Page 41 of Paper Doll
I sputter and choke on the smoke, my throat feeling like sandpaper when I finally manage to get it together. Bryce finishes off the joint, stubbing it out on the top of a pop can on the nightstand and dropping it inside.
A warm buzz settles in my veins, my head getting that floaty feeling again as the drug takes hold.
“At least they’re hot,” Bryce remarks, scooching backwards on the bed until his back meets the wall.
I pull my feet up onto the bed, turning my body so I’m facing him and folding my legs underneath me. “They’re monsters,” I rasp, my throat still raw. Opening my hands in my lap, I stare down at my palms, eyes glazing over. “I shouldn’t want anything to do with them, and I don’t, but…” I trail off, swallowing hard. “There’s also this sick part of me that must enjoy their torture, and I’m not sure if that makesmea monster, too.”
I lift my head, cringing at my own admission. Bryce must think I’m pathetic.
He stares back at me sympathetically for a long moment, then his lips twitch into a smirk. “Well, at least the road to hell is paved with pretty faces and big dicks, right?”
I throw back my head on a laugh, dissolving into a fit of giggles as a wave of giddiness takes over, my high fully hitting me. Bryce laughs along with me while I dart out a fist, delivering a playful jab to his arm. “How do you know they have big dicks?”
“Not from experience, unfortunately,” he sighs. “But with all that big dick energy, they’ve gotta be packin’.”
My mind drifts to the memory of Wes’ cock stuffed down my throat; of the way his thickness nearly suffocated me. “Wes has a big dick,” I blurt, heat crawling up my neck. “I don’t know about the others.”
Bryce’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh yeah?”
My pulse thrums harder, a now-familiar warmth pooling in my core.
There’s something seriously wrong with me.
Wes betrayed me. He’s assaulted me more than once. The fact that I’m still drawn to him on some subconscious level after all he’s done is truly appalling.
“I don’t wanna talk about them anymore,” I mumble, picking at a loose thread on the hem of my skirt.
Bryce heaves a sigh, pushing up from the bed and stepping over to the window. “Sure thing, babe,” he says as he pulls it down, fastening the lock. Then he spins back around with a devious grin on his face. “From now on, this room is a Kings free zone. It may not be much, but every revolution has to start somewhere.”
CHAPTER 19
FORD
“We’re going out tonight,”I comment as Ava and I climb the stairwell of Sutton Hall after our last class of the day. It’s one we share, so I insisted on walking her back to the dorms afterwards like the goddamn gentleman I am. Also, because I can see up her skirt when she climbs the stairs ahead of me, and those virginal cotton panties she wears have unlocked a kink I didn’t even know I had.
“What?” Ava barks, whipping her head around to look back at me as she halts her climb. “No, I can’t! I have a paper to finish and a ton of reading to do tonight, there’s no way…”
“Oh, notyou, Ava baby,” I chuckle, lifting a hand to cut off her panicked tirade. “Me and the guys.” I wink at her, delivering a sharp swat to her ass as I climb to the stair she’s on, then continue ascending past her.
“Okay…” she replies, drawing out the word as she stands there gripping the railing, staring up after me hesitantly.
I step onto the landing for the fourth floor, pausing to turn back and look down at Ava. She’s still just standing there, brow furrowed in confusion, head tilted. “Why are you telling me this, then?” she asks warily.
“Raf wanted me to remind you about the English Lit paper.”
“Yeah, I’m almost finished,” she replies, blowing out a breath and ascending the last few stairs to join me on the landing.
I arch a brow. “With both?”
“What do you mean,both?”
The perplexed look on her face is pretty fucking adorable, but she won’t get anywhere by playing dumb. “You need to write his paper too,” I deadpan.
“What?!” she exclaims, jerking back like I slapped her. “It’s due tomorrow!”
“And like I said, we’ve got plans tonight.”
Ava gapes at me in disbelief, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. “But I have my own paper to write!” she blurts, eyes bugging wide.
