caleb asks. “I hate the sound of his stupid nickname as much as I hate him.”

  “He got it because he ripped a bumper off a car to defend the Hell Princes when he was just a pledge.”

  All three Golden Boys turn to me.

  “That’s what he told me, anyway,” I add, suddenly nervous. “He said he beat a guy with a bumper and—”

  Caleb breaks the silence by doubling forward, hands on his knees, and laughing.

  It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him laugh. Like, genuinely, deeply laugh. He tries to speak several times before laughter overtakes him again. I look around the circle for an explanation.

  “I think Caleb here is laughing because that story is complete and utter bullshit,” Noah says.

  “It is?”

  Caleb gasps for breath and nods. “Oh my God. Complete bullshit. Bumper got his name because he tripped over his own feet during a fight, fell, and hit his head on a bumper so hard he dented it. He knocked himself out cold.”

  “Shut up!” I clap a hand over my mouth, fighting back laughter of my own. “No, he didn’t.”

  “He did,” J.C. insists. “Finn heard it from one of the older Hell Prince members a year ago.”

  John told me the origin story of his nickname on three separate occasions, at least. Usually, it was to remind me how merciless he could be. He used it as a means to control me, and now I realize it actually worked.

  Because after hearing the real story, I’m less afraid of him.

  More than ever, I feel like I could actually train and learn how to beat him in a fight should it ever come to that.

  “Figures he would lie about it,” Noah says. “He has always been the worst of them. Such an asshole.”

  “Such an asshole,” Caleb echoes, taking another long drink from his beer.

  I clear my throat. “I’m sorry I caused trouble between you all. I know you were in a truce, so I get if you don’t wa
nt me tagging along with you guys anymore …”

  J.C. snorts. “Are you kidding? We do not make decisions based on the threats of Hell Princes.”

  “The truce is boring, anyway,” Noah adds. “I hate those guys, and if they want to come here and start trouble, let them.”

  “’Cause you’ll pull your gun on them again?” J.C. asks, clearly still focused on the fact that Noah had been walking around the campsite with a concealed weapon on him all day.

  Noah nods. “On them and anyone else who annoys me enough to deserve it.”

  J.C. smirks, knowing the threat is empty, and turns back to me. “You’re the only non-Golden Boy member to ever crash the annual camping trip, so that earns you some basic privileges. If the Hell Princes come calling again, we’ll beat Bumper with a bumper to remind him where he came from.”

  Noah and J.C.’s declarations make it feel like I might have actually found my crowd at Ravenlake Prep.

  I don’t delude myself into thinking they’ll be my best friends or anything, but just having a few people who would smile at me in the hallways would be a step up.

  But while his friends are voicing their support, Caleb stays quiet.

  He finishes one beer and another, mostly in silence, and doesn’t make any move to look at me or speak to me the rest of the evening.

  When Noah and J.C. start rolling joints, Caleb pulls our tent out of the back of his truck and begins setting it up.

  I knew from the jump that we’d be sharing a tent, but it doesn’t feel real until the remarkably small structure is set up and my sleeping bag is rolled out inside … just three inches away from Caleb’s.

  We just had sex in the woods against a tree, so it feels stupid to be so nervous.

  But I am.

  I go into the tent first and slip out of my jean shorts and into a pair of cotton sleep shorts. I debate for a very long time whether or not to remove my bra before I decide there is literally zero chance of me falling asleep with the underwire boob prison on and discard it in the pile of my clothes at the far corner of the tent.

  Caleb comes in as soon as I settle into my sleeping bag, like he’d been listening just outside the door for me to finish, and sheds his shirt and shorts with no visible self-consciousness.