by Nicole Fox
My entire brain goes blank, and my hand goes still on the back of Caleb’s neck.
I replay the words over and over in my head, trying to make sure I heard him clearly.
Trying to make sure I’m not daydreaming or imagining things.
He really said he loves me? Me? Caleb Wilson loves me, Haley Cochran?
I mean, we have had a lot of amazing sex, and I know he is very fond of me, but I didn’t expect him to voice a feeling like this for a very long time. Years, even.
Caleb never sugarcoated his past with women. I’ve always known that he was once a player, so I didn’t expect him to completely change his colors just because he’s monogamous now.
“Haley? Can you please say something? I feel like I’m going to pass out.”
My eyes are better adjusted to the darkness now, and I can see him looking down at me, waiting for a response that I still don’t have. The only thing I can manage is a single word.
“When?”
Caleb’s mouth turns up into a soft smile. “At brunch.”
I furrow my brow, trying to sort through the muddled thoughts in my head to find the moment he’s talking about, and when it hits me, my mouth drops open.
“When I punched Penelope LaFevre? Are you serious? I know you said it was the sexiest thing you’d ever seen, but that can’t really be what did it.”
He laughs. “It was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t then. It was after, when we were in my truck eating burritos. You leaned across the console, kissed me, and stole my tater tots. And I knew I loved you.”
My heart flutters.
“Is that better?” he asks.
My throat is thick with emotional tears. Happy tears. I swallow them down.
“Yes. It’s perfect.”
“It is?” He sounds so hopeful. So surprised.
And I realize all at once that I love Caleb, too—that I have for a while now—but because I didn’t expect him to confess his feelings to me, I never took the time to consider mine for him.
Tears well up in my eyes, and I cup my hand around the back of his neck and pull him down to me.
Our lips meet, soft and tender as I suck his lower lip into my mouth and nip at his top lip. The kiss is slow and seems to go on forever.
Caleb grabs a handful of my shirt and pulls me close, and I’m happy just to be near him.
To have him in my hands and in my arms.
To be the one to smell his cologne scent and feel the silky strands of his hair.
I’m so lucky. So in love.
I break the kiss so I can shove his shirt over his head and start on the button of his pants. Caleb interrupts my movements to pluck my clothes off as well.
As soon as we’re naked, he lays me back on the bed and crawls over me.
Everything is soft and warm, and I feel so safe with him. Protected.
I feel loved.
He brushes his thumb over my lips and down my chin, letting his hand wander to my breast as our bodies find one another. As we fit together in a way that feels entirely natural and good and whole.
When Caleb is flush against me, I realize all at once that I never told him what I’m thinking.
I gasp, and he immediately stills. “Did I hurt you?”
“No! No, sorry,” I say, smoothing my hands down his chest. “I just realized I never responded. I never told you that I love you, too.”
Caleb is quiet for a minute and then chuckles. “I mean, I kind of assumed since you started having sex with me. If your feelings weren’t mutual, I figured you’d leave.”
“Oh, right,” I laugh. “Sorry, I guess I kind of ruined the romantic moment again, didn’t I?”
Caleb laughs, and I can feel him shaking in every part of me, and whoa, that’s a new, mind-blowing sensation. “No, Haley Cochran. You couldn’t ruin that if you tried.”
Thanks for reading CRUEL ACADEMY…
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Check out the third and final book in the Princes of Ravenlake Academy series:
CRUEL ELITE!
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Sneak Preview of Cruel Elite
Two years ago, Noah Boone broke my heart.
This semester, he’s coming to break the rest of me.
Noah Boone is a cruel, gorgeous beast.
He’s got a head full of darkness…
And a heart dead-set on revenge.
For two years, we’ve lived by a single rule.
Pretend the past never happened.
But with one semester left at Ravenlake Academy, that truce has come to a sudden end.
Our secrets are coming to light.
The twisted sins that bind us together.
I’m left with an impossible choice:
Submit to the bully who ruined my world…
Or watch in fear as he ruins what’s left.
CRUEL ELITE is a full-length high school bully romance and Book 3 in the Princes of Ravenlake Academy trilogy.
CLICK HERE TO START READING CRUEL ELITE NOW.
The Princes of Ravenlake Academy is a series of standalones that all take place at the infamously cruel Ravenlake Preparatory Academy.
You can read any of the books as standalones, but they work best when read in order.
Book 1, CRUEL PREP, is Finn and Lily’s story.
Book 2, CRUEL ACADEMY, is Caleb and Haley’s story.
Book 3, CRUEL ELITE, is Noah and Penny’s story.
Chapter 1: Noah
It’s only mid-January, but it feels like early fall.
It’s just a bonfire party in the woods, but it feels like Hell.
Caleb doesn’t agree with me, though.
“For fuck’s sake, you are dramatic.” He rolls his eyes at me and nuzzles into his girlfriend, Haley. She giggles, and her dark brown hair slides in front of them like a curtain.
I can hear but—thank the fucking Lord—I can’t see the way their tongues are tangling together.
“There’s fire and sinners as far as the eye can see. Feels like Hell to me,” I respond.
Usually, Caleb would take this opportunity to point out his many angelic qualities as proof we couldn’t be in Hell.
But his mouth is too busy doing things God surely wouldn’t approve of.
That is, assuming the Big Guy Upstairs isn’t super into public displays of affection.
I sigh and go back to surveying the party.
Winter break is supposed to be exactly that—a break. A break from school, and more precisely, from my fellow Ravenlake Academy students.
Yet here I am, sitting in the woods with a horde of my shit-faced classmates. They’re drinking and laughing and making out all around me.
If it had just been us Golden Boys chilling, maybe I’d be in a better mood. But there are too many other people here I’d rather not see.
A beetle lands on my shoulder, buzzing in my ear. I lean forward and flick it into the flames.
“Fucking bugs,” I mutter.
More evidence that we’re in hell: flying cockroaches. What kind of sick pervert invents something like that?
Only one answer: Satan.
An ice cube pelts me in the chest. I look up to see Finn staring at me, eyebrow raised.
“What?”
“You’re being a buzzkill.” He holds up a beer can. “Get a drink and lighten up.”
Usually, Finn is on my side. At least, he used to be.
But that was before Lily.
Now, he’s “happy,” or so he says.
To which I say, congratu-fucking-lations.
On the other hand, at least he’s not tonguing down his girlfriend a foot away from me. So he’s at least one spot better than Caleb on my Shit List rankings.
“You know, Noah, three girls have already asked me if you’re here with anyone,” Lily says, tossing her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder. “It wouldn’t take much more than a look for yo
u to be having a better time.”
Lily always had an artsy vibe, but she’s refined it since she and Finn started living in New York. She wears loose, paint-splattered jeans with a tight, long-sleeved crop top and chunky leather boots.
Nothing like the girl I would have imagined for Finn.
Not to say I don’t like Lily. I do.
I just assumed Finn would end up with a trust fund baby. A spoiled rich girl who said “wine o’clock” unironically and had aspirations of being a “stay-at-home mom” with a full-time nanny.
You could throw a rock and hit ten women like that in this godforsaken town.
I spit on the forest floor. “I don’t need a girl to make me happy.”
Viktor throws up his plastic cup in a salute, liquid sloshing over the side. “That’s right, Miss Independent! You don’t need no one, nuh uh.” He snaps his fingers to complete the joke.
Everyone else laughs.
I roll my eyes.
“I don’t need a donut to be happy, but it helps,” Lily argues when the laughter subsides.
“Good idea,” Finn says, wrapping an arm around Lily’s hips and sliding her closer to him. “Maybe if you get a bite of someone’s cake, you won’t be such a drag.”
Lily gasps. “That is not what I meant!” She turns to me. “It was an analogy. I just meant you could talk to one of them. Maybe get to know them.”
Finn barks out a laugh before I can. He pats Lily’s head condescendingly. “Oh, sweet Lily. Naïve, idealistic Lily. That is never going to happen.”
Lily opens her mouth to argue, but I cut her off before she can. “It’s never going to happen.”
Her shoulders slump forward. “Why not? They seemed nice.”
“That’s exactly why! Because they seem nice!” Finn answers. “Does Noah look nice to you? Does it look like he wants a nice girl?”
Lily studies me.
I look away, tired of being under her magnifying glass.
Ever since she and Finn came back to Ravenlake for the holidays, she’s been watching me. I mentioned it to Finn last week, but he brushed it off.
“Lily just wants to help people,” he said.
“No shit,” I’d replied. “Why else would she be with a charity case like you?”
We laughed, and I let it go, but it still bothers me.
I don’t need help.
Not from him.
Not from her.
Not from anyone.
J.C. jumps over the log I’m sitting on with both legs, kicking up a cloud of dust, and flops down next to me. “Please tell me you aren’t looking to become monogamous. Because I just accepted the offers of a pair of very lovely, very naughty girls who want to meet the two of us in the woods.”
He hitches a thumb over his shoulder. I turn just in time to see a curly redhead and a box-dyed brunette strutting into the woods on their heels.
Who wears heels in the woods?
“Are you talking about Penny’s Dreadfuls?” Haley asks, top lip curled in disgust. “I saw you talking to them.”
Finn immediately asks the question we’re all thinking: “How did you do that with Caleb’s tongue down your throat?”
But apparently, Haley is capable of swapping spit with Caleb and eavesdropping on the party at the same time.
Talented girl.
Caleb shrugs. “She knows all. I’ve learned not to question it.”
“Penny’s Dreadfuls? Like the TV show?” Lily frowns at the group of our friends, waiting for someone to clue her in.
She went to Ravenlake Prep for a year before she and Finn moved to New York, but she somehow managed to avoid the finer points of drama that flow under the stream of everyday bullshit.
“Penelope LaFevre’s friends,” Finn answers.
Lily shakes her head. “I don’t—”
I turn to J.C. “I have no interest in taking a bite out of either of those donuts.”
J.C. groans. “Bro, you’re killing me. The only reason they were interested is because of you.”
“Then I’m doubly uninterested.”
Haley nods. “Those girls are horrible. Even you can do better, J.C.,” she says.
“Listen, whatever beef you have with the Dreadfuls, I’m not a part of it.” J.C. holds up his hands innocently, a joint simmering between his fingers. “Really, I’d love nothing more than to be the bridge that brings you three together. In fact, I’ve heard nothing brings women together like having sex with the same guy. Perhaps—”
“Finish that sentence and you’re dead.” Caleb swivels away from Haley, his feet planted flat on the ground, ready to propel him forward at any moment.
Of all the people at this bonfire party, Caleb is the last one I’d pick a fight with. No one in their right, sober mind would even consider it.
And J.C. is far from sober.
J.C. considers the threat for a minute, takes in Haley, who rolls her eyes and sighs, and then shrugs. “It was just a thought.”
“If you want to keep your dick attached to your body, never have it again.”
Caleb is simmering. Understandably so.
After everything that happened with Bumper and the Hell Princes recently, he’s still a little edgy when it comes to keeping Haley safe.
Haley drags a hand down his back to calm him down. She whispers something in his ear, and his features turn soft.
A second later, they’re tangled in one another again.
J.C. sighs. “Without underground fighting as an outlet, Caleb is far too pent up.”
“Not for long. He’s about to release,” Viktor cackles, making crude gestures.
Caleb returns them in the firm of a middle finger without once breaking his connection to Haley.
“Once you all are back in school, I’m sure Caleb will find someone to beat down,” says Finn. “He always does.”
I shake my head. “Doubtful. Now that the Hell Princes have been properly put in their place, I’m worried the next few months will be boring as hell.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot we haven’t discussed that. Noah pulled a fucking gun!” Viktor throws his head back in a drunken laugh. “I expect that shit from Finn or Caleb, but not you. How long have you been packing?”
“How did I not know you had a gun?” Finn asks, eyebrow raised.
“You have a gun,” I point out.
“I know, but I didn’t know you had one.”
I shrug. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
A series of oohs and ahhs move through the group as they tease me for being cryptic.
But I’m not joking.
Even though I’ve been a member of the Golden Boys for years, I don’t tell them everything. Not by a long shot.
Some secrets are never meant to be revealed.
Chapter 2: Noah
I lean back and watch the party for a while. Shadows move in front of the bonfire.
Laughter and music ring out, and the clink of vodka bottles sounds amongst the trees.
The Golden Boys’ conversation goes on without me.
Until something catches my eye.
A wave of golden blonde hair disappearing behind the trunk of an oak tree.
Even without seeing her face, I know who it is.
And tonight, I’m just drunk enough to start some shit.
I stand up, throw my can into the fire, and jog into the trees. Finn says my name, confusion in his voice, but I ignore him.
They won’t follow me. They know better than that.
I can see her path through the trees. I move past more than a few couples in various stages of undressing and fornicating until I’ve left everyone behind.
Everyone but her.
Just as I begin to wonder whether this was all nothing more than my drunk mind making shit up, I hear a rustle to my right and turn.
There she is.
Penelope LaFevre.
Penny is leaning against a tree, her face tilted to the canopy of brown leaves above. Her eyes are closed, and d
espite the fact I wasn’t working to be quiet, she doesn’t seem to have heard me.
For one second, I forget why I followed her.
For one fucking, fleeting second, I forget I threw her out of my life.
I forget how strange it is to even be this close to her.
Then, she sighs, opens her eyes, and sees me. She starts to scream in surprise.
I leap forward and slap a hand over her mouth.
“Shh,” I reprimand. “You’re loud.”
I only remove my hand once I’m sure she’s quieted down.
Penny’s shock is replaced by dark suspicion in an instant. “What are you doing here?”
Her pink lips part as she lifts a plastic cup to her mouth. She wants to seem casual. Nonchalant.
But I know that she’s feeling what I’m feeling.
Being this close again stirs up bad emotions. Bad memories.
It’s been two years since I was this close to her. Now, seeing her face in detail again, I’m reminded of everything I’ve purposefully forgotten.
And how much I hate it. Hate her.
I hate those glossy lips. That deft pink tongue. The soft, creamy skin of her cheeks, her neck, her tits.
I step towards her and swat her drink to the ground. The liquid inside spills over the leaves and splatters on our legs.
“What the fu—?” she gasps.
When she sees the look on my face, the curse dies on her lips.
Now, she’s scared.
Terrified, actually. As she should be.
I can see it in her gray green eyes. In the way they dart to my face and then the area surrounding us.
We are far away from the general party area.
And even if we weren’t, there’s enough debauchery out here that a couple shouts would go unnoticed.
No one is coming to save you from me, Penny.
“You fucked up,” I announce.
She frowns. “What are you talking about?”
Her chin is raised defiantly.
But there’s no mistaking the fear in her voice.
I give her a cold grin. “You knew the rules of our deal. And you broke it. There’s a price to be paid for that.”