by Ruby Vincent
That sounded like such exquisite torture. I didn’t want to wait, but I also didn’t want to stop his exploration. His touch tingled on my skin long after he moved on, and soon I felt him everywhere.
Ryder kissed and licked every inch of my body until my core wept for him. “Ryder,” I panted. “Please.”
“Please, what?” He put his arms on either side of my head, grinning down at me.
I groaned. “There’s no ridding you of that evil streak, is there? You know what I want.”
“But I’m not finished.” He bent until our noses brushed together. “There are a few parts of you I haven’t tasted yet. Like... here.”
I sucked in a breath as he closed his mouth over my nipple. They were hard as pebbles, but so sensitive he pulled moan after moan from my throat as he worshiped it with his tongue.
“Then there’s this one.”
He moved to the other breast and I almost ripped my nails off as my hands clutched the bed. He put the other nipple through the same treatment as beads of sweat broke out onto my body. I had imagined sex with Ryder more times than I admitted, but I had never pictured making love with him, because this was what it was.
Ryder lifted his head and gave me a kiss that seared my blood. Our tongues danced as our hands roamed each other.
His breath was ragged when we came up for air and it thrilled me. I loved the effect I had on him.
“I’ll be right back,” he whispered into my ear.
All I could do was nod as he slid down my body. Black spots popped along my vision as he put his mouth to my core. His tongue probed, licked, and tantalized me as I contorted with pleasure. A cry escaped my lips when he slipped a finger inside of me and found that spot that drove me crazy. I came screaming. My back arched so far off the bed, the top of my head touched the sheets.
Ryder put his arms under me and pulled me up, pressing our chests together. As I watched, he swiped his tongue across his lips, tasting every last drop on his lips. We kissed again before he reached around me and grabbed a condom.
His eyes appeared almost black into the fairy lights. I could see his need for me as clearly as my reflection.
“Turn around,” he whispered.
I didn’t hesitate. I turned over and settled on my hands and knees, offering myself to him completely. My excitement rose as I listened to the crinkle of the condom unwrapping.
Ryder put his hands on my waist, but surprised me by pulling me back up. I molded to his chest, feeling his heart pound against my shoulder.
“There’s something I want to tell you before we do this.”
“What’s that?”
His hands moved up my thighs and cupped my breasts. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I laughed breathlessly. “You said that the first time you kissed me—minus the cursing. Do you remember?”
“Of course, I do. We were twelve. You came over to my house and snuck me away from my tennis lesson. We hid behind a palm tree and in the middle of giggling like we did something really bad, I kissed you. Then I found out about the affair and everything changed. If I could go back and do things differently, I would.”
“I wouldn’t. If things had been different, I wouldn’t have Adam. I wouldn’t have gone to the academy. I wouldn’t have fallen for you, Jaxson, Maverick, and Ezra. All that matters is that we are here together now.”
“That reminds me of the other thing I want to tell you.”
“What, baby?”
“I want to tell you that I love you.”
Holding my breath, my eyes fluttered shut. I held still as I tried to capture everything about this moment. The feel of his hands, the sound of his breathing, the pounding of his heart, and the emotions swirling inside of me.
“I love you too.”
Ryder’s hands made a slow journey down to my thighs and no more words passed between us. I gasped when he pushed into me and my exclamations only got louder as he moved. Every thrust brought me closer to the edge until I tipped over and the black spots exploded in my mind. Collapsing on the bed, I rode the aftermath down as Ryder lay on top of me.
“I love you,” he whispered.
I would never get tired of hearing him say that.
Chapter Nine
The rest of my winter break was perfect. Ryder and I spent an amazing weekend watching movies, Christmas shopping, and exploring the resort. At night, we made love until we fell into an exhausted sleep.
I thought things couldn’t get any better until we went to Maverick’s house for Christmas dinner. Our families had such a great time, the Beaumonts invited us back for another year. I could picture us all around the fireplace year after year, laughing and eating as a family, and it was a picture I liked.
As the night wound down, Maverick and I snuck away for a private moment in his room. It wasn’t until we dressed that I told him about my decision to go back to school. He took it as well as Ezra did—as in not at all.
“They threatened your life, Val. This isn’t a game anymore.”
“It was never a game. It’s bigger than me now. Eric is still missing. The Spades turned on their own. They showed that there is nothing they wouldn’t do, and that they have no intention of stopping. I have to stop them for all the innocent students like me who passed through the gates looking for a dream and ended up with a nightmare.
“But why you?” He came around the bed and grasped my arms. “Let’s tell the police.”
“Tell them what? Who would they haul in for questioning?”
He tossed his head. “I don’t know—the Edens. They have to know who the other families are.”
“If that was enough to get their son back, Sofia wouldn’t be texting me about visiting their manor and finding Mrs. Eden won’t get out of bed. She’s been a wreck since it happened.”
“This is crazy,” he burst out, throwing up his hands. “All of this is crazy.”
“I know it is, but unlike anyone else, I know how to end it.” I grabbed his chin and made him look me in the eyes. “I have a plan.”
“What plan?”
“One you can help me with so that this can all be over for good, and we can go back to planning our future in that tiny apartment with my mischievous three-year-old.”
A smile graced his lips as he enfolded me in his arms. “Who said anything about tiny?”
Convincing the men I loved that I had to go back was the easy part. Then there was Mom.
“Val, I don’t understand this. Why would you go back there after what happened?”
“It’s my last semester,” I said as I packed my bag. Adam sat amid the pile of clothes, watching television while he ate his snack. “How would it look to Somerset if I changed schools?”
“Who cares how it looks? They would understand if you explained the situation.”
“They might, but it’s more than that. I don’t want to leave. You didn’t raise me to run away when things get tough. I’m not going to start now.”
“Valentina.” Mom pulled the sweater out of my hand and spun me around. “This is bigger than tough. You were attacked and thrown blindfolded and bound into a swamp!”
I looked over at Adam. He was no longer watching the screen. A frown marred his face as he looked at us.
“Mom, please, don’t scare him. I promise you; I’ll be fine.”
“No.”
“But I have to go back,” I argued. “You know what’s going on there. I have to put a stop to this because it’s clear no one else will.”
Folding her arms, she shrugged. “That’s Evergreen’s problem—the school and the headmaster. If he’s happy to churn out a graduation class full of sneaks and felons, that’s for the authorities to sort out, not you. You’re not going back to that school.”
“I’m eighteen. I don’t need permission.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Mom’s brows shot up her head. “Oh, you want to play that card?”
“No.” I backed down immediately. “I
didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that this is important to me. I’ve gone through a lot to graduate from this school.”
“Things that I am only just hearing about. I’m your mother, Valentina. How can you keep so much from me?”
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want to talk to you. I was afraid you’d pull me out of school.”
“You’re right; I would have. Just like I’m doing now.”
She spun on her heels and marched toward the door.
“Will you at least listen to my plan?” I burst out. “I have a way to get through this safe. I can take everyone down and end this once and for all.”
“It does not matter what your plan is. I have to think of your safety.”
“Please, just listen.”
“No.” The door swung shut behind her.
It took me pleading and cajoling for most of the day before she finally sat down and listened to my plan. Then there was another hour of explaining it backward and forward until she grudgingly agreed it was a good one. The result was that I got to return to Evergreen, but I had to call her three times a day and assure her I was okay. If I missed a call, she was driving up to the school and yanking me out.
Cresting the lone road that led to Evergreen wasn’t like all the times before. I had felt so many things during the moments I topped the hill and saw those gates—joy, eagerness, dread, sorrow, resignation. None of those emotions felt close to what I was feeling, but maybe it was because it was hard to think with Mom’s steady stream of warnings.
“Do not go anywhere alone.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t go chasing anyone into the woods in the middle of the night.”
“I’ve learned that lesson.”
“You know you can trust Sofia and the boys. Stick with them.”
“I will, Mom.”
“Call me every single day. I mean it.”
“I know. I promise, I’ll call.”
When she pulled up to the curb, I climbed out and got in the backseat to give Adam a hug and kiss goodbye. Mom’s kiss and hug goodbye for me was ten times more strangling.
“I love you. Be safe, not stupid.”
I chuckled. “Yes, Olivia.”
“Mom, baby. Always Mom.”
I gave her an extra squeeze. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
She let me go with obvious reluctance and got back in the car. I waved them off until their car disappeared, and then I turned and faced the gates.
Four figures were staring back at me. I steeled myself as I walked up to them.
“Are you ready?” Jaxson asked.
“I’m ready.”
Together, we turned and passed through the gates. Every eye latched onto us from the seniors to the returning freshmen, and I read the question in their gaze.
What is she doing back?
I expected their surprise. I expected Ace’s anger for defying them, but no one would be expecting what I would do next.
“First things first,” I said as we crossed the lawn for the dorms. “We find those yearbooks.”
“YOU WOULDN’T THINK that this would be so hard.” Sofia flipped through her mother’s yearbook for the fifth time. She was propped up on my bed next to the stack of yearbooks the boys had brought from home. “But none of us have books farther than when our parents went to school. I’m pretty sure the Edens only did because they’re obsessed with this legacy stuff.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe I lost Eric’s books. They were right there and it took me so long to figure it out.”
The book dropped onto Sofia’s lap. “I can’t believe we lost Eric.”
I turned away. It was still hard to think of that night. It was even harder to comprehend how we were a month into the new semester and Eric was still missing.
“Do you think he’s dead?” Sofia asked.
“I can’t let myself go there, Sof. It’s too much.”
“It’s all been too much.”
I couldn’t deny that. I was right about Ace not being pleased about me returning to school. The first few days of classes, I received wave after wave of threatening texts.
Ace: You’ll regret coming back.
Ace: I will get you out of this school if it’s the last thing you do.
Ace: Drowning in that alligator swamp was too good for you. I’ll have to think of something better.
It continued in that vein until I finally blocked their number. It might not have been the best idea, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t need their poison leaking into my life anymore. The next thing Ace wanted to say to me, they could say it to my face.
That was a meeting I was sure would be soon, but as the weeks ticked down and we didn’t manage to find more yearbooks, I grew less confident.
“If only we could just ask people for them,” Sofia said.
“We don’t want Ace to know we’re still looking. They think they’ve beaten me by whisking the duffle bag away. I want them to keep thinking that.”
“They might not find out. We barely see the second class nowadays.”
I snorted. Less than barely was more accurate. I hadn’t so much as laid eyes on Natalie in two weeks. The first week of the new semester started out like our new normal. We were on the fourth floor enduring our second classroom and mealtimes, but it turned out, we couldn’t handle sharing the same hallway either.
Our group was heading to English on the fourth day of class, when the new Knights passed by. Darren smirked at Paisley and said “nice tits,” and the spark lit the match. Paisley hauled off and smacked him across the face. He stumbled back and had no time to recover before Kai was on him. They went down fists flying, and within minutes, we were all fighting.
It was terrible. More people jumped into the fray, letting months of frustration bring them to the boiling point. Penelope clawed Sofia’s arm causing deep, bleeding gouges and she responded by ripping out a handful of her hair. Two guys jumped Maverick and he knocked them clear across the hall. They came back, refusing to give up, and then Jaxson, Ryder, and Ezra got involved.
Natalie came for the person that had been the object of her hatred for years: me. She grabbed my head and smacked it into the locker. Head pounding, I whipped around and hit her in the face with my backpack. There was still a bloodstain on it from where I broke her nose.
It took five teachers and four security guards to break us up. The next day, Evergreen yelled at us in the auditorium until he was blue in the face. No one tried to haul him off this time. Despite the haranguing, no one was punished. Much like no one was punished for the video at the hotel. That was good news for Claire, Ciara, Kai, and Paisley, but it didn’t satisfy their need for retribution. Maybe Evergreen sensed that because when he brought us in for a second assembly, it was to tell us the two classes were being separated indefinitely.
My class was now on the first floor while the freshmen had been moved to the second. We shared nothing with the other seniors and had no reason to see them. This cut way down on the harassment, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t over.
“We don’t see them, but there could still be Spades hiding out in our class. We can’t tell anyone we’re looking for the yearbooks.”
“We have to do something, Val, because it’s been weeks and we’re nowhere. Your mom cheered you on for breaking that bitch’s nose, but what if the next fight makes her pull you out of school.”
“What else can I do?”
Sighing, she let her head fall against the headboard. “I don’t know. How about asking the one other person who could have copies going back that far?”
“Like who?”
“Headmaster Seamus Evergreen.”
“JUST ASK EVERGREEN?” Jaxson repeated. “That’s the plan?”
“It couldn’t hurt,” I said the next day. It was a crisp February morning, but we stuck to our decision to spend the Saturday having breakfast by the fountain. The wind whipped up a chill, but I was warm by Ezra’s sid
e. “She’s right that he’s the one most likely to have a pile of school yearbooks around. They could be in administration.”
“He has no reason to let you see them if he does.”
“I’m just going to ask. If it doesn’t work, I’ll think of something else.”
“Okay,” said Jaxson. “You’re right, it can’t hurt to ask. I’ll go with you to talk to him.”
“We will go,” Ryder corrected.
I laughed. “For what? To protect me from his steepled-fingers and disappointed glare? He’s not going to do anything to me.”
Ryder shrugged. “And yet, we’re still going with you.”
I rolled my eyes, but let it go. I was dating four highly protective guys. This was my fate.
“Can we get back to what we were talking about before?” Ezra cut in. He peered over my head at Maverick. “Ryder and I got into Somerset too, Rick, so I don’t know why you think you’re going to be the one who gets an apartment with Valentina.”
“Because I asked her first.”
“The fuck does that have to do with anything.” Ezra put his finger under my chin and lifted until I was looking into those eyes. “Don’t you want to live with me?”
A smile curled my lips. “Of course, I do.”
“Stop seducing her with your devil eyes, Ezra,” Jaxson protested. “Baby, what about me? The studio isn’t far from campus. We can get a nice place, fill it with records, and go to the beach every weekend.”
“Really, man?” Maverick said. “You’re resorting to bribes?”
“I don’t have to bribe her. I’ve got this”—he gestured to his body—“and she can’t resist it.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. “It’s true, I can’t.”
Ezra glanced at Ryder. He was busy eating his eggs while the battle raged around him. “Why aren’t you saying anything, Shea?”
He lifted his shoulders. “Because the solution is obvious, isn’t it?”
We all stared at him blankly.
He set down his fork. “Okay, four of us need to go to Somerset, one of us needs to go to the studio, one of us needs a good preschool, one of us has to stay home and be there for my mom, and all of us want to live with Valentina. The only thing that solves all of those problems is if the five of you come and live in Shea Manor with us.” He picked up his fork again and speared a bit of egg. “I’ve already asked Mom and she’s excited. She said the manor was meant to be filled with people.”