Page 8 of Theirs to Ruin

A code of justice, I thought. Just like Ava said.

“You know, I wondered where my sweatshirt went. Did you really wear it to bed?”

My face heated and I looked down at my hands. I was so fucking embarrassed, even more so when he started chuckling. “Don’t worry, Rebel.I think it’s cute.”

Great. Just how every girl wanted to be thought of.

Cute.

Like a puppy or a fluffy kitten.

Or your little sister’s ex best friend…

I groaned. Fuck. Ava. “Your sister is going to have a field day with this.”

“I won’t tell her,” Kage promised.

I wasn’t sure why, but I believed him. Not that it mattered. She would find out anyway. I would be shocked if the whole thing wasn’t an internet meme by tomorrow.

“Thanks, but I’m sure Brooke will tell her. She probably already has.” Brooke was part of Ava’s Bitch Patrol, along withJenji, Sasha, and Crystal. Another rumor floating around was that Kage had fucked them all.

“She won’t.” He pulled up to a stop sign and faced me. “I told her not to.”

“And she does whatever you say?”

A mischievous smile spread over his beautiful face. “Yes.”

“How do you manage that?”

“By giving herplentyof reasons to follow my orders.”

“Sixty-nine of them?”

His eyes flare with surprise then heat. “It is my favorite number. And if it’s not yours, it will be.”

I immediately pictured his head between my thighs while I sucked him off. In real life, I’d probably run away screaming if he ever actually came at me with his cock—I was convinced that thing would never fit in my mouth or anywhere else inside me—but in my fantasies I was a dedicated slut.

I’d never done a sixty-nine with anyone, not even Ty. During our time together in Italy, he’d gone down on me, and I had touched and stroked his cock, which to be fair had been big enough to scare me at first, too. I even made him come a few times, but I’d never given him a blow job. I wouldn’t even know how—not a good one anyway.

Which was why I was suddenly terrified of where this conversation could lead us.

Chapter 3

Camille

Thankfully, Kage didn’t push for more conversation and I spent the rest of the drive staring out the window. He drove quickly but skillfully. Soon, CU’s campus appeared in the distance. The elaborate grounds were originally a sanitarium, built in the late eighteen hundreds by one of the richest men in the country. His own daughter had schizophrenia, but back then she would have been labeled hysterical. Now the grounds served as a university for kids of the world’s most powerful criminals.

We passed through the secure campus gates. Tall, stately trees lined the long drive, stretching past the fieldstone walls that surrounded the university. Even in the dimness of the soft, overhead lights, the trees in the forest surrounding the campus bore evidence that fall was coming. Soon the leaves would be painted a rich shade of blood-red.

The campus stretched for miles. Nestled between the trees were the chateaus, grand homes that once housed the visiting families of the sanitorium’s patients. They were now used primarily by students’ families that stayed over when they cameto visit. The pale, stone exteriors of the chateaus shimmered in the moonlight, with the dark shadows of ivy cascading over the intricate, wrought-iron balconies.

But it was the main building on campus that truly captured the essence of CU.

The administration building fused the early twentieth-century feel of the original sanitarium with modern architecture, breathing new life into its design. With tall, majestic columns and sleek metal frames surrounding the original stained-glass windows, it was beautiful, aesthetic and graceful. Except, I imagined, for the basement, which ran the length of the building and was rumored to be haunted. During orientation, the administration made it clear the basement was off limits and that attempting to break into it was an expellable offense. That didn’t stop some students from trying, but no one had ever succeeded.

Eventually, my dorm building came into view, an imposing gothic-like black structure completely at odds with the other buildings on campus. The dorm had been funded by Tabitha Flournoy’s father, a renowned jewel thief, on the condition he could be creative with the dorm’s exterior. Going home every day felt like entering some kind of medieval castle, which I guess was kind of cool.

Kage pulled into a parking space right out front and unclipped his seatbelt.

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