by L. J. Woods
“We need to talk.”
“Meet me in the boys’ locker room.”
“Where are you?”
“Don’t keep me waiting, Rowland.”
I continue to ignore every one.
“I mean, I get why you didn’t tell us.” Allie’s hand is on my shoulder while I knock back my drink. Thank fuck for Nate’s fake ID. “But you can trust us.”
We’re at our lunch spot and this time we’ve ordered some pick-me-ups. I don’t mean coffee.
“Lord knows I would’ve fucked King if I had the chance.” Nate ordered a round of Mint Juleps. He also ordered an extra-large pizza but I haven't touched any of it.
I filled them in on everything. Most things. I left out the part about our bond over suicidal attempts, or that I killed someone. That’s better saved for another day because today is already too much.
“Well, it looks like I’m paying the price.” I lean my head back against the booth. Unable to eat, I'm getting a taste of what it's like to be a King. Drunk at lunch.
“I mean, we didn’t think we needed to say to stay away from King,” Allie says. “Considering recent events.”
“And you won’t have to.” I pull her drink closer to my side of the table. “I’ve learned my lesson.”
My evening shift at MOCHA is a hard one.
I’m getting used to my duties and the large menu but the whole place reminds me of Damien. I can't even look at the counter without hearing his grunts blending with my moans. The fact that my legs are still sore only adds insult to injury.
Not as much insult as when Damien comes strutting in. Lea isn’t with him but I don’t care. Don’t care when he comes right up to the counter. Don’t care when he demands we talk. I just go about my shift.
I now know what happens when you sleep with the devil. And I have bigger things to worry about than Damien King's little games. Sure he throws a fit when I ignore him, knocking over the tea display and ordering me to fix it. Even then, I don’t so much as look his way.
I’m exhausted by the time I get home.
Hopping in the shower, I try to erase the events of the day and the minute my head hits the pillow I drift off to sleep.
Damien’s voice is in my head. In my dreams. And when a gust of cold air stirs me awake, his voice is there with it, “Morning, Medusa.”
I blink, opening my eyes, trying to figure out if I’m hallucinating or not.
Wait, am I still dreaming?
“D-Damien?” When I move to sit up, something pulls on my wrists. Looking to my left and my right, they’re tied to the post of my bed. “Wh-What the fuck?” I pull and pull but it only makes the fabric tighten on my wrist.
“Can’t seem to get you in the same room,” he says. “So I had to resort to other measures.”
Nineteen
“I know your sister is with Jordan so don’t worry, no one will hear you if you scream.”
“Damien, what the fuck?” I don't give him the satisfaction of my struggle. I’m much too tired. “This is crazy! Untie me!” I’m trying to keep my voice down as much as I can.
I don’t know why. He’s the one breaking and entering.
He leans against the window in a pair of crisp joggers and a white tee under his jacket. Like he's meant to be here.
“I came here to tell you I didn’t set that up." He twirls that coin between his knuckles. "But if you rather give me your sass…”
“I’m supposed to believe that?” I pull at the restraints, my hair falling in front of my face but I can't fix it. “You think I didn’t see that little smirk you had on your face when your fellow King stormed out?”
Damien gives me that same smirk and if I could, I’d smack it right off his face. “Guess he learned you’re mine.”
"I don't belong to you."
"That's not what you were saying last night." He steps closer, sitting on the bed before his face comes to mine. My eyes fall on his lips and he pushes a lock of hair behind my ear. “No one messes with you except me, Rowland.”
"What's that supposed to mean?" I move my face back. “You mad everyone found out about you fucking the new girl from The Grove?”
“You’re right, I did fuck the girl from The Grove.” He moves to my ear. “And I enjoyed every bit of it. Did you?”
“It was a big mistake.”
“Didn’t seem that way when you were coming on my cock.” His fingers move up my thigh. “I want to see that again.”
He looks like he’s going in for a kiss but instead, he kisses my scar exposed with the way he has me tied. "Damien," I attempt to protest but it comes out with little force. He’s soft. Tender. Gentle. No one's ever kissed me there before. Not like that.
Damien doesn’t stop. He moves down my neck, to my chest and when he kisses my thigh, I squirm, overwhelmed by his lips near my folds again.
“You do something to me, Jo,” he growls. “And you have to pay for that.”
He tugs my panties to the side, and before I can protest, his tongue lands on my clit. I gasp, my body writhing in response to the way his tongue feels. Even with his over-the-top antics, I don’t want him to stop.
He groans, vibrations making him feel all the better, “Mm, that’s right. No one gets to make you squirm but me.”
Falling asleep next to Damien King is surreal.
I was so exhausted after our intense romp I completely knocked out. Waking up tied to my bed was a shock, but letting Damien do what he wanted to my body was as freeing as it was exhausting. My fear of relinquishing control didn’t matter. It felt too good to matter.
Damien made me come on his tongue three times. Each time more intense than the last. I couldn't stop him if I wanted to, my wrists marked from where he tied them.
I'm not sure what time it was when I dozed off to the feeling of his finger running along the thin skin of my lip. Before I fell asleep, I worried about explaining how Damien King got in my bed. How the fuck would I explain that to Vincent or the Archibalds?
But when I wake up the next morning, Damien has taken care of that for me. He's gone, the window still open, white curtain moving in the wind.
Last night was such a blur I’m starting to think I imagined the whole thing. Then reality sinks in. That’s three times Damien and I have hooked up.
Damien’s touch is unlike anything I’ve felt. Zane was always slow and sweet. Believe it or not, he was a romantic. A passionate casanova while Damien is an intense beast. It’s like he already knows how and where to touch me. Like we’ve been together before. I’m starting to wonder if I actually hate him.
I’m in a daze the entire way to school. Everything about Damien King is so wrong. Like Luca, he didn’t ask if he could do any of the things he did to me. But unlike Luca, I wanted it.
After hearing that it wasn't him who pulled the intercom prank, it made it a little easier. That leads me to my next thought, will he actually do something about it if Lea acted alone?
Willow’s waiting for me on the front lawn when Henry pulls up. In fact, there are a lot more students on the lawn than usual this morning. Their eyes are all at the front of the school, a couple of police officers standing at the top of the steps.
Henry lets me out of the car and when I approach Willow, Nate and Allie are already standing next to her. “What’s going on?”
They don’t take their eyes off the officers at the door as Allie answers, “No idea.” The officers are talking to Lea, pen and notebook in hand.
I put an arm around my sister, watching the action before the officers step aside. My eyes almost fall out of my head as an officer escorts Mr. Trout down the stairs in cuffs.
“Oh my god,” Nate says. “It’s true."
Lea says something to him, but we can't hear it from where we are. I can, however, make out the tears in her eyes. Mr. Trout holds his head down as he’s led to a cruiser in the school parking lot.
Damien steps out of the school, flipping his coin, a smug look on his face. Lea doesn’t see. B
y the time I look back at her she’s glaring at me. The officer says something to her and she starts following him down the steps. On her way, she stops to look at me, her face red and splotchy. “You’ll pay.”
“This wasn’t me.” I glance at Damien who’s leaning against the wall near the door, Isaac joining him.
“I’m supposed to believe that?" She narrows her eyes, pulling back a sniffle. Lea's looking for someone to blame and I'm her punching bag. "You're the one who told everyone at the game!"
“It’s rare in this school but I’m telling the truth." Everyone's eyes are on us but I'm not taking the blame for this one. "Are you surprised you might’ve pushed someone too far?”
"You're ruining my life Medusa and don't think I won't ruin yours."
“Lea?” The officer calls her name and she turns to walk away, wiping her eyes.
“While this is fun, don’t you have a crime report to help with?” Nate asks.
The people around us snicker and whisper. “Shut the fuck up Quinfrey!” she barks. Looking back, she makes sure everyone on the lawn hears it. “You'll pay Rowland."
Of course, Lea walks away despite threatening me in front of the cops. When her back is to me I look up to see Damien walking inside with not so much as a look my way.
“You okay?” Allie asks.
I nod, but I’m not sure. I can’t tell if Damien did this to help me out or not because it didn’t. Did he do this because he was jealous of Mr. Trout? Am I still a pawn in some silly fucked up game?
The last couple of nights felt like they meant something but there's a chance I'm blinded by good sex.
Christian has a new bruise when I get to class but he’s still giving me the silent treatment. So is Damien. He’s doing my fucking head in and it’s no one’s fault but myself.
If he’s willing to do something like that to Lea, what’s he willing to do to me if something goes wrong?
Lea doesn’t come back to school for the rest of the day and for once, I’m not the talk of ERA. Word gets out that something was going on between Lea and Mr. Trout. As a result, Headmaster Beckett actually calls an emergency assembly to discuss the matter.
Damien is a few rows back from me and the entire time my phone lights up with his texts. I give him the same treatment he gave me this morning. The silent one.
While Lea is likely humiliated, I hope she’s not getting disciplined. Yeah her actions come off shortsighted but if you’re asking me, she was the one taken advantage of.
By the time I get to work, I assume Mrs. Huang has already found out about Lea and Mr. Trout. When I walk in, she calls me to her office, closing the door and sitting me down.
“Jo, I’m going to be blunt.” She takes her glasses off, tossing them on the counter like a used napkin. “I’m old. I’m tired. This isn’t going to work out.”
That wasn’t what I expected.
I sit up in my seat. “Wait, what? I thought this was about Lea.”
“I’m under a lot of stress from my daughter who’s desperate for attention.” She shakes her head, looking at her laptop. "I’m hoping her new therapist will help with that, but this is exactly why I don’t have time for more high school antics. You can leave your uniform at school." She looks up at me before returning to her laptop. “Or keep it. I don’t care. Good-bye, Jo.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
“Which part?” She lowers her brows. “That you can’t be having intercourse on my imported marble counter? Or that you’re fired for it?”
“Wait.” I freeze.
Cindy sighs, “What? Do I need to call Henry for you?”
The shock of it all takes me a minute to put together but when I do, it's clear. This was Lea’s retaliation. A simple, yet effective one. I've only started to make a dent in my savings. It was looking like I'd be able to get it together by my eighteenth birthday. Without a job, there’s no way that the courts will let me take custody of Willow. She’d be stuck wherever with whoever.
This is all my fault.
If I didn’t sleep with Damien at my fucking workplace I wouldn’t be in this mess. Wouldn't get humiliated in front of the entire school time and time again. I definitely wouldn't have lost my job before I even got through probation.
I'm fucking livid, but I thank Cindy when I leave anyway. I made my bed in hell, now I have to lay in it. But I’m still angry, so angry I push open the french doors of MOCHA with a little too much force.
“Jo,” his voice makes me want to punch him but I don’t. I keep giving him the cold shoulder. “Did she actually fire you?”
I’m supposed to be waiting for Henry but Damien sits on the roof of his superhero car in front of the entrance. So I keep walking. Where? I’m not sure but I’m not staying near him.
I pass his car when his hand comes to my arm. I tug it away but as usual, his grip is too tight.
“Hey, wait a minute,” he says.
I turn to face him. “For what? I already lost my job. You already humiliated me. What more could you want? Sex that you never want to talk about or acknowledge happened?”
“You weren’t the one humiliated.” He’s calm, still in his uniform and it only makes me more livid. “Lea was.”
“The fact that you think she deserved that speaks volumes.” I try to walk away but my feet lift off the ground. “What the fuck? Put me down!” I wiggle my legs and pound on his back. I’m not usually this frantic but it helps me get the stress out. “Put me down!”
“Will you shut up?” He sounds more annoyed than angry before I hear him open his car door and I’m thrown into the passenger’s seat. I try to climb out but the door closes and I can’t open it from the inside.
I scream in frustration, not even taking in how exquisite the interior is. Or how it smells like a new car and Damien. “Damien King! Let me out!”
He gets in on the other side, looking at me like I’m the one who’s insane. “Will you stop?”
“No!” I pull on the door again, banging on it as he pulls his car to the far end of the lot. Then he sits there while I let it out on his interior. Kicking the dash, stomping my feet against the floor.
When I get enough out of my system my nerves settle down, and when I turn to look at him he’s staring with a raised eyebrow. "Done?”
“Tell me.” I move closer to his face. “What’s your fucking problem?”
He comes to meet me above the middle of his console. “You’re my problem, Medusa.” Then he kisses me like it’s a thing we do. Like it’s normal.
And I fucking fall for it.
As I start to wrap my arms around him, he pulls away before starting his car.
“Where are we going? I’m supposed to be waiting for Henry.”
He chuckles with a glance at me, “You’re choosing now to listen to the adults in your life? Here’s a spoiler, they’re even more fucked up than we are.”
We drive in silence for a few minutes until he turns onto a dirt road. He stops in front of the lake at a clearing, surrounded by a bunch of evergreens, like the one in my tattoo. He turns the car off and looks at me.
“What? You’re gonna kill me and throw me in the lake?”
“You really think I carry out my own hits? I’m not as cold-blooded as you are, Medusa.”
“Fuck you,” I spit. He chuckles but I don’t find it funny. “And stop calling me that. It’s embarrassing.”
“Is it?” he smirks.
“You tell me. You’re the one who gave me that name.”
“I gave you that name because—” he stops himself but I don’t interrupt. I want to see where he’s going with this. “Because you turn everyone into stone with that glare.”
I give him that glare and he laughs before he bites his lip.
That look. His laugh. It makes flutters in my stomach, a tingle in my core. I don’t even know if I hate it anymore. “Why’d you bring me out here?”
“You didn’t answer my text. If I knew you were going to be this hard to reach
I wouldn’t have bought you that phone.”
“Why would you think I want to talk to you when you treat me like shit? Is that why you brought me out here? You don’t want anyone to see you talking to me? Is that why you ignore me at school and send me stupid texts instead?"
“I thought you preferred it that way. I didn’t think you’d want everyone knowing you're sleeping with the high and mighty Damien King.” He says that name like he’s pleased with himself.
“I…”
“Thought so.”
He’s right. If I wanted to be with Damien, I would have said something. I’m bold enough. There’s a reason I didn’t tell Nate and Allie until the entire school found out. There's a chance he’s not as embarrassed by me as I thought. It could be that I’m the one embarrassed of him.
“Don’t have to be such an asshole.” I fold my arms.
“Don’t I?” He reaches out, a stroke of his finger under my chin.
I bite the bullet. “So…what the fuck are we doing?”
“I have a job offer.”
“A what?”
“Considering your past, I have something that’s up your alley.” His eyes dance around my face before it drops to my chest. His finger falls to the collar of my shirt, pulling it down until he can see my bra. “If you’re up for it.” I push his hand away, but he lets it drop to my thigh. He trails a finger along my skin and shivers erupt all over again. “Come to Isaac’s party tonight. A small gathering. We’ll discuss it there.”
“Why don’t you give me the money?”
“While I’d love to pay you for your services…” His eyes gaze over my chest, before dropping to my legs. He returns to meet my eyes. “‘Ol Sebastien will find it odd to see his finances pummeled into a random account from The Grove. I’ll make all this better. Take it or leave it, Jo”
His lips are close to mine, inches away and they're like heroin. I know it's bad, but I want it.
“Fuck it.” Moving in, I press my lips to his again.
Parties usually mean throwing on denim cut-offs and a comfy tank, but Damien has other ideas.