Page 16 of The New Girl

“Tonight. I’ll meet you in the Masonic Hall at five o’clock. I’ll bring a condom. Or three. Prepare for a long night.” Westfield stepped in closer until the breadth of him filled my vision.“You want my cock inside of you, Jane. I’m going to give you everything you want and I’m going to take my time doing it.”

A knock at the door jolted me to my feet.

I dressed in a hurry and scurried from his office without being seen.

Or at least that’s what I thought.

Lysander Stark was waiting for me in the shadows of the breezeway, half-hidden by a stone pillar. He stepped into the late autumn light and stood in front of me, blocking my path.

“Hello, Jane. Did you have a nice visit with my stepfather?”

It shook me up seeing him again. It was like I had fallen asleep and forgotten how beautiful he was. Westfield had a sexy aura about him that came with power and experience. But Lysander Stark took my breath away.

“If you have something to say about last night, I’m willing to hear it,” I told him. “Otherwise, leave me alone. I don’t want to play your game anymore.”

“He got to you, didn’t he? I thought I’d have more time. What lies did he tell you?”

“I went to see him if you must know. I had a lot of questions and you were nowhere to be found. Alexis corrected the story you told me last night. I had to find out the truth. Chancellor Westfield said Belinda was his daughter, but she was also your lover.Youwere the one fucking her—not him. You took advantage of a sixteen-year-old girl. That’s why she killed herself. Westfield knows you blame yourself, but he doesn’t hold a grudge, not that you care.”

I turned to go but he caught me by the arm. “Every word he said to you is a lie. He’s been telling that story since it happened. He doesn’t care that she jumped. He cares about preventing people from finding outwhyshe jumped. He’s happy to pin the blame on me to keep people from looking too closely at him.”

“Look, all I did was show up at the meeting that turned out to be a sex club. That’s where my responsibility ends. You are not dragging me into this. I’ve heard three different versions of your relationship with Belinda. Alexis says you were not her stepbrother. You were her boyfriend and when you dumped her, she killed herself.”

“Not her boyfriend. Not her lover. I was her friend and her brother. I told you the truth. I can’t force you to believe me.”

“Go ahead—walk away!” I yelled at his retreating back. “You brought me to your room, knowing you had a camera set up to trap me. I’ll never be able to quit the Club now, will I? If I try to, you’ll release that footage and my hope for a career will be over. I’ll have to drop out. So don’t go all holier-than-thou on me, Lysander, for believing the Chancellor over you. He at least offered me protection.”

“Protection against what?”

“Once you’re in the Club, you can’t get out. That’s what the recording was for, wasn’t it? You wanted to make sure I’d never be able to quit. It was your leverage.”

“That’s insane. You’re free to quit whenever you want. Is that the hold he has over you? He promised to protect you from a threat that doesn’t exist.”

“I don’t know why you hate him so much. Your stepfather wasn’t the one who told me your dirty little secret. Alexis did. She said members are blackmailed into supporting the Club forever.”

“She has been misinformed.” His face and voice softened. Lysander gazed at me, about to say something. His mouth opened and then he shook his head as though dismissing the idea. “You have nothing to worry about, Jane. We have a month together but I won’t hold you to it. Your pseudonym will be stricken from the record. It will be as if you never existed.”

“What about the camera in your room? You had a monitor set up so the Chancellor could watch! That’s why you kept your clothes on! Oh god, I hate you for doing that!”

He looked genuinely uncomfortable. “There was a reason for that. I can’t tell you—not yet. You’ll just have to trust me.”

“Trust you? I barely know you!” I pushed away from him. “It doesn’t matter. I’m meeting Chancellor Westfield later at the Masonic Hall. I wasn’t going to tell you but since it sounds like we won’t be hooking up again anytime soon, I think you have a right to know.”

“Has he fucked you yet?” His voice hardened. “No, don’t answer that. Antony never fucks them on the first date, if you can call them that. Where did he do it—his office? He should get that couch checked for STDs for the number of pussies that have sat on it.”

“You’re disgusting.” I pushed past him.

“Fuck you, Jane. You don’t understand. You were my last hope.”

I stopped and turned. “Your last hope for what—to kill him? Has it occurred to you that maybe you’re wrong? Maybe you are both wrong about Belinda and she killed herself because she was a troubled young woman?”

He didn’t respond. He looked frozen in place, his model-like features a mask of pain.

“I’m not going to apologize for getting with your stepfather. I didn’t plan it but I’m not sorry it happened. I don’t have the luxury of trust, Lysander. I need an iron clad guarantee that I’m going to land a great job when I leave St. Swithins. I need references and a spotless record that will survive the scrutiny of the best private schools in the nation. You ask me to trust you. Trust comes a lot easier when I know the Chancellor has my back.”

“He’s going to destroy you and you won’t even see it coming. You don’t know how they operate. You are way over your head, Jane Aire. Don’t come to me for help when the shit hits the fan. I wash my hands of you.”

I was about to fire back a witty retort or an insult, but when he turned on his heel and sauntered away, taking the route across the quad that we had taken last night, my heart cracked.

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