“Lake Monroe?” he tried again.
“That's her,” one of the girls offered. He continued to ignore her but grabbed onto my elbow and pulled me down the hall behind him.
“Look, I need to talk to you in private. I have a proposition for you,” he said while dragging me into the library. We passed by tables and computers and then into the bookcases until we reached an alcove. I finally found my voice once he stopped and I was sure I wouldn’t trip and plant my face in the floor.
“Listen, I don’t care what he says, I don’t perform sexual acts for money so if that's what your proposition is about you’re wasting your time. I’m sure there are plenty of girls willing to do it for free so please let me go,” I huffed out furiously.
I constantly received money and lewd notes in my locker asking for sexual favors after Keiran spread rumors last year that he saw me giving Peter Simpson oral for money in the hallway after school and then offered to do him for twenty bucks.
“I’m not after that.”
“Oh, yeah? Then what are you after?”
“We have a mutual enemy and I know how to get rid of him.”
Chapter Seven
“Yes, Aunt Carissa, everything is fine. How is Canada?” Whatever she said, I never got to hear as I walked through the door after work. The phone was ripped out of my hands and as I was being tossed on the couch, I watched it hit the wall but thankfully it didn’t seem to break. What the –?
“You seem to be hard of hearing.”
I looked up at Keiran standing over me, expecting to find him angry but instead he was standing and talking as calmly as if he was discussing the weather. Truth be told, that scared be even more.
“I had –”
“Shut up. Why did you go to see Willow?” So he had been watching me.
I lifted my chin and looked him square in the eye. “Because she’s my best friend and thanks to you she’s my only friend but she is mine and you don’t get to take that away.”
Aside from my aunt, Willow was the most important person in my life and the only one I loved. I used to love my parents or what I could remember of them, but as long as the truth of their disappearance evaded me, I would continue to have mixed feelings. Parents abandon their kids all the time.
When he stalked toward me, I scrambled to get away but he was quicker and dragged me, kicking and screaming, to him at the other end of the couch. He sat down, pulled me into his lap, and then wrapped my legs around his waist. His arm banded around my waist and I flinched when he fisted my hair in his hand and yanked my head back. His nostrils flared and I shivered from looking into icy eyes. It's like I could feel everything he felt.
"Is that what you think you are to her? Her friend? She won't even tell you about Dash. What else does she keep from you, huh? You're not her friend...she doesn't even trust you." A sound of regret and hurt ripped from my throat.
Willow didn't trust me?
I didn't want to believe it but why else wouldn't Willow talk to me about Dash? Nothing else made sense because we’d always shared everything...or at least I thought we did.
“That’s not true.” I shook my head in denial but the bad seed he’d just planted in my head had already taken root.
“Isn’t it? I can see the doubt in your eyes. Did you know that he took her virginity this summer?” he said with an evil grin. “I do. I know when he did it. How he did it. And how many times he’s done it. And do you know why I know?” I shook my head as best as I could with his heavy hand controlling it. “Because I told him to do it.”
What? No, no, no. This can’t be happening. Not even Keiran could be that cruel, could he? He finally released his hold on my hair and used his hand to trace the erratic pulse beating at my throat.
“Why?” My voice was little more than a croak as I searched his eyes for a sign that he was lying or joking. He held my gaze as he brought his face closer. His lips touched my neck and begin trailing bites down my skin.
“Because it would hurt you,” he said between bites and I sucked in a breath. “He’s going to use her and make her fall for him…and then he’s going to break her heart.”
The hell he is. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because there is nothing you can do to stop what’s already done. He’s just waiting for my go ahead to complete the final act. Of course…that doesn’t need to happen…but it all depends on you.”
I swallowed down the bile that had risen up. “You don’t need to do this. You can have me –”
“And I will.”
“So why haven’t you?” I snapped.
He cocked his head at me curiously and bared his teeth. “Is that a challenge?” he growled, pressing up into me. I gasped at the contact from the hard-on he did nothing to conceal. “Make no mistake, there is nothing more I would rather do right now than bend you over this chair and introduce you to my cock the right way, but business first and then we fuck.” I didn’t know what pissed me off more: what he said or the way my body reacted to it. “I see the look in your eyes, Monroe. You can keep up the good girl act but we both know what I will find if I touched your pussy right now.”
“The only thing I feel towards you right now is contempt…” I leaned forward until my nose was touching his. “…make no mistake about that.”
I was flat on my back before I could blink and then my jeans were being ripped off my hips. Panic took over as I grabbed onto Keiran’s wrists but he effortlessly broke out of my grip and turned the tables by pinning my wrists against the cushions with one of his. A second later, he shoved his other hand down my panties, delivering an unexpected swat to my pussy before his fingers slowly slipped inside of me. He immediately withdrew them and used his now dripping fingers to strum the little bundle of nerves until I was gasping for air. Only then did he plunge his fingers inside me once more, causing my body to bow off the couch. His grip tightened to keep me from escaping the pleasure he was forcing on me and after only a few teasing strokes of his fingers a violent tremble shook my body.
“How can it only be contempt you feel for me when all I feel is you coming on my hand? I barely touched you…”
“No.” I shook my head against his claim. He watched me quietly until the shaking subsided. Whatever just happened left me feeling weak. When he shoved away from me to sit upright, I quickly pulled my jeans back over my hips, feeling embarrassment flood my senses. I couldn’t meet his eyes but I knew he was watching me from the other end of couch.
“Now…back to business.” His blank face and callous attitude over my first sexual experience had me choking back my ever-present tears. It was a common occurrence around him. He rolled his eyes and he pulled out his phone. “As I said when you came in—you seem to have a hard time hearing me.” He began dialing on his phone and then a video feed of an older man with long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail appeared on his screen. “You got her?”
“In my sight as we speak.”
“Good. Someone needs to see.” He crooked his finger and patted his lap with a satisfied look on his face. I reluctantly slid over but when I refused to sit in his lap he hauled me over. I wrestled with him until he placed a restraining hand around my neck and whispered low, “Move again and I’ll spank your ass.”
“You got a feisty piece there, don’t you?” the guy commented lustfully. A black look crossed over Keiran’s face as he turned back to the camera. The guy suddenly looked nervous and cleared his throat while apologizing.
The screen suddenly switched and I was looking at the glossy background of a bar. I could see the name of a well-known, five-star hotel chain plastered on the wall and then something or rather someone, caught my attention.