Page 126 of Cruel Prep (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 1)

She tips her head to the side and flips her blonde hair back over her shoulder. “You want to take care of me?”

“Obviously,” I growl, the tone of my voice much too harsh for the sentiment.

But I’m frustrated because I didn’t want her to know about the promotion. Or anything else I’ve been doing to clean up my father’s messes.

My dad had a long list of people he was blackmailing, and I’ve gone to each of them to let them know the threats are over. I don’t want to carry his mistakes into my new life.

The only way to do that is to cut all of the strings he’d been pulling on for years.

I even went to the Hell Princes and told them the whole story. They’d already read the truth in the paper just like everyone else, but I went to them and made it clear that I didn’t plan to hold any grudges.

We will never be friends or allies, but I have no plans to enact revenge on them so long as they don’t want revenge on me.

We reached a tentative understanding. One I hope will keep me and Lily safe.

I went by the hospital, too. Dallas is out of the coma and free of the breathing tube. He’s got a long road to recovery ahead of him.

But I left some money that will help. A few hundred thousand dollars, actually.

I know it’s not enough for him to forget what happened between us. But even if it wasn’t exactly my fault, I still feel guilt. This is the right thing to do.

I left it anonymously. But he’ll know. He’ll know who it’s from. What it means.

Lily reaches out for me, and I give her my hand. As soon as I do, she yanks me forward, wraps her legs around me, and crushes her mouth to mine.

Our lips slant across one another, hot and harsh, and she arches herself into me.

Clearly, the time for talking is over, and I could not be more thrilled.

I peel her sweater over her head and throw it on the floor. Then, I unbutton her jeans, and she lifts her hips so I can pull them off.

As I’m working the tight denim down her legs, she looks down at the stack of papers we are scattering across the countertop and then picks up one of the pages.

“What is this?”

“No way,” I say, freeing one of her legs and then the other. “No more talking.”

I try to pluck the paper out of her hand but she dodges me, twisting away to read it. Then, she gasps. “Is this …”

“My inheritance, okay?” I grab the paper from her hands and lay it down on the counter. “I’m eighteen, so I met with the lawyers and all of this is mine.”

Her eyes go wide, and she gestures around generally. “All ofthis?”

I nod. “The house, the money … all of it.”

“Holy shit,” she breathes. “That means you can do whatever you want.”

“It does.”

She blinks, looking down at her lap. “So, what do you want?”

I smooth my hands slowly up her thighs, feeling the silky softness of her skin, and then grip her hips. She yelps when I pick her up and start carrying her through the house.

“What I want more than anything is to take my beautiful girlfriend upstairs, ravage her senseless, and then decide everything else later … together.”

She grins and wraps her arms around my neck. “That sounds perfect. Please. Carry on with the ravaging.”

I carry her up to my room and throw her back on the bed. She is wearing lacy black panties with a matching bra, and all I want to do is rip the material off her with my teeth.

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