Page 72 of Brutal Prince

Something’s wrong. It’s not just the blood dripping down Addy’s chin, splashing onto her trippy cheerleading outfit. It’s not just the fact that I’m about to get fucked in front of the entire school without a say in the matter.

Give me an R!

R!

My ears are ringing. I feel wet and tight and so fucking horny I could die. But there are tears running down my face. The hand around my throat tightens. Tightens.

I gasp, struggle, but I’m pinned too tight.

What does that spell? Addy demands.

A double backflip has her right in front of me, teeth shining dark with blood, eyes lit with anger, frustration, betrayal.

I groan at her, caught on the cusp of an inexplicable climax that feels like it will never reach me.

Then her eyes flicker past me, over my shoulder.

Hands grip me, turn me. They must be Addy’s, because that other hand — impossibly — is still around my throat. The other gripping my pussy.

My heart stops beating when I see who was standing behind me. Eyes the color of a basement at midnight consume me.

Marcus smiles, slides a finger deep inside me, and whispers, “Marcus Baker, bitch.”

* * *

I slept much betterlast night with the baseball bat leaning up against my nightstand. Although, taking into account the nightmare I had, I wish I hadn’t slept at all.

I shoot out of bed just before six, my heart pounding and holding mom’s necklace in a fist. I’ve taken to sleeping with it. That way, I can almost pretend she’s beside me, her smell encompassing me as I drift off to sleep.

A hard rap to my bedroom door makes me yell out, and I barely manage to drag my sheets over my body before my gran is inside my room. “I heard noises,” she says, her nose twitching.

I shift, and realize my thighs are coated with my own arousal. God, can she smell me? My cheeks glow but I shrug, and try to sound diffident. “Maybe it came from outside.”

“No. It came from here.” Her eyes narrow. “You don’t have a radio in here, do you?”

I shake my head. I’m too fucking tired for snark, and that would just get me into hot water again. Instead, I stare down Marigold until she sniffs and leaves my room. I hold up mom’s necklace, watching light glimmer from it in rays of blue and white. I’m tempted to wear it under my school clothes, but then I’m sure the smell would wear off too soon. I take it off and put it back in its box, and then hide it in the back of my closet. Then I grab my uniform and dash to the bathroom for a quick shower.

Not wanting to run into my grandmother again, I sneak out the front door while she’s busy in the kitchen, climb carefully into my car, and freewheel the first few yards before turning the ignition.

I glance in the rearview mirror, expecting to see her standing on the porch, arms crossed and lips pursed, and breathe a sigh of relief when she’s not there.

Most of the trip to Lavish Prep I spend thinking about Addy. In all the fun and excitement lately, I’d forgotten I have a bone to pick with her.

I park and head over to her sports car. She gets a fright when I rap on the window, and I frown at her as she unlocks the door.

“Everything okay?”

Her hair isn’t as smooth as it usually is. She’s only wearing a touch of mascara, as if she was in a rush or couldn’t have been bothered to do her usual morning makeover routine.

“Yeah, course.” She smiles at me, and grabs a joint from the ashtray. Half of it’s gone already.

So that accounts for the red eyes. For a moment, I’d thought she’d been crying.

She unlocks the passenger door for me, and hands me what’s left of the joint as I slide in. It’s already lit, and I hit it hard as she starts to speak.

“So you ready to—?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you argued with Jess that night?” I exhale a plume of smoke.

---