Page 45 of The Puck Secret

“What the hell is your problem now?” I spit, pulling myself from his hold and spinning around to look at him. He looks angry, hell, in fact, he looks downright pissed, but I don’t care, because so am I.

“My problem seems to be my whore of a fiancée,” he snaps, pushing me against the wall and enclosing me in. “It appears she doesn’t know how to behave to ensure people know who she belongs to.” His hand reaches up to curl an escaped hair around my ear, his own blond locks tousled on his head in an obnoxious way only he could manage. His words don’t affect me, but his proximity does.

I bat his hand away with a flick of my own. “I’m not your fiancée yet, so how about you refrain from pissing on me until my hand is shackled with your goddamn ring,” I seethe, pushing against him until he is forced to take a step back.

Brad doesn’t relent, running a hand through his hair as his stare bores into mine, looking slightly unhinged. “If you don’t start behaving yourself, Madeline, I’ll…”

A familiarly lethal tone cuts him off, “Be careful how you finish that fucking sentence, Thorne.” Both our heads snap towards Josh, who is watching Brad with a cool arrogance that only my brother could possess, and as always, I am grateful for his presence.

“This is between me and my fiancée,” Brad responds coolly, clawing back some of his relaxed demeanor as if everything is fine.

“Well, like my sister just said, she isn’t wearing your ring yet, so do us both a favor and fuck off.” His tone remains casual, unaffected even, but I can see the vein along his neck pulsing, that underlying wrath he always carries, burning just beneath the surface waiting to come out and play. And thankfully, Brad sees it too.

He looks between the two of us with a sigh as he walks backward a few steps. “I’ll be seeing you, darling,” is all he responds before turning on his heels and storming away.

Josh and I both watch him leave, before my brother closes the distance between us and tips my chin towards him. “You okay, kid?” I roll my eyes at that, straightening my shoulders as much as I can manage.

“Of course I am, I can handle Bradley Thorne,” I say with as much confidence as I can muster, because it’s becoming clear to me that I can’t, and worse, in little over a month Iwillbe wearing his ring.

“You shouldn’t have to fucking handle him,” Josh spits, his anger towards our father coming out at me instead. “You shouldn’t have to be anywhere fucking near him.” I don’t bother arguing with him, he’s right, I know it and he knows it, but unfortunately for me, my father doesn’t seem to care.

“Well, there isn’t much I can do about it, is there,” I sigh, exhausted from the day already, and an afternoon of classes still to attend. I don’t exactly have the time to weigh up the options I don’t have, or a way to overcome them.

“No, but maybe there is something I can do,” Josh mutters under his breath, and before I can ask what he means, he turns the opposite way from where he came and leaves. “I’ll catch you later, Mads, there is somewhere I need to be.”

Shaking my head in disbelief, I watch after him for a few seconds, before I take a deep breath to calm myself and head back towards the cafeteria, only to stop when I am greeted with another familiar face. Nova is leaning on the door that leads into the dining hall, watching me silently. I’m not sure how long he has been standing there for, but from the look on his face, I would guess it’s long enough to have seen the majority of what just occurred.

I close the distance between us, but before I can open my mouth to say anything, Nova beats me to it. “Your boyfriend’s a real dick, Princess.” His tone is sharp, but nowhere near as playful as usual, and if I’m not mistaken, I would say he sounds jealous. I ignore the wicked thrill that gives me and keep my face impassive.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I reply weakly, mostly because I can’t think of anything else to say, and Nova just laughs.

“Right, or something, I remember,” he shakes his head, throwing the words I said to him about Brad that night he walked me home back in my face. “He’s not even your type,” he adds in an accusing tone.

“You don’t know what my type is,” I snap, a little too quickly, and it only makes him take a step closer to me, erasing more of the distance left between us.

“Pass me a mirror, Princess, and I’ll show you.” That flirty smirk returns to his face, but when I don’t respond, he softens, adding quietly, “Does he know how much I like you?”

Tears burn at the back of my eyes at how casually he admits that, especially after everything that has happened between us and our families. I want to take his words and wrap them around me, beg him to say them to me again and again, but that will only make things worse, so I swallow the lump in my throat and toss them back at him.

“Please, you don’t like me, you just take some insane pleasure in fucking the Mayor’s daughter as some messed up way at getting back at him.” It’s similar to what I said to him in the library, playing on our past to push him away, but in truth, it isn’t our past that makes me say it. My words pull on an insecurity deep inside of me, a hard thing to beat when you are constantly only seen one way.

“Oh yeah?” Nova asks, stalking towards me. “Is that what you think, Princess?” His hand reaches out and latches onto the belt on my pants, tugging me until I fall against his chest. “Then tell me why every time I look at you I feel like an addict desperate for their next fix,” he whispers, his mouth almost against my own. “That I feel like I am drowning but then I see you and I can finally breathe. I literally crave everything about you, Madeline Peters.”

One of his hands flattens against the base of my spine, and the other cups my cheek, tilting my head until our eyes are connected. I thought I had my heart locked up and hidden away, strong against anything that might come its way, but every word he just said was like a sharpened knife against my defenses. Hacking away at them until the only thing that exists is him. I want to kiss him, to claim him and take him as my own, but who I end up with isn’t my choice, not if I want my degree, my future. I can’t do this, but as I look up into his eyes, I know I feel the same way he does, even if I can’t say it out loud.

So, instead of saying what I really want to say, I bring my own hands up and push gently on his chest. “You need to stop, someone is going to see us together.” The truth is that’s the least of my worries, but it’s better than admitting my actual truth.

Nova just smirks even wider, his smile so bright it physically pains me to look at it, especially when I am the reason. “Princess, I don’t give a fuck who sees. I will march you back in there and bend you over the table and fuck you in front of every single one of them, including your precious not boyfriend, just to show them all who you really belong to.”

My thighs tighten at his words, and thankfully before I have to answer him, the doors to the cafeteria burst open, and Archer, Alexander, and Hallie all appear, the latter holding my bag, and her eyes traveling over me in a panic.

“There’s my favorite hard-on inducing couple,” Archer jokes, tossing us both a wink, and I don’t even have the energy to refute him.

“Are you coming to class?” Hallie jumps in, offering me a much needed out, but still I can’t seem to keep my gaze from straying back to Nova.

“Yeah, Maddie, are you coming?” he asks, his real smile gone and only a small tug of his lips at the corner of his mouth remaining.

“Yes, I’m coming,” I reply, before shaking my head from the daze he seems to put me in. “I mean, I’m going.” This time I don’t have to push him, his hands drop away from me, and I take a step out of his embrace and move towards my best friend.

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