I blew off the girl who knocked on my door and said I couldn’t help her with homework. I’ll make it up to her when I feel normal again, not like I got hit by a hurricane.
There was no way in hell I was going to open that door after just having my ass spanked. What was I supposed to say? Sorry, I can’t even sit right now, but sure, I’ll help you with your homework? There would be questions I don’t want to give the answer to.
So I stayed put in my room and waited until the morning before I finally had the courage to get out. I swiftly slipped away while they were having breakfast under the pretense that I was going to work on homework in the library.
Now I’m here in school, walking down the giant staircases, carefully holding the banister so I don’t slip. My legs are still stiff, and every time I take a step, I can feel my ass clench. It still burns from his hand, which left an imprint on my skin. Even now, it’s still there, buzzing, humming, reminding me of the wicked pain he inflicted on me.
Pain that quickly turned into a sinful pleasure I should not have been feeling.
God, why can’t I stop thinking about it?
When I finally get to the bottom of the stairs, I breathe a sigh of relief, then straighten my skirt so no one can see the palm of his hand on my ass. This short pink skirt was all I had left to wear today.
My mind isn’t fully there as I head across campus to the grassy area where I normally eat with my friends, but the moment I see them happily chatting away in our usual spot, I freeze.
I can’t go over there.
How am I supposed to face them after what happened?
How am I supposed to sit there with a straight face knowing my ass burns so hard I can still feel my pussy throb just from the memory?
I can’t lie to them.
But I can’t tell them the truth either.
I need to clear my mind. Sit somewhere where I can think without anyone to distract me.
I walk toward the benches near the rose garden, but then I spot a familiar black-haired guy with a killer aura walking right in my direction. Ares. Even though he’s looking at his phone, I can’t risk bumping into him, so I spin on my heels.
Only to see another guy wearing a hoodie, with familiar streaks of blond hair peeking out, staring right into my soul. He bites the piercing in his lip when he sees me, then takes a drag of his cigarette and chucks it on the ground.
Oh God. Caleb.
Did he follow me?
Or is he just waiting there, lurking in the shadows, watching me to see if I mess up and spill their secrets?
I swallow down the lump in my throat.
I’m locked between them with no way out.
Except right into the maze.
Without thinking, I bolt, heading straight into the rose maze. I don’t care where I’m going. All I know is that I need to get away from those guys as fast as possible.
At a split, I take a left turn, and then another, and then a right. I have no clue where I am or which path to take, so I recklessly pick without thought or reason. The only thing driving me forward is the handprints on my ass and a promise of more to come if I don’t stay the hell away.
But it’s too late now.
It’s too late to run from those bastards who’ve made it their mission to destroy me.
CRACK!
The snapping of a twig behind me sets me on edge, so I run like hell into the next bend and around another corner. Swaths of roses hang down from unkempt bushes, and I shove them out of my way as I run through a part of the maze barely anyone visits. There are scratches on my face, but I don’t care as I keep going, desperate to escape this harrowing feeling in my heart that it’s about to be swallowed whole.
I spin on my heels and listen for footsteps, waiting for them to come out of the bushes behind me. A few bluebirds hover above me, and my heart rate shoots up just from the fluttering of their wings.
I’m really losing it.
I’m totally and utterly losing my shit here.
I don’t even know if they followed me … or if I’m making it all up in my head.
Were they even there to begin with? Or was it just my active imagination taking hold of me?
I take in a deep breath and turn around.
Only to run face-first into the chest of a giant.
My hands slowly creep up his chest, fingers trembling across each thick slab of his muscles that protrude right through that white button-up shirt he’s wearing, as my own heart rate shoots up while I listen to his. Time almost comes to a stop.
But I still manage to lift my head and gaze up, following a trail from the partially opened buttons to the shark tooth necklace dangling from his neck, all the way up into the eyes of the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, his chiseled jaw and sharp cheekbones in stark contrast to the flowy, curly hair on his head.
Oh God. It’s Blaine.
“Hello there, darling.”
Blaine
I have never been more pleasantly surprised than I am right now.
What a coincidence. I come here to read a sexy smut scene in my new romance book, and the second I’m about to sit down on the bench underneath this tree in the middle of the rose maze in a place no one ever visits because it’s too damn hard to find, this gorgeous girl bumps into me and falls head over heels for me, and then we kiss in the moonlight.
Oh no, wait, that was just my overactive imagination.
But I can make it work.
She looks up at me like she’s seen a ghost and swiftly shoves herself out of my grasp. Not so violent now, after that whole scene with Caleb’s car.
“Aw, don’t be afraid,” I muse. “I won’t bite.” A devilish smile worms its way onto my face. “Unless you want me to, of course.”
“What are you doing here?” she asks, getting all flustered.
I frown, smirking. “Well, I could ask the same from you, no?” I tap my finger against my cheek. “This is public property, after all.”
“I … I …”
She sure has a lot of trouble finishing her sentences around me.
“You, what?” I tilt my head and step closer. “You were looking for something?” She seems frozen to the ground as I tower over her. But this girl almost looks like a goddamn princess when she’s scared, with those big doe-like eyes and that pink skirt.
I grab a strand of her hair and twirl it around my finger, mesmerized by her beauty. “Or maybe you were looking for… someone?”
“I wasn’t,” she says, her breath faltering when my fingers reach her collarbones.
“You and I do a lot of bumping into each other, don’t you agree?” I muse, brushing past her chin so it lifts, and I can look into those gorgeous green eyes of hers. “It’s almost as if it was fate.”
Ares and Caleb truly have no clue what kind of a jewel they’ve tried to defile.
My eyes slide down her body, and my tongue briefly darts out at the sight of that long-sleeved white cotton top through which her nipples peak and that short, bright pink skirt underneath.
“What a feast for the eyes you are,” I murmur.
She blushes and looks down, but then tugs at her skirt, her hands briefly skimming past a red mark near her thighs, and my eyes narrow.
That mark … it definitely looks like fingers.
Poor girl really didn’t know what was coming for her.
I did try to warn her.
“He hurt you, didn’t he?” I ask, curious if she’d tell the truth. “Are you trying to hide?”
Her lips part, and she sucks in a breath, but she immediately attempts to step away from me, so I grab her wrist. “Please. Don’t go.”
She pauses, conflicted.
“I won’t hurt you.”
She swallows, visibly concerned. “You’re a part of their group,” she says. “I can’t trust you.”
“I understand,” I say. Still, I pull her closer and lift my hand to tear a rose from the bushes, and I tuck it behind her ear. “If it were up to me … I’d treat you like a queen.” I lift her wrist and press a soft kiss on the top of her hand.
She doesn’t jerk away as I slowly lower it again, and the blush on her cheeks clearly gives away she’s enamored by me as much as I am by her.
She can’t be any taller than five feet, judging by how small she seems compared to my six feet nine inches. She even looks fragile, just like the roses surrounding me. But just like them, she is a bud ready to bloom, something to admire and cherish. Ares and Caleb don’t appreciate her beauty. All they want to do is crush it in the palm of their hands just so they could be the last to hold it.
I lean over to whisper into her ear, “Now, take a left, then a right, go straight ahead, don’t stop until you see the red lantern, then two more rights. That’ll get you to the side exit near the gates.”
I press a gentle kiss on her neck. “Now run away, darling.”
She looks like a ghost when I spin her on her heels and push her in the right direction. Almost like she can’t believe I’m helping her. But I don’t play by the rules, and especially not Tartarus ones.
I step back and sit on the bench, opening my book while she darts off into the maze, fluttering away with that little rose still stuck in her hair.
She’ll come running back into my arms soon enough, but until then … I’ll satisfy myself with this dirty romance.
Caleb
I could’ve sworn I saw her run into the maze, but I can’t find her anywhere. Maybe I’m imagining things.
Fuck. This girl really is doing a number on me.
I push some roses out of my way and make my way back, but when my phone rings, I pause.
“Yeah?”
“Caleb, finally. I’ve been trying to call you all day.”
“Sorry. Been busy, Dad,” I mutter, walking out of the maze.
“Studies, right?”
“Um … Yeah.” I lie, but there’s no way in fucking hell I’m going to tell him about Crystal.
My dad would die if he knew what I did to her.
And then he’d kill me too.
Nope, not happening.
“So here’s the thing, I’m going to a barbecue next week, and I want you to come with me,” he says.
“A barbecue?” I frown. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he responds. “Is that so odd?”
“You haven’t done that in years.”
“I know, but I thought it’d be fun. So what do you say, boy?”
I roll my eyes. “Do I have a choice?”
“C’mon, humor your dad for once,” he says, chuckling. “It’s not often we get to do things together.”
“Because you’re always working,” I reply.
“Exactly. So it’s a date, then. I’ll text you the address because I haven’t memorized it yet.”
Memorized?
“But I’ll see you next week. Also, don’t stay up too late.”
He hangs up before I can say another word.
That was weird.
A barbecue? He’s literally not shown any interest in that since I was a kid.
What’s going on?
My phone buzzes, and in comes the text with the address. The second I see where it is, my skin begins to crawl, and my fingers cramp around the phone from holding it too tightly.
The same place we went to when he told me who he was dating.
Crystal’s mom’s house.
“Fuck!”
