by Nicole Fox
Then, he explains that we tried to leave and go get help, but Ingram blocked the way and threatened our lives. We ran him over, and then were stopped by Mr. Foster.
“And how did he end up … like that?” the officer asks, eyeballing the scene that detectives are still processing.
Finn tells the story with such earnestness that no one really questions him, and when he shows them the security tapes from the driveway, they back up his story completely.
Within a few hours, the police clear the scene and release us to go with the promise that we will be available for more questioning in the morning.
We promise and then stumble back up to the house.
“You’re shaking.” We are in Finn’s bathroom upstairs, and he is running his hands down my arms, trying to stop the trembling.
“I don’t know why. I’m not even cold.”
He reaches around me and starts a shower. Immediately, the room fills with steam.
I lift my arms over my head as he pulls his hoodie off me. Then, I step out of my shorts and panties when he slides the material down my legs.
I really must be in shock because I barely notice when Finn strips down as well, and helps me into the shower. I’m so grateful for the warm water and the comfort of his arms that I barely register we are naked at all.
Finn rubs soap down my arms and legs, wiping away all of the small spots of blood from the chase through the woods.
I push him down to the lip of the tub and use the sprayer to clean the soles of his feet from his barefoot run. There are several deep gashes that will need to be bandaged, but he assures me he is fine.
“I’m more worried about you,” he says.
I drop my eyes and don’t answer. Words aren’t coming easy right now.
When we are done, Finn slips a fluffy white robe around me. And when he leads me to his room, I don’t resist.
I text my mom to tell her I’m spending the night out. I don’t want her to worry. Then I crawl underneath the blankets of his bed and close my eyes.
“I can’t believe we were lying here only a few hours ago,” he says, reaching down to squeeze my hand.
“It doesn’t feel real. We were having a party, and then—” Suddenly, the thought occurs to me. “What happened to the rest of the Golden Boys? Where are they? Are they—”
“Fine,” he says, smoothing a comforting hand down my arm. “They scared the Hell Princes off and then Officer Ingram showed up and told them all to clear out. The guys didn’t know they couldn’t trust him, so they listened. But they are all home and safe.”
I sigh with relief. “Good.”
“Is it?” Finn asks.
I frown at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he says softly, unsure, “you learned a lot of new information tonight, and I would understand if you don’t have particularly warm feelings about my friends.”
“You told me everything that happened was because of Nico.”
“Partially,” he says quickly. “He took things too far.”
“And you said the guys pulled him off me? You called the ambulance?”
Finn nods.
“Then, I’m not thrilled about any of it, but it sounds like you all did your best in a crappy situation, and I probably owe you all my life.”
Finn gives me a sad smile and kisses my temple. “Thank you.”
I nuzzle into him and then sit up suddenly, a finger pressed to his chest. “But no more orgies in the park for you. You’re all mine, Finn Foster.”
He squints at me, his blue eyes bright and hopeful. Then he laughs and pulls me close.
“Good.”
46
Finn
One Month Later
I hear a key in the front door and then the rustle of Lily dropping her bag by the door and slipping out of her sneakers.
She didn’t tell me she was coming over, but she has been in and out of the house just as much as I have the last few weeks, so I’ve come to expect her at any moment.
“How was your first day back?” she calls through the house. I hear her pad across the hardwood floor through the living room. “Where are you?”
“Kitchen,” I yell back, pushing aside the stack of papers in front of me.
When she appears in the doorway, it feels like a weight is lifted from my shoulders. Like I can breathe. I just saw her a few hours ago, but seeing her at school isn’t the same as seeing her in my house.
She has on a pair of high-waisted skinny jeans with rips across the thighs and knees. Her oversized sweater is tucked into the front of the waistband, giving a hint of the trim figure that is hidden beneath. A figure I’ve fully explored in almost every way possible over the last few weeks.
After all of the shit went down the night of the Winter Formal, Lily stayed with me for a while. Ravenlake Prep—and most of Ravenlake, in general—was left reeling after the news of my father’s crimes began to break, and the administration thought it would be best if we stayed away from the school until the next semester started.
So, Lily and I received homework and online lessons from our teachers, and have spent most of our time sequestered at my house, studying and … not-so-much studying.
Glancing around the kitchen, there isn’t a surface she and I haven’t marked as our own. We’ve found the promise of exploring each other’s bodies makes excellent motivation to get work done.
If I do my calculus, Lily drops to her knees.
If Lily writes her biology case study, I’ll lay her back on the counter and study her with my fingers and tongue.
Months of beautiful debauchery that I will never forget. Months that make sitting in a normal classroom again feel like actual torture.
“You know how it was,” I groan.
She pouts out her pink lower lip, her brows pulled downward in mock sympathy. “Aw, is the little boy suffering sex withdrawal?”
She is teasing me, but I don’t care. I turn on the stool, open my arms, and nod, an exaggerated frown on my face.
Lily walks into my arms and buries her face in my neck, her warm breath blowing across my neck when she laughs.
“You might actually have a problem, you know that? We met in the parking lot for lunch.”
“First of all, a quickie in the parking lot does not count for anything.”
“Okay. Next time you want some head, I’ll remember that.”
“Hold on,” I say quickly. “That isn’t what I meant. It’s just that ten minutes in the middle of the day is nothing compared to what I’ve grown accustomed to.”
I pull her against me and pull the collar of her sweater away so I can kiss her shoulder and neck, still talking as I go.
“The things I want to do to you cannot be done during a passing period. I need a large window of time.”
She sighs when I suck her earlobe in my mouth, but when I slide my hand down her waist and head for the opening of her jeans, she swats my hands away and pushes me back.
“Not until we talk about your day,” she says, straightening her clothes. “If we start that now, we’ll never talk about anything important.”
I want to argue, but I know she’s right.
In the first few weeks after … everything … we tore into each other.
Every time anything remotely serious was brought up, we took solace in one another and fucked the pain away.
As a coping strategy, it worked for a while. Until it didn’t.
I found Lily sobbing in the shower when she didn’t think I was home, and I realized that we had to talk about things.
We had to deal with what happened, with what we did—both to each other and other people.
I’ve never been big on feelings, but I talked to Lily about growing up with my dad.
About the pressure he put on me and the threats he used to control me.
Lily told me about that night in the park. About how out of control she felt and how scared she was. She told me that she didn’t think she’d ever have contro
l over her life again, which is why she gave in so easily to my demands.
She figured letting me control her was better than floating around aimlessly.
Hearing that almost broke me. To know that I’d been so close to completing my father’s plan, to breaking her down until she was nothing but putty in my hands.
So, we spent the next several weeks talking.
And talking.
And talking.
We told each other every bad thing we’d ever done. Every shameful thought we’d never shared, and every fantasy.
Some of them we even made come true.
I don’t think I’ve ever talked so much in my life, but at the end of it, rather than feeling weak and scared, I felt powerful. I felt more in control of myself and my emotions and my actions than I ever had before, and it was all thanks to Lily.
It made us closer.
Still, even with all of that practice, I don’t want to talk right now. I want to tear her clothes off and bury myself inside of her.
But that won’t happen until I unburden myself.
“The first day back sucked,” I admit. “People used to be scared of me because my family was rich and powerful. Now, they’re scared of me because they think I’m insane. I felt like a freak show on display all day.”
Lily frowns and cups my jaw in her hand. “I’m sorry.”
I shrug. “At least people know better than to bring any of it up to me. So, I didn’t have to deck anyone, and that is a positive.”
She smiles. “I’d say so. Getting into a fight on your first day back wouldn’t be ideal.”
“Probably not.” I wrinkle my nose and shake my head. “What about you?”
“Fine,” she says, lifting one of her shoulders. “Mrs. Becker is letting me do an independent study instead of the normal art class curriculum. She thinks I have a lot of talent and is going to help me hone my doodles and find a medium I can work within.”
“That’s amazing,” I say, grabbing her sweater and pulling her close for a quick kiss. “You’re amazing.”
Lily grins. “I think it will be fun.”
“I’m sure it will be. What about the rest of your day?”
Her eyes dart away and she bites her lower lip, hesitating.
“What?” I press. “What’s wrong?”
She looks up at me from beneath her brows. “Nothing’s wrong … and that’s kind of the problem.”
I frown. “Okay, that doesn’t make any sense.”
She sighs and leans against me, her fingers drawing small circles on my thighs. “I guess I feel kind of guilty because you’re having a harder time than you were before, but my life is, like, way better than it was.”
A surprised laugh bursts out of me. “You feel guilty because your life is good?”
She twists her lips to the corner of her mouth and nods.
I grab her chin and lift her face up, forcing her to look at me. “Hey. You don’t need to hide anything from me. Or be afraid to tell me things. Or feel sorry for me. Do you understand?”
She nods, her eyes angled down in concern.
“You’re my queen. Your successes are my successes, and vice versa.”
“Your queen?” she asks, a coy smile on her lips.
“Do you like the sound of that?”
Lily presses herself more firmly against me, the distance she forced between us a few minutes ago all but forgotten.
No matter how hard we try, we can’t keep our hands off one another for long.
“Definitely,” she says. “I love it.”
I slide to the edge of my stool and roll our hips together. “I love you.”
Her expression softens, and then she is against me, her lips finding mine, and we lose ourselves in the kiss.
I stand up and scoop her off the floor, setting her up on the countertop, and she wraps her legs around my waist. We kiss until I’m hard and pressed against her thigh, until she is moaning into my mouth and rolling herself against my length.
Suddenly, Lily breaks away again, her hands on my chest.
I groan. “Come on, baby. We’ve talked enough.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Cora and her friends found me today in the hall.”
Some of the heat in my belly dissipates. “What happened?”
“We were walking towards each other, and I didn’t move out of her way. I forced her and her friends to part around me,” she says. “But when they did, Cora bumped my shoulder and made me drop one of my books.”
“Then what happened?”
I’ve seen firsthand that Lily can take care of herself, that she can fight her own battles, but I still can’t help but plan out my revenge in the back of my mind. If Cora doesn’t respect her, I’ll make sure she learns to.
No one is going to disrespect my girl.
But Lily’s face breaks into a devious smile, one I’ve rarely seen from her. “She picked it up for me, apologized, and then tucked tail and practically ran away.”
The angry fire in me eases back into lust, hot at the idea of Lily commanding such respect. “Smart girl.”
“She’s learning,” she says with a shrug. “Everyone was nice to me all day. No whispers behind my back, no rude comments about my mom—nothing. I finally feel like I belong here.”
I lean down and nip at her neck, tired of not tasting her. “Because you do belong here.”
“And,” she adds, curling away from me and pushing on my chest, trying to get some space, “I talked to my mom after school, and she told me she has a meeting with the principal tomorrow to talk about a promotion.”
I school my expression into surprised interest. “Oh, really? Great.”
“Yeah,” she says, eyes narrowed. “The promotion comes with a significant raise, too. And since my mom has only been there a few months, it seems pretty sudden.”
“Hm. She must do good work.”
Lily stares at me, her eyes combing over me until finally, she pokes a finger into my sternum. “What did you do, mister?”
“Nothing!” I hold my hands up in innocence. “I didn’t do anything.”
She raises an eyebrow at me, crosses her legs, and then wraps her arms around her chest. “No touching until you spill.”
I sigh. “I didn’t do anything … mostly. Just one conversation.”
“With who? About what?”
I sit down on the stool and sag forward. “My father was the biggest donor at the school and now that he is gone, there was a significant financial hole to fill. So, I went to Principal Cooprider and told her I would continue the payments if she made your mom head of maintenance operations.”
Lily’s mouth falls open. “Why did you do that?”
“Why do you think?”
“Because you feel bad for us? Because we’re poor and need help?”
I bark out a laugh, and Lily snaps her attention to me, suspicion and confusion warring in her features.
“No! Because I fucking love you, and I want your mom to love me, too. I figure it will be a lot easier for her to like me if I prove I’m going to take care of both of you.”
She tips her head to the side and flips her blonde hair back over her shoulder. “You want to take care of me?”
“Obviously,” I growl, the tone of my voice much too harsh for the sentiment.
But I’m frustrated because I didn’t want her to know about the promotion. Or anything else I’ve been doing to clean up my father’s messes.
My dad had a long list of people he was blackmailing, and I’ve gone to each of them to let them know the threats are over. I don’t want to carry his mistakes into my new life.
The only way to do that is to cut all of the strings he’d been pulling on for years.
I even went to the Hell Princes and told them the whole story. They’d already read the truth in the paper just like everyone else, but I went to them and made it clear that I didn’t plan to hold any grudges.
We will never be friends or allies, but I have no pl
ans to enact revenge on them so long as they don’t want revenge on me.
We reached a tentative understanding. One I hope will keep me and Lily safe.
I went by the hospital, too. Dallas is out of the coma and free of the breathing tube. He’s got a long road to recovery ahead of him.
But I left some money that will help. A few hundred thousand dollars, actually.
I know it’s not enough for him to forget what happened between us. But even if it wasn’t exactly my fault, I still feel guilt. This is the right thing to do.
I left it anonymously. But he’ll know. He’ll know who it’s from. What it means.
Lily reaches out for me, and I give her my hand. As soon as I do, she yanks me forward, wraps her legs around me, and crushes her mouth to mine.
Our lips slant across one another, hot and harsh, and she arches herself into me.
Clearly, the time for talking is over, and I could not be more thrilled.
I peel her sweater over her head and throw it on the floor. Then, I unbutton her jeans, and she lifts her hips so I can pull them off.
As I’m working the tight denim down her legs, she looks down at the stack of papers we are scattering across the countertop and then picks up one of the pages.
“What is this?”
“No way,” I say, freeing one of her legs and then the other. “No more talking.”
I try to pluck the paper out of her hand but she dodges me, twisting away to read it. Then, she gasps. “Is this …”
“My inheritance, okay?” I grab the paper from her hands and lay it down on the counter. “I’m eighteen, so I met with the lawyers and all of this is mine.”
Her eyes go wide, and she gestures around generally. “All of this?”
I nod. “The house, the money … all of it.”
“Holy shit,” she breathes. “That means you can do whatever you want.”
“It does.”
She blinks, looking down at her lap. “So, what do you want?”
I smooth my hands slowly up her thighs, feeling the silky softness of her skin, and then grip her hips. She yelps when I pick her up and start carrying her through the house.
“What I want more than anything is to take my beautiful girlfriend upstairs, ravage her senseless, and then decide everything else later … together.”