by Lily White
But then I heard a twig snap in the distance, followed by the deep rumble of laughter and the bellow of a blowing horn.
I was running again, not toward the party but away from it, my legs gaining speed until my toe caught on a root sticking out of the ground, my body lurching forward, my fall broken by a solid arm wrapping around my waist as a wall of heat collided with my back.
“Gotcha.”
Before I could react, I was lifted off my feet, spun left, my back slamming against the wide trunk of an ancient tree. Tanner was in my face instantly, my view blocked from anything besides a set of dark eyes that were competing with the near vacant black depths of a forest at midnight.
Staring into his gaze feels like falling down a bottomless well, the darkness consuming me while my heart fluttered with panicked, hopeless spurts.
“I’m sorry.” The words tumbled from my throat before I understood I was speaking them, the instant apology doing nothing to loosen his hold on me.
“You will be.”
Tanner’s hand locked on my hip, his other arm lodged against the tree trunk next to my head. Our faces were a teasing inch apart as the corset continued to constrict my chest, refusing my lungs an extra inch to drag in a full breath.
Heart in my throat, I watched Tanner’s eyes dip down to admire the way my cleavage had practically been shoved to my throat, his lips parting just slightly while terror raced through me.
“Let me go,” I barely squeaked, hating how incredibly weak and pathetic my soft voice sounded.
Slowly, his gaze wandered back to my face, a sardonic grin stretching a set of lips that had explored mine several hours before. I remembered how hard they were, how punishing and demanding.
“Or what?”
“Or...”
I couldn’t quiet my thoughts enough to answer his question. The words were there, teasing me with a response my throat didn’t have the ability to release.
A bead of sweat trickled down between my breasts and I was hyperaware of the path it took, the trail of slick moisture left in its path.
Tanner leaned down, and when I thought he would kiss me again, he dragged his mouth across my cheek to press his lips to my ear.
“Why are you here?”
His chest was a brick wall against my body, his breath pouring along my neck, hot and tempting.
Trembling, I fought to convince myself I didn’t like the way it felt to be pressed against him. I wasn’t that girl, wasn’t the type to enjoy the mixture of desire and fear. My mind fought to convince my body of that, yet my body disagreed.
Fucking traitor.
Plastering my hands against his chest, I attempted to push him away, but instead I drew in an unsteady, shallow breath to feel warm steel beneath my fingers, wet from sweat, and radiating the type of heat that could keep a girl warm on the coldest of days.
I shouldn’t have touched him, yet there I was with my fingertip tracing along the ridge of his hard pec.
Yanking my hands away, I argued, “I was invited. Gabriel-“
“I keep finding you in my space. It’s almost like you want to play.”
“Nope,” I whispered, willing my voice louder to keep speaking. “I don’t want to play anything, I was just-“
His laughter cut me off.
“It’s fine. I like games. I happen to be very good at them.”
In the distance, a voice called my name. Deep and concerned. Clayton must have come into the woods after us, worried that Tanner would take this particular game a little too far.
Stilling at the sound, Tanner waited for a split second before his face was in mine again, his lips brushing my cheek before his eyes pinned me in place as much as his body.
“Just remember not to start games you can’t finish. I’m the type of guy who will keep playing them until you beg me to stop.”
With that he pushed away, stalking off in one direction while Clayton appeared from another.
“Luca?”
Dry leaves crunched under his feet as he ran my direction, his hands gripping my shoulders while I slowly peeled my body away from the tree.
“Are you okay?”
Willing my heart rate to drop back to normal, I nodded my head, my gaze tracking the direction Tanner had taken. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just out of breath.”
He grinned, the expression wobbly and unsure.
“Why did you take off like that? It looked like you were scared out of your mind. I was worried.”
Allowing Clayton to wrap his arm through mine to lead me out of the woods, I didn’t want to admit I’d run because Tanner had told me to.
Apparently, I didn’t need to say a word for him to know.
“Hey,” he nudged my shoulder with his own, “Tanner was just messing with you. All of this is just one stupid game they like to play for entertainment.”
Entertainment. Sure. Good choice of words for him to use. Except the problem was a game should be enjoyable for all the players, and this one wasn’t fun.
It wasn’t fair. I didn’t ask to play it. And what I didn’t know as Clayton and I emerged from the woods to walk out into a party that was still going strong despite the late hour was that Tanner hadn’t been lying to tell me this particular game would last until he was done playing it.
Tanner would keep playing it until I fled from Yale...he would keep playing until long after law school was done.
Unfortunately for me, he’d end up being a worthy opponent, the type of man who would do whatever it took to ensure he won.
And the last thing I would learn was that Tanner was a liar.
He wouldn’t stop playing the game, even after I begged.
Luca
Two weeks had passed since the gauntlet party. Although Brad wasn’t dead, he wasn’t exactly unharmed either. I never knew the guy before the party happened, so I’m not sure if he was always scared of every sound, jumpy at every word or terrified of his own shadow prior to the night he ran, but now when I saw him, he appeared as if he needed a restful, long term vacation in a comfortable mental health facility.
It’s weird how I never noticed him before the party. Probably because I kept to myself, or possibly the fact I always had my nose stuck in a book somewhere. However, since that night, whenever I saw him on campus, his head was bowed and his shoulders were painfully tense as he hurried from one class to another.
To say it pissed me off was an understatement. As if I didn’t have enough reason to dislike nine men who believed they had the right to torment the willing (or unwilling, if you included myself), seeing what they did to Brad only cemented the fact that they were to be avoided at all costs.
Unfortunately, that was nearly impossible. Not with Everly practically glued to Jase’s side and Gabriel hiding around every corner.
I wasn’t sure why he seemed to be everywhere following my introduction to his group, but Gabriel had a knack for sneaking up on me at all times of the day, like now, for instance, as I was walking to class, the sun shining and birds singing, at least until he appeared with a smirk on his face, a joint between his fingers, and a dark imposing cloud shadowing my footsteps.
“Seriously,” I grumbled, pointedly glaring at the wisp of the smoke floating up from his hand. “On campus? How have you not been expelled yet?”
He grinned, “Money makes the world go round and there’s a building or two named after me.”
Falling into step at my side, Gabriel nudged my shoulder with his own. “Where are we going?”
“I’m going to class. You might just be going to hell after what you did to Brad at the gauntlet party.”
Gabriel laughed.
“We went easy on him. He passed out from fear. Not from anything we did.”
Eyeing him, I asked, “And what exactly did you do?”
“Not saying.”
Dropping what was left of his joint on the ground and smashing it with his shoe, Gabriel tossed an arm over my shoulder.
“I’m here to invite you to a party t
his weekend.”
There was no way in hell I was going to any party thrown by the Inferno ever again. Not after what I saw them do to Brad, and especially not after the way Tanner kissed me while all of them laughed. Certainly not after he’d chased me through the woods, terrifying me as he pinned me against a tree like he owned me.
I hated to admit to myself that I actually liked that first kiss before the laughter started. I especially wanted to forget that I preferred that kiss more than the one Clayton gave me at the end of that night. I tried not to think about how that damn kiss stole my breath so easily, even if I hadn’t exactly invited it.
Refusing to be the butt of anybody’s joke, I answered, “Nope. Not happening. I want nothing to do with you guys.”
“You’re coming.”
“You’re nuts. I can’t believe what you did to Brad. You’re all a bunch of assholes.”
He grinned, our eyes locking, mine narrowed in anger while his crinkled at the corners.
“Listen, Karen-“
“My name’s not Karen.”
“It is when you’re about ten seconds away from demanding to speak with a manager. Chill out and learn to enjoy it. You’re stuck with us and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
Stopping in place outside of my building, I spun on Gabriel and poked a finger against his hard chest.
“I don’t trust you. And I especially don’t trust Tanner. So, you can stop following me around, Gabriel. Nothing you say or do will make me change my mind.”
Holding his arms out in defeat, he kept his green eyes locked to mine as he took a few steps back.
“You’ll change your mind, Luca Bailey. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of you soon.”
Shaking my head, I smiled despite my best effort not to.
“Good luck with that.”
Spinning back to the building, I gripped my hand over the strap of my bag, my ears pricking when I heard Gabriel call out to me.
“We have our ways, Luca. I look forward to seeing you this weekend.”
Air conditioning blasted me as soon as I entered the building. Why they had it so cold in here was anybody’s guess, but I assumed it was to keep exhausted students from falling asleep at their desks.
The end of the semester was coming up quickly and larger projects and papers were being assigned that had all of us burning the midnight hours. Add in the parties on and off campus, and you had a group of zombies running around, their bleary eyes barely cracked open.
Shouldering past a group taking up a good portion of the hall where they stood waiting for a classroom to open, my thoughts were focused on what Gabriel had said as he walked away.
I had no doubt every member of the Inferno had their own methods and charms that kept people in their grasp.
Wealth, good looks, popularity and power had a tendency to seduce just about everybody, but I wouldn’t set myself up for disaster or trip over my feet running toward a group of men who apparently didn’t ask permission or take no for an answer.
Not that these guys set out to hurt anybody, not physically at least, but their methods of keeping people under control and getting what they wanted were notorious within the school. The only way to avoid becoming trapped was to avoid being near them. So, that was my plan.
If I wasn’t at their parties, they couldn’t embarrass me. If I never asked them for a favor, they couldn’t control me with whatever they demanded in return.
Reaching my class, I turned left to walk inside, several early students already studying their notes or working on other tasks within the stadium seating. Walking down the steps, I sat down in a seat on the third level, dropped my bag next to my chair and glanced down near the professor’s desk to see Clayton busily shuffling through papers at his spot in the assistant’s area.
Clayton was a handsome man with careless brown hair and friendly eyes. He was the type of man you knew would be successful in life. Clean cut and aristocratic. Safe…if I had to assign one word to describe him.
Not one lacking in female attention, he was a sure bet for any woman seeking to secure a good husband in life, and two weeks ago that was exactly the man I would have happily dated and been content in the relationship. But now?
Now my dreams kept going back to a cold son of a bitch with dark, moss green eyes and a body that would make any man think twice about taking him on. My thoughts kept returning to a kiss by a bonfire that had been hotter than the flames licking at my back.
My heart kept getting crushed beneath the memories of the way he’d kicked me out of the room the first time I met him, and the laughter that followed the first time he kissed me.
Tanner was an asshole – of that I had no doubt. But that didn’t mean he didn’t draw the eye every time he was near…that didn’t mean I could forget what it felt like for his fingers to fist in my hair and his lips to claim mine.
Which is exactly why I wouldn’t be going anywhere near him. It didn’t matter if Gabriel believed he had ways of making me attend Inferno parties, nothing and nobody would convince me to go near Tanner again.
More time than I realized must have passed while I’d been lost in thought. A deep voice pulled my attention to the front of the room, Professor Thornton gazing up at a full audience of students that had filled in around me.
A bit flustered by my lack of awareness of the people who had shuffled in while I was thinking of Tanner, I opened my notebook to a blank sheet of paper and clicked my pen, ready and waiting to begin hastily scribbling down notes.
The professor started right in.
“Before jumping into today’s discussion, I want to remind you that the end of semester project will be due two months from today. As I’ve previously advised, and as many of you should know from the class syllabus that all of you should have read by now-“
A few nervous chuckles sounded around me at his pointed stare. Very few students actually paid attention to the class syllabus, but I wasn’t one of them. Always prepared…that was me.
“-that the final project for this class will be a detailed analysis of previous case law, arguments, and judicial decisions in the particular topic that you are assigned. Not only will a twenty-five page analysis of your topic be due at the end of this semester, but you will also be asked to present oral arguments against and in defense of your subject.”
Pacing away from the podium, Professor Thornton crossed the front of the room to snatch a folded sheet of paper from Clayton’s desk.
Holding it up for the class to see, he explained, “Due to the magnitude of this assignment, each of you will be assigned a senior student advisor who will work with you on your given subject. On the date of your oral arguments, your advisor will act as your opposing counsel. These student assignments were generated randomly, and the seniors selected have been contacted. Included in the papers being given to you is the contact information for the senior student who will be working with you. I suggest opening a line of communication with them tonight in order to begin preparing.”
He dropped the folded sheet of paper back on Clayton’s desk. Taking it, Clayton added it to a stack and pushed out of his seat to walk up the stairs between aisles, handing a stack to the first student in each row.
While he did that, the professor said, “Take the paper that has your name on it and pass the rest down the line. I’ll wait to begin today’s lesson until every person has their assignment.”
Patiently waiting while the students quietly took their paper and passed them down the row, I snatched mine from the top when it finally reached me. I passed the remaining papers down as my finger slipped between the folded sides of mine and popped the staple holding them together.
Excited to discover what area of tort litigation I would be arguing, I smiled to see my topic was Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, my eyes scanning down further until stopping on the name of the senior with whom I would be working.
Bile crept up the back of my throat, my stomach twistin
g and turning beneath my skin and my heart beating with a heavy thump to see that fate fucking hated me.
Tanner Caine’s name glared back at me in taunting black ink boldly printed on white paper, his phone number listed beneath that.
There was no way in hell I would be able to work with that son of a bitch on this project. My head snapped up toward the front of the class, my panicked eyes meeting Clayton’s.
He must have sensed something was wrong because his brows shot up his forehead in question. Lifting his phone from the surface of his desk, he shook it back in forth to silently tell me to text him my problem.
I pulled my phone from my bag and shot off a text.
Tanner Caine has been assigned as my senior advisor. I DO NOT want to work with him. Not after what happened at the bonfire. Is there anything you can do to get me reassigned?
His eyes lifted to meet mine, his expression sympathetic. Breaking our stare, he looked down at his phone as his thumbs raced over the screen.
My phone vibrated in the next second with his response.
Let me see what I can do. I’ll try to manually change it. If that doesn’t work, I’ll speak to Professor Thornton after class.
His response helped relieve some of my panic, but until I knew for sure that he could get this changed, my heart would continue beating an erratic rhythm in my throat, a buzzing sound in my ears from the rush of blood making it impossible for me to listen to the class discussion.
Luca
Slowly packing up my empty notebook - because who can take notes when they’re worried about facing off with Satan? - I glanced down at the front of the classroom to watch Clayton having a whispered discussion with Professor Thornton.
The fact that he looked concerned told me that he hadn’t been able to manually change the senior assignment. The fact that Professor Thornton’s eyes narrowed as he whisper-hissed a curt response to Clayton’s question told me that there was no way in hell I was getting out of working with Tanner.
Defeated, Clayton glanced up at me and nudged his chin toward the back classroom doors, a silent message for me to wait for him so we could talk.
With heavy steps, I stomped out of the room, making it perfectly clear that I already knew what he would say and that I wasn’t happy about it.