Page 77 of Dare To Take

“Travers.” His voice is calm, but his eyes dart around as he looks for an escape route.

“Sucked any dicks lately?”

Kellan snorts beside me. “Only one.” His words are for my ears only, but Miles sees his lips move and turns even whiter. It’s clear he’s waiting for Kellan to out him.

“Little bird tells me you like nothing more than getting your face covered in cum. Tell me, do you spit or swallow?”

“Fuck you, Travers.”

“From what I’ve heard, you prefer to be the one getting fucked. Is that why you dumped your girlfriend when the video was leaked? So, people wouldn’t question why she’s looking for dick somewhere other than you? Because it’s clearly not you in the video, is it?”

There are two red spots on his cheeks, and his eyes are blazing with futile anger as he glares at me. But he can’t respond. If he denies my words, people will question whether he’s the masked guy Arabella is sucking off. But if he agrees with me and says it’s not him, they’ll wonder if I’m right.

I smirk and start walking again, then pause when I reach Miles and reach out to pat his cheek. “Maybe next time you’ll think of someone other than yourself when shit goes down.” My words are soft, but his eyes widen, and I know they’ve hit their target.

***

“I heard about what happened with Ms. Gray yesterday.” Counselor Clarke waves a hand to the seat opposite him. “You didn’t retaliate, which is a great start.”

“Terms of my parole. Do not engage with the enemy.” I stroll across the room, hands shoved deep into the pockets of my jeans.

“Her reacting to your presence is going to be expected. Seeing you after everything that happened is going to be difficult for her. I don’t think it’ll be the last time she confronts you.”

“Even though I didn’t actually do anything.” I sit down, eyeing the counselor. “For the record, I didn’t retaliate because I’m aware of how she feels, but don’t take that to mean I will let her do something like that again without taking suitable action. I agreed to keep my distance. I did not agree to roll over and let her kick me. I’m not going to allow someone to treat me like shit for something I didn’t do.”

“But she believes you did, and all the evidence points toward you. The cell was found in your locker and the latest photograph was posted from your account.”

“How stupid do you think I am? Why the fuck would I post something like that from my own account? Do you have any idea how many people have been wrongfully imprisoned because the evidence says they did it? Do you know that more than four percent of death row inmates are potentially innocent? That’s a fucking lot of people.”

“You’re not under a death sentence, Eli.” The half-smile on his face makes me want to punch him.

“You have no idea what being at school is like, do you?” Nothing of my irritation sounds in my voice. “My reputation here will carry over to the real world later. It might not be a death sentence in the strictest sense of the term, but it’s a form of it, all the same.”

“I think that’s a little extreme.”

I lean forward on my seat. “How much do you earn, Counselor? Sixty thousand a year? Let’s say you get a higher rate because of where you work. Eighty thousand? Did you go to a private school for your education? Come from money?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I can spend eighty thousand dollars in an afternoon and not put a dent in my bank balance. My dad makes eighty thousand dollars while he’s sleeping. For the average Joe, you work in a job and get paid. For the elite, those of us born to money, the people you connect with can make or break you. If people in the circles we frequent don’t want to network with you, you’re dead in the water. If they can’t trust your word, you might as well not even bother.”

“I don’t—”

“If me saying that I didn’t have anything to do with the video and photograph being leaked isn’t believed, if my word can’t be trusted on it, then what about when I need to make contracts or network with people later in life? My word will always be doubted. I’ll always be that bastard who ruined a girl’s life. You see my problem?”

“If that’s true, then how do you think Ms. Gray feels?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. There will always be people whispering behind her back about that one time in school when she had a threesome, and it was caught on video. But most women will be jealous, and most men will want to search it out and watch it for themselves. Believe me, if I wanted to ruin Arabella’s life, I’d have come up with something far more creative.”

I ignore the whisper in my head that reminds me how my original plan had been to do exactly what has happened to her. That was before I had a taste of her, discovered who she was, felt her body around mine.

That changed everything.

Chapter 50

Arabella

It’s Sunday morning, and the cafeteria is fuller than usual. I’m aware of eyes on me from where I sit at my table alone. After what happened yesterday between me and Eli, there’s a tense anticipation in the air among the rest of the students.

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