Page 4 of Men Who Yearn
I stare into Johnny’s fearful eyes as he mutters, “I’m sorry.”
Mr.Rivera releases his face so harshly it almost makes Johnny fall backwards with chair and all.
He walks back to his desk.“How much money did that laptop cost?”
“Um … five hundred?I can’t remem—”
“You will give Miss.Pearce a thousand.”
“What?!”Johnny gets up.
“Sit down,” Mr.Rivera growls, and his guards swiftly place their hands on his shoulders, forcing him to sit.“Either you pay up now, or I will send a letter to your family informing them no member of the Brown family may ever enter Spine Ridge University grounds again.”
“That has to be illegal,” Johnny mumbles.
Mr.Rivera looks at him from over his shoulder, the darkness in his eyes something to behold.“This ismyuniversity.”
Johnny gulps, and subsequently pulls out a checkbook.“Do you have a pen?”
One of the guards plucks a pencil out of his pockets and Johnny snatches it from his hand, then swiftly scribbles onto the paper and tears it off.“Here.”He chucks it my way, but it lands on the floor.
Mr.Rivera grunts with frustration.“Pick.It.Up.”
Johnny narrows his eyes at me, bending over to pick it up, which forces him to practically bow to me.He holds out the paper to me, and I take it before he decides he’s no longer going to play this game.
“You can grab your things from your dorm and leave,” Mr.Rivera says.
“I gave her the money,” Johnny answers.
“Was I not clear enough when I said you were expelled?”Mr.Rivera’s eyes twitch.“I don’t say things I don’t mean.Get.Out.”
Johnny gets up from his seat, the look on his face filled with rage as he marches past the guards, shoving one of them aside before he opens the door and slams it so harshly behind him the whole room shakes.
Mr.Rivera clears his throat.“Leave us.”
I get up.
“Kayla.Stay.”
Kayla?He knows my first name?
His guards exit the room, leaving nothing but silence.A deafening, heart-throbbing silence.
When he turns around, light pouring in from the window behind him scatters around his frame, and I can barely look at him without squinting.He’s quite tall and handsome with those sharp features of his and those killer eyes that are half-mast, but something about his facial expression gives way for melancholy.Like there is an invisible scar that runs deeper than skin.
“I’m sorry you had to witness that.”He swallows, and I don’t know why I focus on his Adam’s apple moving the way it does, or his tongue as it briefly swipes his lips.
“He’s been quite a nuisance to you, hasn’t he?”
I nod.“He’s been trying to get in my pants for months now.With no luck, or I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
“I know.”
My eyes narrow.“How, exactly?”
An unhinged lopsided smile forms on his face, and he points at the camera in the corner of the room.
Well, that makes sense.“Oh.”
