by Nicole Fox
I let the lock go, the metal settling heavily against my collarbone, and try to shrug nonchalantly. “I bought it this summer, I think. I just found it in my backpack.”
I expect her to argue. To see the necklace for what it is. Ask who gave it to me, and why.
Instead, she just hums in acceptance. “Well, it’s cute.”
When Mom goes to take a shower, I get up and study the necklace in the mirror above the small kitchen table.
The links are solid metal and heavy. I’d need a special tool to break through them, and even if I did, I don’t know what Finn would do if he saw the necklace missing.
Give me another one, probably. Punish me for removing it.
The idea of punishment at the hands of Finn makes me shiver. It isn’t an entirely bad feeling.
28
Finn
“Where are we even going?” Viktor asks, trying to stretch out his long legs in the passenger side of my car. His seat is pushed all the way back, but he is only comfortable in luxury cars or big trucks. Sports cars aren’t made for the absurdly tall. “My ass is going numb.”
“We’re driving. Seeing and being seen.”
Viktor snorts. “What is this, American Graffiti? Are we out ‘cruisin’ for chicks’?”
I slam my foot on the gas for a second and send Viktor’s head back into the headrest. He curses me out under his breath and readjusts in his seat again.
The truth is, I don’t know what the fuck we’re doing. I just didn’t want to be home anymore.
Lily is becoming a real sticking point, and as if I’m not already thinking about her too much, now my dad can’t shut up about her.
He is more fixated than ever on getting her out of the school and out of Ravenlake.
“It’s up to you, Finn,” he says over and over again. “With my status around town, I can’t be tied to scaring teenage girls into dropping out of school. That girl and I were connected in the local press all summer, and it needs to be clear to everyone that we tried to welcome her in. That I tried to make her comfortable. So, the task of getting her out of our way lands on you. Are you taking care of it?”
All I hear is nonstop nagging to deal with Lily, as though it’s possible for me to think about anything else right now.
I thought once I fucked her, my fixation would go away. Whatever strange draw she had over me was just a bit of latent horniness, and once I checked that box, I’d be back to normal.
Except, that didn’t happen.
If anything, it’s worse.
Every time we are close, I want her. Unlike with other girls, I don’t get tired of touching Lily.
Lily is different.
She’s not like a bag of potato chips where the first few bites are good and the rest are just salty convenience—something you eat because they’re there and available. Every time I get a taste of her, I want another one twice as bad. I never get used to the strange frenzy that comes from being with her. She is a drug in my system. A hit of dopamine stronger than anything else I’ve experienced before.
“Holy shit!” Viktor shouts, pulling me out of my salty-snack thoughts and making me jerk the wheel.
When I realize there is nothing in the road, I reach over and punch his shoulder hard. “Don’t scream while I’m driving, idiot.”
Viktor ignores me and points out the windshield. “That’s her, right?”
“Who?” I follow his finger and immediately realize who he is talking about.
Lily is hard to miss. Especially when she is wearing nothing but her tiny running shorts and a sports bra.
She is jogging down the sidewalk on Main Street, earbuds in, her lean runner’s legs tanned and flexed. The spandex shorts hug her curves and leave very little to the imagination.
So much so that I want to grab Viktor’s ear and direct his attention literally anywhere else.
“After everything, you think she’d be ruined on running in the dark,” Viktor says with a suggestive wag of his eyebrows.
The jealousy coiled in my stomach becomes instantly protective.
Lily shouldn’t be out at night by herself. Especially not while looking like that. Someone worse than me could come along and find her, and what would she do then?
I yank the wheel to the right and pull up along the curb. “Get out.”
Viktor’s mouth falls open. “What?”
“You said your ass was numb. So, go for a walk.”
He blinks dumbly at me, not understanding. “Are you kicking me out of the car?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“For her?” He points her retreating frame out again as though half of my attention isn’t already on her plump backside.
I nod again and circle a finger to hurry him along. “Glad you’re keeping up.”
He snorts and shakes his head. “What the fuck is going on with you two? I know this is all some plan you have, and all of us are supposed to trust you, but it seems to me like maybe you’ve lost sight of why this all started.”
Lily is getting further away every second. If she turns off the main road, I might lose her.
Plus, I absolutely do not want to have a heart-to-heart with Viktor about … anything at all.
Especially not about Lily.
“None of us have spoken to Nico at all since he left,” Viktor continues. “So, I don’t think this is about that anymore. And Cora thinks the same thing. She said you were—”
“I was what?” I snap back, face screwed up. “Let’s just skip over what the fuck you were doing talking to that psycho bitch and just focus on what enlightening things she had to say about me. I’d love to know.”
Viktor rolls his eyes. “It wasn’t like that. We ran into each other, and she just mentioned you were especially … motivated when it came to Lily. That’s all. I wasn’t talking shit about you behind your back. You know I wouldn’t do that, right?”
“I don’t even care if you were,” I snarl. “If you and Cora are so tight, why don’t you have her come pick you up?”
I point to the passenger side door and Viktor’s shoulders sag. “Come on, dude. It’s late and dark and—”
“Walk, bitch.” I lean across him and open the door.
Knowing better than to test me when I’m annoyed, Viktor gets out and stands on the curb, looking every bit like the abandoned puppy he is.
As I drive away, he lifts two middle fingers in a farewell, and I give him two quick “fuck you” honks.
He’s mad now, but Viktor has done much worse to me in pursuit of pussy. Once I remind him of that, he’ll let it go.
Lily is out of my eyeline when I pull away from the curb, but I catch up to her in a couple blocks. She is still on Main Street, probably sticking to the well-lit areas of town for her evening run to avoid any trouble.
When I pull up alongside her and roll down the passenger side window, she snaps her head in my direction, losing an earbud in the process.
I can see the disappointment on her face. Trouble found her anyway.
“Get in.”
She shakes her head and gestures to her body, as though I’m not already keenly focused on it. “I’m running.”
I pull forward slowly, keeping pace with her. “Then stop.”
“I don’t want to.”
Her heart-shaped face is flushed with exercise, and I’ve seen that same warmth in her cheeks before. In fact, I’ve put it there.
The memory of it makes me shift in my seat, uncomfortable and eager.
The collar I put around her neck is still there, the lock bouncing just above her breasts as she runs. Her chest is shiny with perspiration.
Holy fuck, I want to lick her clean.
“Don’t make me stop the car,” I say as evenly as I can with such a perfect view of her ass moving beneath her shorts.
She snorts. “You sound like a dad. Will you pull over and spank me?”
She meant it as a joke, but I watch as her eyes widen and her face gets noticeably more red when she realizes wha
t she’s said.
“Ask and you shall receive.”
I hit the brakes, and reach across the car to open the door for her.
Lily takes a few more steps before she turns to face me, hands on her hips.
I will get out and drag her into the car if I have to. Even if there were witnesses, they wouldn’t do shit when they realized who I am. Who my father is. Even if Lily was shoved into my car kicking and screaming, I’d get away with her.
Which is exactly why I want her to get in the car.
What if someone worse than me comes along?
She pulls her lower lip between her teeth, thinking it over for a second. Then, finally, she drops her gaze to the sidewalk, shakes her head, and climbs into the passenger seat.
I pull away from the curb before her door is even closed, the acceleration pressing her body back into the seat, and she yelps in surprise and scrambles for her seat belt.
“You’re in a hurry.”
I nod. “I just robbed a bank, so …”
She turns to me, eyebrows furrowed in consideration before she realizes I’m joking.
“Did you think I could actually be serious?” I ask, a laugh forcing its way out of me.
Lily gives a reluctant smile, chewing at the corner of her mouth. “You say that like it’s absurd, but I don’t know what you’re capable of.”
I probably shouldn’t be flattered, but I am. The idea that Lily thinks I have enough power in this town to rob a bank and then cruise around Main Street speaks to the impression I’ve made.
I don’t hate it.
“Generally, you can go ahead and assume I don’t commit felonies on a weeknight,” I say. “I reserve those for weekends.”
Her face goes flat, and I realize she is thinking about Dallas.
Fucking Dallas.
“I told you I didn’t do that.”
“I didn’t say anything,” she says, holding up her hands.
“You didn’t have to. It’s written all over your face. Besides, they said he’s getting out of the hospital soon.”
I stop at an intersection and see a group of kids sitting at a table in front of one of three frozen yogurt shops in Ravenlake. I don’t recognize any of the kids, so they probably go to Public. Lily is watching them too.
I wonder if she recognizes any of them. I wonder if she still talks to any of them.
She doesn’t have many friends that I know of at Ravenlake Prep, aside from me.
Though neither of us would classify our relationship as a friendship, I’m sure.
When the light turns green, she turns away from the window and faces forward, and again, her expression is obvious. Longing.
“Seriously, you need to learn to control that thing,” I say, drawing a circle in the air around her face. “It’s like an open book. No, more than that. It’s an audiobook. I don’t even have to read it; the information is just given to me.”
She pulls her face into an exaggerated frown, her pert nose wrinkling, and her pouty lower lip sticking out even further. I want to bite it.
“Maybe you should just stop looking at me.”
“You say that like it’s easy.”
The words are out before I can consider them, but when I see the way her eyes widen even further, and her mouth pulls back into a look of restrained amusement, I can’t find it in me to regret them.
Whether Lily wants to admit it or not, she wants me, and she wants me to want her.
That was always the plan. To tempt her, to corrupt her.
I just never expected I’d corrupt myself in the process.
I realize all at once that I’ve been staring at her too long, and I jerk my attention back to the road and clear my throat, gripping the wheel to remind myself of where I am and what I’m doing.
It’s hard, though, because the scent of her is so fucking distracting.
I’ve heard a lot about pheromones and never particularly understood what that meant. I’ve smelled women when they are sweaty, and they smell just as rank as any guy in the football locker room. There has never been anything pleasant about muskiness.
Until now.
Somehow, Lily smells sweet. The sweat cooling on her skin is her own personal brand of perfume, and the AC is circulating it through the car, overwhelming me. It’s like I’m a dog and Pavlov just rang his bell.
I want her. Now.
I want to lick her skin and taste her. I want to take a bite of that lower lip and slide my hands down her lean legs. I want to slip inside of her to the hilt and watch her shudder beneath me.
It’s more than getting my rocks off. I want to see her smile … and that is the scariest part of all.
That is definitely not part of the plan.
“Has anyone asked you about the collar?”
“No.” She answers quickly and sits up in her seat, her fingers drumming on her bare thigh. “Why? Should they be? I mean, do people around here know what this means?”
“The collar?”
“The necklace,” she corrects. “The lock.”
I wish they did. If people did know, I wouldn’t have to worry about Lily as much as I do. A lot of the scum in this town know not to mess with my family and not to touch what is mine.
Though, it could also be a danger. I don’t exactly have enemies, but there are plenty of people who don’t like me enough that they’d want to fuck with me through Lily.
The Hell Princes being one such group.
“No. No one knows what it means.”
She reaches up and strokes the locket between her thumb and forefinger, her brow furrowed. “So, you’ve never given anyone something like this before? I’m the first?”
I realize suddenly that I should have lied.
“I just don’t broadcast my private shit. That’s all I meant.”
“Cora told me you don’t date,” Lily says. “She told me I was different. I thought it was all bullshit after she turned on me, but … was it? Or was she telling the truth about that? About us?”
Shit, shit, shit.
Alarm bells are ringing in my head, warning me that my next words matter. A lot.
My goal is to wear Lily down. To make her question her own actions and choices. To make her an unreliable source for all information regarding me and my family and my friends.
If she takes information about me to the police, I want her to look like a woman scorned. But more than that, I want her to be so beaten down and confused by everything that she is too afraid to go to the police. I want her to question whether she is guilty in some way, and ultimately, leave.
That’s what I’m supposed to want, anyway.
That’s what my dad wants.
I take the next turn hard, making Lily grip the door to keep from slamming into it, and snort. “You aren’t special if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
“I wasn’t,” she says quickly, her voice high, betraying her. That’s exactly what she thought.
“I’ve told you that I’m no hero, Lily. I’m not the good guy, and I’m not going to become the good guy if you simply love me hard enough.”
“I don’t love you!”
I wave a hand and continue, ignoring her. “What we have is physical. It benefits me, and when it doesn’t do that anymore, it’s over. This isn’t a relationship.”
“That isn’t what I want,” she snaps, arms crossed over her chest. “That isn’t what I’m saying.”
We are in the industrial portion of downtown, and I pull into a lot between two buildings and park in the dark of the alley.
When I turn the ignition off and turn towards Lily, she refuses to meet my eyes.
“Isn’t it, though?”
When I reach out to seize her chin between my fingers, she swats my hand away. Lightning fast, I grab her fingers and pull her towards me, forcing her to meet my eyes. I ignore the constant drip of the melting ice in my chest.
“You want to know if this is anything more than it is, if I actually care about you. To me, that
means you are looking for something more.”
Embarrassment crawls up her neck, a slow tide of blush creeping into her face, revealing all of her secrets.
“That’s not—I’m not—I don’t—” She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. “I just want to know what you want … that’s all. Asking for clarification doesn’t mean I want more. And it definitely doesn’t mean I love you.”
Her brown eyes are piercing on that last point. I ignore the small stab of disappointment in the pit of my stomach.
“Good.”
She tries to pull her hand away, but I tighten my grip until she winces. She glares at me. “Just tell me what you want. Tell me what you want with me and why you are doing … all of this.”
“You want to know what I want?”
Lily’s expression opens up, and she nods slowly. “Yes.”
I lean forward, and her lips part in expectation. Her eyelids flutter, her long lashes brushing over her burning red cheeks. I get close enough that our lips almost touch, and then—
“I want you to touch yourself.”
I feel the rush of her breath on my skin, tempting me to close the distance between us.
Before I can, she yanks her hand out of my grip and jerks away, her back hitting the passenger side door. “What?”
I sit back in my seat, one eyebrow raised. “I want to watch you touch yourself.”
She laughs, but it is mostly out of discomfort. “No. Definitely not.”
“Why not?” I ask flatly.
“Because I’m not in the mood,” she snaps.
“That begs to differ,” I say, gesturing to her perky, pebbled nipples beneath the thin layer of sports bra fabric.
Lily hurries to cross her arms to hide the evidence.
“And I’d bet your panties are wet right now,” I whisper, leaning towards her, my fingers walking across the console towards her. “Every time we’ve touched, you’ve been soaked. Ready instantly.”
She twists away from me, and I blow a stream of air against the back of her neck, making goose bumps sprout along her shoulders.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“Just because my body is ready, doesn’t mean I want it.”
I click my tongue. “But you said this wasn’t a relationship. You said you didn’t want that. So, if you don’t want a relationship, then shouldn’t what your body wants be your only concern? Why does it matter what your mind or heart is saying if your body is clearly attracted to me?”