Our Secret: A College Bully Romance (Golden Crew Book 1)

by Belladona Cunning

  What the fuck is she doing here?! I scream inside my mind. She is the one behind all of the pain and suffering Hunter and I have gone through. She shouldn't be here!

  "Can't keep doing this, Cass," Hunter groans, making me slap a hand over my mouth to keep from making my presence known.

  "Hunt, what we discussed before still stands." My eyebrows slant together. I really shouldn't be listening to a private conversation between them. Especially since it's not meant for my ears, and it’s behind a semi-closed door.

  Plus, something tells me I'm not going to like her next words.

  Sure enough, it feels like a dagger entering my chest when I hear Hunter grunt and Cass gritting out lowly, "That bitch is temporary. I'm your forever."

  Not being able to listen to anymore, I race down the hallway and run into the first room I spy. Softly shutting the bathroom door behind me, my legs give out, and I slide down to the floor. The cool tile jolts me a little, contrasting to the heated fever encasing my skin overhearing Cassandra and Hunter's private conversation.

  The way he groaned. His grunt. Fuck, they're probably in there right now about to have sex, and here I am, the pathetic ex, about to cry on his bathroom floor. Absolutely pathetic.

  Still, it doesn't stop the tears from falling, leaving trails of pain and numbness in their wake. They drip off my chin in rapid succession, landing on my naked thighs and then sliding down to the floor. Hiccupping on a sob, I brace my face in my hands and can't fight it anymore. A heart-wrenching sob overtakes me, so much so, I pull my legs up to my chest and put my covered face in them to muffle the sound of my pain.

  I don't know which emotion I feel more. Pain or jealousy. Pain at the knowledge that he hasn't broken things off with her, and he's still stringing her along—or jealousy that it's her and not me that he's giving his pleasure to.

  Honestly, I'm baffled by the latter. I shouldn't be jealous of anything. I got the best part of him—our son. Yet, even that knowledge doesn't make me feel better.

  I may have gotten the best part of him, but I can't call him mine. There's no claim I can lay at his feet that he would even want to pick up and cherish for the rest of his life.

  Not knowing how much time has passed, I continue to sit there. Then a soft knock comes on the door as if the knocker is hesitant.

  "Harloe, are you in there?" More tears leak from the corner of my eyes at the sound of his voice.

  Leaning my head against the door, I open my mouth to reply, but nothing comes out—only a puff of air.

  What is there to say? I caught you with your ex-girlfriend doing some very private things, and now I'm a jealous little hussy, even though I have no right to be?

  That will make me the laughingstock of GOU campus, pining after a man who’s as unavailable as he is hot.

  He's not with me. He can do anything he wants. "Why her?" I ask before I can stop myself. "After everything she did, why her?"

  "Lo, baby ..." Hunter's voice softens, making more tears burn the back of my throat. "Open the door."

  He sounds so fucking innocent, like he wasn't just in there betraying me. And that practically burns me up. I'm still sad. Oh, there's no changing that. But I'm also angry. Angry that I'm allowing my emotions to rule me when for so long, I've been in control of everything.

  Crying over Hunter will do nothing to change the facts: he's not mine to cry over.

  At the realization, I feel the resolve swimming around in my belly as I slowly climb to my feet. Wiping under my eyes, I sniffle, and then as much as I possibly can, I try to wrangle the emotions back into their cage once more.

  Grabbing the cool doorknob, I jerk it open and come face-to-face with a solemn-looking Hunter. His eyes flit up and down my body, checking for ... what? I don't know. Not like he can see the wound right in the middle of my chest. It's in the place where my heart should be.

  "I just needed a minute."

  I'm proud. My voice holds no hint of emotion in it at all. Even though I can feel it burning my throat, begging to be released, it stays where it should be, never once showing its ugly face. Going to take a step by him, Hunter counters my movements, making me sigh.

  "You're crying," he points out the obvious.

  Such a man thing to do, I swear.

  I go to move past him once more, this time, on the other side. He counters my step once again, effectively leaving me trapped in the bathroom. I huff, my eyes spearing into his.

  "What is it?" I ask, maybe with a bit too much bite.

  "Why were you crying?" he inquires, taking a step forward. His proximity causes me to take a step back into the bathroom. "When I left to get your drink, you were just fine and talking to Easton."

  I don't miss the way he grinds out Easton's name like he doesn't like the idea Easton and I were so close while talking.

  That's when I lose it. All the pain and betrayal and sadness I felt come over me like a tidal wave rushes out in the form of anger.

  Unable to stop myself, I get up in his face. He's taller than I am, sure, but I can and know how to stand my ground. Even if that means he's a full head higher than me.

  Pointing a nail into his chest, I release everything. "You're pissed at me for talking to your friend, yet you were in here with that bitch. After all the shit she did to us back in high school, and what she did to me the first month of school, and you're still fucking talking to her!"

  He steps back, and his expression is one of stunned surprise. "How did you know that?"

  I bark out a precarious laugh. "That's what you're going to settle on? How I knew you were talking to her?" Growling under my breath, I blaze, "Your priorities are seriously fucked up, Hunter Prince, if you think that's what you need to focus on."

  With my last word, I take all of my anger and shove him. And like the asshole knew it would piss me off even more, he doesn't even move a muscle. Just stands there looking down at me like he's seeing me for the first time.

  It's unnerving. Yet it's thrilling all at the same time.

  Fuck, I'm messed up in the head. I need to get out of here before anger gets the best of both of us.

  "You’re pissed," is all he says, and I know it has to be me, but I swear his voice gets lower with that account. "That means you care."

  His tone takes on an edge I haven't heard since we were together, his eyes lighting up with an emotion that's both foreign yet so familiar at the same time. Oh, no, this can’t be good.

  "Hunt," I say, watching his face cloud over with something akin to lust, his eyes sharpening and pinning me to my spot. I hold up a hand between us to keep him away.

  "Lo." My name rumbles in his chest, and he takes another step forward, enough to slam the door behind him.

  Within the span of two heartbeats, I'm in the small bathroom with Hunter blocking the only exit. But instead of being scared, I can't stop from feeling small tendrils of excitement light me up from the inside out—my scalp prickles with anxiousness. My flesh feels like there are hundreds of fingers caressing every inch of my skin. But I know it's only his eyes doing the wandering.

  I keep backtracking as he takes each determined step forward, and before long, I feel the cool wall greet the exposed flesh of my back through my dress. But he keeps coming. His eyes never once leave mine, and even when he's close enough to taste, he doesn't stop there. He presses the front of his body against mine, and I gasp at the feeling of his erection poking my stomach.

  Calloused, large hands ball into fists beside my head, caging me in. He leans toward me, and my eyes fall to half-mast when Hunter runs his nose along the sensitive skin of my throat, inhaling deeply.

  "Fuck, you smell good," he grunts, sounding almost pained. "Lavender and honeysuckle. My favorite."

  I take my lips between my teeth, biting down, to keep from saying anything. His big body covers mine easily, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I know I should push him away. But I can't make myself do anything, my body has officially turned against my mind.

  He presses
a kiss into the side of my neck, the feeling of his masculine lips along my corded, heated flesh making my head fall back against the wall in rapture. Hunter's lips and the way he uses them has always been my undoing.

  When his teeth start nipping and biting my skin, I shudder against him, both hating and loving how he knows me so well. I wish I could help my reaction to him, that I would lock it away in a box and throw away the key, but I can't.

  My body was a blank canvas when he and I first got together, and he's the one who caressed every brushstroke to fill it.

  We're connected, he and I.

  He drops another kiss on my neck, and then another, nipping and sucking the flesh into his mouth. The kiss in and of itself is innocent enough if we were in a different situation, and we were different people. What isn't innocent is the bulge in his pants, firmly pressing against my stomach. Knowing what he's packing underneath those jeans makes my mouth go dry with need.

  It's been so long, but ...

  "We can't," I breathe out, and a gasp of pleasure releases as he rewards me with a nip of his blunt teeth on my bare skin, and his hard grip along my hip.

  I shift against him, hoping to put some space between us, but it's no use. He's as fused to me as I am to him, and I'm scared of what I might do if I touch too much of him.

  Hunter has been my only weakness. Never once have I been tempted, but here he is tempting me like the devil made into an Adonis.

  "I think it's time for Mav and me to go."

  He shakes his head, his hold on my hip tightening. His rough, calloused hand slides down my outer thigh to the hem of my dress. The feel of his fingers ghosting along my skin causes my breath to shudder.

  "I need you," he groans, grinding against me. "Not been alive ... since you left."

  A whimper slips from between my lips when his fingers drag my dress up so achingly slow. I feel him growing harder, and my thighs clench together with the thought of how he'd feel after all this time.

  The last time we were together, we were fumbling teenagers, but now, Hunter's all man, and I'm all woman. We've grown up in more ways than one, and as terrible as this is, I want to know just how well he grew.

  But I know I can't. It would confuse things, and cross so many boundaries I've set in stone—the main one: never allowing Hunter to penetrate my armor again.

  You've done crossed that one, Lo.

  Hunter's lips move across my jawline, cheek, and chin with slow tenderness that has me reeling. When his lips barely skate across mine, it feels like my knees are going to give out on me. A guttural moan slices through the small room, and it isn't until his fingers slide my dress upward, making it hit mid-thigh and almost exposing me, that I properly compute where that sound came from.

  Me.

  A needy, desperate sound that, in many ways, portrays more than any words ever could.

  "Tell me you want this," he breathes, roughly grinding himself against me.

  With everything in me. "N-No," I stammer instantly, swallowing hard as my breathing turns choppy.

  I feel his lips smile against mine. "Mm, I always loved doing that."

  "Loved what?" I groan when his fingers tighten on my skin, becoming needy and desperate.

  Taking me off guard, he roughly smashes his lips against mine. My eyes close of their own accord, small bursts of light going off behind my closed lids. His tongue immediately seeks admittance, and a little aroused and a lot shell shocked, I open for him easily.

  “Proving you wrong,” he sexily purrs in a deep, lust-filled voice before kissing me even harder.

  Breaking the kiss, he drags his lips across my cheek. His breathing is erratic, like mine, as if he can’t quite catch his breath, and he’s grasping at anything he can get. His heated breaths wisp across the shell of my ear, instantly causing my insides to clench. My mind wanders to undoubtedly all the things he can do with that mouth of his. The way his tongue can curl just so, causing my hips to undulate against his face.

  Hunter was always terrific when giving oral, but I bet time has simply aged him gracefully like fine wine. So delicious.

  I begin trembling from the thought. So many images flash through my mind, and I close my eyes in the hopes of catching them and keeping them for later. One, in particular, has me nearly succumbing to my knees from the erotic pleasure—him kneeling in front of me as he devours me whole.

  A whimper escapes my parted lips. His tongue darts out, tracing the outline of my ear ever so slowly. I shiver at the contact, and my need simply clouds all of my judgment as my hands reach out and grip his shirt in my tight fists instead of pushing him away.

  “Will my little kitten purr if I pet her just right?” he seduces, his voice taking on a low rumble that has my breasts aching to be cupped and fondled.

  My nipples tighten with the thought of his fingers, lavishing them with tender ministrations, rolling them before the pads. I get the image of his tongue wrapping around one taut tip. In my mind’s eye, I see him sucking it into his mouth, releasing a guttural moan of satisfaction as he rolls his tongue over the tip.

  A sharp inhale forces its way through my tight throat. I feel his arms wrap around me, pulling me flush against him and away from the wall. I feel his hardened length between us jolt, and I bite back a whimper as pure unadulterated pleasure zips its way through my body like electricity.

  I try to reply. I try so hard, but the constriction in my throat won’t allow me. But should I respond to something like that, even though I really, really want to? He was just in the room with Cassandra, and I feel like this is happening simply for the reason I heard them together like I'm privately pissing all over my territory or something.

  Pathetic is the word for it, and I'm not one to base my actions on those of someone else. If he was with her, then clearly he's just here because he knows I know, right?

  "What about Cass?" I can't help but ask once more.

  He growls low in his throat, blazing out, "Fuck her. She can rot in the filth she's made for all I care."

  That doesn't sound like what was happening before, and while it may make me look like a stalker or creeper, I can't keep my mouth shut on the subject.

  "I heard both of you." His ministrations pause, like he's processing.

  "Heard us where?" He stops to pull back and look at me, confusion clear in his different colored orbs.

  My eyes flick between his. "In your room just a little ago. It's okay. I'm not mad."

  "What exactly did you hear?"

  I lick my lips, replying, "She said something about a conversation you all had, and you were grunting and groaning." A blush steals across my cheeks as I look away. "I left right after that. I ... I didn't want to hear any more."

  After a moment, a lone finger lands under my chin, pushing it upward, so I'll peer up at him. At the last second, my eyes break away and finally meet his. His features soften when he looks down at me, but it's not with pity. Never with pity.

  "She told me I'd regret walking away. That's it. The only reason I was grunting or groaning or whatever you heard was because she just doesn't get it. She was in Traven's room before you showed up, and that little bastard knew she wasn't allowed here anymore. She was getting on my nerves, Lo, not getting me off."

  My head tilts to the side. "So, you two really aren't together?"

  He shakes his head and pulls me closer with a megawatt smile. "I have everything I want right here."

  A smile slowly breaks out across my face, threatening to steal what little breath I have left from my lungs. I stand there in awe of a man I didn’t think could get any more handsome than he already was, in heart and soul. His eyes shine brightly with untold promises of pleasure and happiness that’s in store for me.

  "Really?" I inquire, choking up.

  Leaning toward me, his lips ghost across mine, making me shiver and melt against him. "Why would I give up heaven for a taste of hell?"

  His eyes search mine, begging me to see how serious he is. We stand there in silence,
looking into the other’s eyes. He’s begging me to take a chance, and I'm too scared. Lord, what am I going to do?

  "I promise," he whispers in a meaningful tone. "Regardless of whether you forgive me or not, I'll be here. Every day, for you and for our son. Doesn't matter if it's raining and all you need me to do is hold the umbrella, I'll be here. If all you need is someone to vent to at three in the morning, let me be that person for you. Because, baby, even when I thought I was supposed to hate you, I still loved you."

  The breath I've been holding inside rushes out at his whispered confession. He leans forward, taking my mouth in a kiss that has me panting within seconds. His lips are amazingly soft yet firm. They’re unyielding yet give every time my lips pass over them. Hunter instantly takes over, slipping his tongue inside to playfully bat at mine. It’s like he’s trying to take everything my little body has to offer him. And then it’s still not enough to sate him in his need.

  It’s hard to explain, but he’s everywhere, yet nowhere at the same time. I sigh into his mouth, feeling at ease for the first time in such a long time. His hands roam over my body, lingering in some places while lightly caressing others. His hands make their way down to my backside, pulling my hips even closer. He begins lightly grinding his pelvis against mine, flooding my system with euphoric bliss.

  He breaks the kiss, panting heavily. “Lo, please, tell me you want this."

  I can't keep denying my wants forever. Even through all the hurt and pain, it's always been Hunter.

  Inhaling a shuddering breath, I nod, barely meeting his eyes. "Yes."

  Before I can say another word, his lips are back on mine more forcefully in their tantalizing dominance. His tongue forces its way into my mouth as his ministrations become bolder.

  Moaning, I raise my arms and wrap them around his neck at the same moment he bends and hoists me up into his arms. My legs wrap around his taut waist as if the act is as natural as breathing. I cling to him with everything I have, meeting his kiss with a little forcefulness of my own.

  I'm hungry, and it feels like this is my first meal in years.

  His groan resonates through the halls as we make our way to his room. But before we get there, we hear a throat clearing at the head of the hallway. It's throaty, masculine. Immediately, our faces break apart, and we turn to see Leo standing there with a shit-eating grin on his face.